Jazz Articles
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Lou Donaldson: Say It Loud
by C. Andrew Hovan
It's hard to imagine now, but there was a time when the sound of jazz could be heard lingering in the smoky corners of neighborhood bars in every major city from New York to Los Angeles. These ghetto hangouts were on what was often called the 'chitlin' circuit,' a network of predominantly black operated venues that presented organ combos as the norm. Be it at The Smiling Dog Saloon in Cleveland or The Front Room in Newark, jazz and more ...
read moreScott DuBois: Summer Water
by Dan Bilawsky
The third album in guitarist Scott DuBois' survey of the seasons is a story of both inverse relationships and connected themes. Composed in a frigid Chicago winter, the album speaks of summer's warmth; shaped by symphonic inspirations and aspirations, the music surprisingly cuts the other way in featuring solo guitar without overdubs; and bent on creating a fluid context where river meets sea, the program offers a mirrored outlook that meets at the middle ("Storm Where The River Meets The ...
read moreJenna Mammina & Rolf Sturm: Begin to Dance
by C. Michael Bailey
Neither Jenna Mammina nor Rolf Sturm, together or solo, are strangers to these pages. Mammina released Under the Influence (MGR) in 2000 and Strum offered us his superb Young (Water Street Music) in 2016. The two of them showed up with Spark (Water Street Music) in 2015. Sturm is a nylon-string guitar specialist perfectly suited to provide foil to the coquettish and intelligent vocals of Mammina. Their Spark was well received and featured old and new music presented in new ...
read moreRolf Sturm: Young
by Jack Bowers
Albums featuring a lone instrument are often the most difficult to review, especially if the writer is not a musician. After commenting on technique, sound and musical selections, what more is there to say? It is even more troublesome when said instrument is a guitar, as there are legions of virtuosos on the scene today, both here and abroad, the bulk of whom sound nearly identical to the untrained ear. And it is with these caveats in ...
read moreRolf Sturm: Young
by C. Michael Bailey
Guitarist Rolf Sturm has found himself on two recent and exceptional recordings: Roswell Rudd and Heather Masse's August Love Song (Red House, 2016) and Jenna Mammina & Rolf Strum's Spark. He is a guitarist of expansive facility and a sense of humor, to boot. Take his present Young as an example. The release began conceptual life as a collection of Victor Young compositions. You know...the guy who wrote When I Fall in Love," Moonlight Serenade," Love Letters," My Foolish Heart," ...
read moreAnthony Brown's Asian American Orchestra: India & Africa: A Tribute to John Coltrane Live at Yoshi's
by Chris M. Slawecki
India & Africa offers a surprisingly accessible performance tribute to some of saxophonist John Coltrane's most knotty and deeply spiritual music, a tribute wondrously heavy on drums and percussion, beginning with orchestra leader Anthony Brown. Taken into standalone context like this, Coltrane's exploratory jazz probes into the music of India and Africa--including India," Africa," Liberia" and Afro Blue"--construct an impressive chapter in the saxophonist's considerable body of work. Although Coltrane was influenced by music globally when he recorded ...
read moreDave Sharp's Secret Seven: 7
by Glenn Astarita
Bassist Dave Sharp and his Secret Seven ensemble interconnect an expansive jazz layout with New Orleans swamp-funk, world-beat rhythm structures, and variable components of Eastern and Western fare. They propagate a cheery panorama via these sustainable compositions, often highlighted by memorable hooks and edgy soloing ventures by multi-reedman Chris Kaercher and others. Variety looms as a significant positive, where the band abides by a festive disposition throughout.
Sharp lays down a fluid and at times, monstrous bottom-end on ...
read moreOrnette Coleman: To Whom Who Keeps a Record
by Kurt Gottschalk
In principle, copies of the Beauty is a Rare Thing (Atlantic, 1992) box set should be issued with every voter registration card; no home is complete without the collection of Ornette Coleman's prodigious 1959-1961 output. A gathering of the six albums released during that time, three later albums culled from those sessions and alternate takes, it is a crucial document of American art. One of those three later albums, To Whom Who Keeps a Record was released ...
read moreDan Fogel: 15 West
by Michael P. Gladstone
Dan Fogel fell in love with the sound of the Hammond B-3 organ at a young age by hearing Groove" Holmes' recording of Misty," and has since worked hard to play in the style of the jazz musicians from the golden age of the organ/tenor sax combo.
Whether or not you're an aficionado of the subgenre, it's clear, after a single listen to 15 West, that Fogel has certainly cornered the sound and feel of those days when ...
read moreDan Fogel: 15 West
by Glenn Astarita
Atlantic City, New Jersey area Hammond B-3 organ master Dan Fogel might not enjoy the notoriety of his peers, but he's been an active leader and participant of the Northeast jazz scene for quite some time. Owing to the Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff schools of the jazz-organ combo setting, Fogel enamors the sound of this traditional format by recording the session in a nineteenth century church. Therefore, the inferences of a typical groove and swing-based organ-combo get an ambient ...
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