Jazz Articles

Joe Albany: Now's The Time

by C. Michael Bailey
September 3, 2015

Pianist Joe Albany (1924-1988) is a musicological artifact within an art form full of them. Most recently, Albany has garnered attention through the movie and soundtrack Low Down (Bona Fide Productions, 2014, directed by Jeff Priess) based on the bracing, stream-of-conscience memoire written by his daughter, Amy-Jo Albany. His is a story told many times: near-genius junkie brushes stardom but never achieves the escape velocity necessary to escape his desperate circumstances to make his mark. Central to any discussion of ...

The Cecilia Coleman Quintet: Images

by Jim Santella
August 2, 2007

This is pianist Cecilia Coleman's first release as leader since moving to New York. The personnel in her modern mainstream quintet has changed and they've laid down a program of fresh new compositions for this, her seventh release overall, but it's still the same kind of dynamic sound that grabs you by the shirt collar and pounds your chest with passion.

Coleman formed her first trio in 1990 and her first quintet three years later, both in Los Angeles, where ...