Jazz Articles

Shelly Berg and David Finck: The Deep

by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
July 4, 2017

So it happens that pianist Shelly Berg and bassist David Finck were hired by Chesky Records to play on a Livingston Taylor album. After they finished that session, with the high-end audiophile equipment still in place, David Chesky suggested the two stay and make a duo album themselves. And so they did, virtually on the spot. Since Berg and Finck play so well together, and know a lot of tunes, it was easy to come up with a ...

Camille Thurman: Inside The Moment

by James Nadal
June 21, 2017

As a first call saxophonist and vocalist, Camille Thurman has appeared as guest accompanist on so many albums and performances by acclaimed artists, it's hard to imagine where she found the time for Inside The Moment . Having released both Origins and Spirit Child back to back in 2014, and as the recipient of prestigious awards for her musical talents, Thurman has been steadily adding to her impressive resume; this live set proving why and how she is one of ...

Macy Gray: Stripped

by James Nadal
August 22, 2016

It should come as no surprise that vocalist Macy Gray would make a jazz record. Renowned for her platinum trajectory in popular music, Gray always exhibited inherent jazz and blues inclinations in her vocal style and personal demeanor. Stripped is her debut on Chesky Records, recorded in a live setting with their singular binaural microphone technique, accompanied by a premier jazz ensemble. Gray is certainly no stranger to jazz, as she has recently collaborated with saxophonist David Murray ...

Xiomara Laugart: Tears And Rumba

by James Nadal
January 7, 2015

Despite over fifty years of political turmoil leading to a ludicrous embargo, the music of Cuba has thrived and is as vibrant as ever. Though many premier Cuban artists have gone into cultural exile in America and abroad, they continue to seek inspiration from and expand upon the music of their homeland, continually performing it around the globe. Vocalist Xiomara Laugart is a prime example of this diaspora, and on Tears and Rumba, she revisits the music of Cuba's romantic ...

Dave Liebman: Ceremony

by James Nadal
December 30, 2014

The most distinguished characteristic of Afro-Caribbean music--as well as its greatest contribution to the jazz idiom--has been the drums. If we take this one step further, the Afro-Cuban tradition of drumming has had the highest degree of influence, and has been readily identifiable, since the Latin dance crazes of the mid twentieth century brought these diverse and intricate rhythms to widespread attention. Noted jazz saxophone master and scholar Dave Liebman, has been tuned into the complexity of these drums throughout ...

Dave Liebman: Ceremony

by Victor L. Schermer
December 25, 2014

This exciting new album returns to the haunting evocative beauty of the origins of jazz rhythms but has a contemporary feeling infused into it by very sophisticated players of contemporary jazz and Latin music who give the album a special shine. While jazz matured within an eclectic mix of American music ranging from marching bands to gospel to ragtime, vaudeville, and musical theater, it is firmly rooted in its rhythmic intensity in the rituals and ceremonies of Africa and the ...

Beat Kaestli: Invitation

by C. Michael Bailey
September 26, 2010

First, there is the name: Beat Kaestli. How hip is that? A native of Switzerland, Kaestli moved to New York, where he was suitably educated in the craft of jazz at the Manhattan School of Music, and ultimately, the Aaron Copland School of Music. Kaestli has a voice of uncommon sweetness and delicacy that is, atthe same time, durable and trustworthy. He sings as Chet Baker would have, had he had a soul inhabiting that desiccated shell ...

Beat Kaestli: Invitation

by Dan Bilawsky
May 7, 2010

The Great American Songbook is something of a repertoire Bible for jazz vocalists, regardless of whether or not they originally hail from America. Vocalist Beat Kaestli was born in Switzerland, but he made New York his home after arriving to attend the Manhattan School of Music in the early 1990s. Since that time, his music has touched on everything from gospel and R&B to musical theater, but he has really narrowed his focus to jazz since his exploration of standards ...

David Hazeltine Trio: The Jobim Songbook in New York

by Ernest Barteldes
July 15, 2007

On this project, pianist David Hazeltine takes on the music of the late Jobim (who would have turned eighty in 2007) by looking at the music from an American point of view, without the typical bossa nova elements. Most of the music presented here is well-known, from “The Girl from Ipanema to “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (titled “Quiet Nights on the CD), but what Hazeltine does here is augment the classical influence that the songs' writer brought to them. ...

John Hicks/Buster Williams/Louis Hayes: On The Wings Of An Eagle

by Mark Corroto
April 26, 2007

The passing of pianist John Hicks in 2006 marks the loss of one of the quintessential New York pianists. And this, perhaps his last recording, is a stunning example of a fully developed bebop piano trio in flight.

Hicks gained the spotlight working with Art Blakey, Betty Carter and Woody Herman in the 1960s and '70s. He then migrated to avant-garde saxophonists Pharoah Sanders and David Murray before returning to the hard bop sounds of his Keystone Trio ...