Articles

The Joshua Breakstone Trio: Children of Art: A Tribute to Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers

By Mark Sullivan

When last heard from, guitarist Joshua Breakstone was exploring the music of legendary jazz pianists with his Cello Quartet on 88 (Capri Records, 2016). On this album he is joined by double bassist Martin Wind (whose credits include several recordings with drummer Matt Wilson as well as dates as leader) and drummer Eliot Zigmund (who is known for his tenure with pianist Bill Evans, among others, plus his own albums) for a conventional guitar trio. But the repertoire is anything ...

Joshua Breakstone/The Cello Quartet: 88

By Mark Sullivan

Veteran guitarist Joshua Breakstone pays tribute to some of his favorite pianist/composers here. He tells a story about a fellow Berklee student (a saxophonist) who asked legendary saxophonist Sonny Stitt if he could sit in. Stitt shut him down with the question “how many keys on a saxophone?" The novice couldn't answer--there are 23--but everyone knows a standard piano has 88 keys. Breakstone sees the piano and the guitar as extended family, with a comparable chordal role in the rhythm ...

Joshua Breakstone: With the Wind and the Rain

By Edward Blanco

Prolific recording artist Joshua Breakstone delivers his twentieth album as leader tipping his hat to a major influence in his professional life, the late Japanese promoter and bassist Mitsuru Nishiyama, to whom With the Wind and the Rain, is dedicated. A guitarist of note with at least fifty tours of Japan under his belt, his experience performing in a format where the late bassist played the cello in an essentially expanded rhythm section, left Breakstone with a desire to document ...

The Joshua Breakstone Trio: No One New

By Woodrow Wilkins

The trio is a tried-and-true format for jazz. Every now and then, the form is tweaked a little--instead of piano/organ plus bass and drums, it's guitar, bass and drums. The Joshua Breakstone Trio is part of this sect, and delivers with No One New. The title refers to the leader, who has been a front man for about 30 years. He counts among his influences Lee Morgan, Charlie Parker, and Clifford Brown. Experiences seeing such performers as Jimi ...

The Joshua Breakstone Trio: No One New

By Jerry D'Souza

No One New is a reference to guitarist Joshua Breakstone's long career. Over the last 30 years he has etched an impressive record as a leader with 19 recordings to his credit. It is easy to see why he has been around for so long; his music rises above the mundane with a compact sense for the lyrical that draws out the aura of a composition. His writing is facile and melodic, and opens the door to his technique. He ...

Joshua Breakstone: A Jamais

By Michael P. Gladstone

On a balmy evening in mid-January, 2003 on Duval Street in Key West, I was quite surprised to find Joshua Breakstone just concluding his second set at an outdoor cafe. After another hour of music and introductions, I changed my travel plans in order to catch Breakstone two nights later at another Key West venue teamed with the reclusive legendary vibraphonist Teddy Charles in a quartet setting. It's been twenty years since I purchased my first Breakstone album, 4/4=1, on ...

Joshua Breakstone: A Jamais

By Jerry D'Souza

Joshua Breakstone is back with what he loves doing best: playing guitar with a melodic grace. One could even see it as an immaculate articulation, his lines clean, his notes uncomplicated, doublets that augment the shape, improvisations creating craft of a high order.

Breakstone has been in his straight-ahead groove over the space of 17 albums. He continues to exhibit that innate strength in his writing, which he takes to a laudable plateau. What makes it all ...