Mike Tucker

Ron Rieder: Dia Precioso!

by Jack Bowers
May 29, 2025

Dia Precioso! is the second album of exuberant Latin Jazz designed by Massachusetts-based composer Ron Rieder, gliding in on the heels of his well-received debut recording, Latin Jazz Sessions (2024). As before, Rieder leads a more-or-less octet comprised of topnotch Boston-area musicians; and as before, Rieder's music is for the most part arranged by percussionist Ricardo Monzon. While personnel remains roughly the same as on the earlier album, more brass (trumpeters Yaure Muniz or Greg Hopkins, trombonist ...

Ron Rieder: Latin Jazz Sessions

by Jack Bowers
May 13, 2024

Even while pursuing a long and successful career in the physical sciences, Bostonian Ron Rieder never abandoned his life-long love for jazz, especially the tantalizing melodies and lively rhythms of Latin America, composing music at every opportunity before returning to writing full-time and at long last recording his debut album, Latin Jazz Sessions It was worth the wait. Rieder's colorful tunes ensnare the ears from the outset and never let go, while his septet plays Latin jazz about ...

Dave Zinno: Fetish

by Rob Rosenblum
November 29, 2021

While it is obvious that bassist Dave Zinno put a lot of thought into the writing and arrangements here, it is the quality of solo performances that gives this album its worthy distinction. Some may be familiar with pianist Tim Ray from his inclusion in the trio backing one of altoist Greg Abate's albums and his own trio outing on Whaling City Sound label. But trumpeter Eric Benny Bloom and most impressively, the tenor mastery of Mike Tucker, were previously ...

Dave Zinno Unisphere: Fetish

by Jack Bowers
September 26, 2021

Dave Zinno's New York-based Unisphere is a quintet/sometime sextet that is rhythmically sound, melodically smooth and anchored by his assertive bass lines. The group employs a splendid two-horn front line (tenor saxophonist Mike Tucker, trumpeter Eric Benny Bloom) and adds a third, trombonist/arranger Rafael Rocha, on the freewheeling closer, “Meu Fraco e Cafe Forte" (in English, “My Weakness Is Strong Coffee") but Rocha doesn't solo. The quintet morphs to sextet on five other numbers wherein keyboardist Leo Genovese joins the ...

Mike Tucker: Collage

by Jerry D'Souza
February 25, 2006

When Mike Tucker comes out swinging with “Fanfare, the expectations run high for Collage. Tucker does not disappoint in terms of the music, almost all of which he has composed, and also the playing of his tight and cohesive band. Tucker takes a variety of sounds and spins them into a convincing web. He plays with a calm authority, whether driving the insides of a bopping tune or filtering the gentility of a ballad. He certainly shows a lot of ...

Mike Tucker: Collage

by Michael P. Gladstone
February 23, 2006

Tenor saxophonist/composer Mike Tucker catches attention on his debut, Collage. The Boston-based musician, age 26, established some good credentials through his participation in the 2002 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competetion and then in 2005 Nancy Jazz Festival in Lorraine, France in the company of first order jazzmen like Joe Lovano, Pat Martino, Michael Brecker and Gary Burton.

Tucker & Company come charging out of the gate circa 1964, sounding like Joe Henderson and Kenny Dorham on an ...

Mike Tucker: Collage

by Jim Santella
February 21, 2006

New England tenor saxophonist Mike Tucker leads his quartet in a modern mainstream session of original compositions on Collage. “Bird Lives, a slow ballad by Billy Drewes, serves as the album's lone exception. Trumpeter Eric Bloom sits in on the opening “Fanfare, which sets the tone for the album with a modicum of excitement and plenty of groove.

Tucker prefers to honor the jazz tradition through his original work, but through quiet reflection and lyrical melodies. “Kathy finds ...