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Andrew Urbina
Norman David: Intention
by Victor L. Schermer
Saxophonist/composer/arranger/band leader Norman David grew up and matured as a musician in Montreal and moved to Boston to study with the late, revered, and multifaceted Herb Pomeroy at the famed Berklee College of Music. While there, in 1980, David founded a large jazz ensemble just a few members short of a full big band called the “Eleventet." It melded the improvisational qualities of a small ensemble with the rich sound and interactional possibilities of a big band. He found it ...
Continue ReadingU.S.E. Trio: Twilight
by Mike Jurkovic
Stealing conspiratorially under your feet, the dark balladry of Twilight speaks modal, stark, humorous. Then perhaps it recoils and rebuilds. Shifts shapes and defines. Says yes when it means no and vice versa. So, at the behest of their own slippery, interior curvature, U.S.E. Trio, saxophonist Andrew Urbina, drummer Matt Scaranoand bassist/leader Sandy Eldred, follow-up the enjambments of Impact (LabelWhoAble, 2020) with the rhizome like Twilight. A boisterous, worthy successor, Twilght opens with “Tonal Gravity," and maybe your ...
Continue ReadingU.S.E. Trio: Impact
by Mike Jurkovic
There is an underlying, unsettled tone in the music of Philadelphia bassist Sandy Eldred which can only be likened to earthquakes and their subsequent tremors. Just when you think you are on solid ground the whole landscape shifts, the whole perspective tacks left, bends right, veers down the wrong center lane and u-turns. It is quite intriguing really, which makes listening to Impact--the third release by Eldred and his U.S.E. Trio of drummer Matt Scarano and saxophonist Andrew Urbina--a truly ...
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