Frank Kurtz

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Simply This Quintet: Stepping Up

by Jack Bowers
October 15, 2021

On its first full-length album, the modestly named Simply This Quintet boasts a sturdy two-tenor front line (Reginald Lewis, Matthew Storie) and an able rhythm section (Jesus Fuentes, piano; Emma Taylor, bass; Frank Kurtz, drums) performing eight original compositions by members of the group. The quintet was formed in 2018 by friends at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Its goal, according to the album's liner notes, is “reinterpreting the classic two- tenor saxophone jazz ensembles of the 1950s and ...