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Reginald Lewis
Jon Gordon: Stranger Than Fiction
by Angelo Leonardi
Più noto come eccellente sax contralto e leader di un apprezzato quartetto, Jon Gordon torna a incidere un disco orchestrale per la ArtistShare, dopo l'album Evolution del lontano 2009. Registrato nel mezzo della pandemia, con tutte le difficoltà e restrizioni che sappiamo, il nuovo lavoro rinnova la collaborazione col trombonista e arrangiatore Alan Ferber che partecipa al progetto nel triplice ruolo di co-produttore, arrangiatore di un brano ("Havens") e solista di trombone. Il medio organico include anche il clarinetto basso ...
read moreSimply This Quintet: Stepping Up
by Jack Bowers
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 ...
read moreJon Gordon: Stranger Than Fiction
by Hrayr Attarian
Saxophonist Jon Gordon's superb 13th release as a leader, Stranger Than Fiction, consists of 10 cinematic and captivating originals. Gordon leads a large ensemble of mostly Canadian musicians through his vibrantly textured compositions. The focus is more on dynamic interplay of different band members and orchestral segments than on individual expressions. There are, however, brilliantly virtuosic soloists who seamlessly emerge out of these vividly ebullient works making them even more electrifyingly alive. Opening with delightfully dissonant staccato woodwinds ...
read moreJon Gordon: Stranger Than Fiction
by Jack Bowers
New York-bred alto saxophonist Jon Gordon has come a long way since he was hailed as something of a prodigy in the mid-1980s and earned first place in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition in 1996. The music performed by Gordon's nonet on Stranger Than Fiction, we are told, “reflects [his] realization that reality takes twists and turns [that are] far more unpredictable than any author would dare write." There are indeed many twists and turns—most ...
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