Jazz Articles

Phil Woods & the Festival Orchestra: New Celebration

by Jack Bowers
November 21, 2013

Any album with the renowned Phil Woods leading a big band (or jazz orchestra) is cause for celebration, especially so when he has written all but one of the charts and takes the bulk of the alto solos. More than fifteen years have passed since Woods last recorded with the COTA Festival Orchestra from his home precinct in Delaware Gap, PA, and that earlier album (Celebration!, Concord 4770) was nominated for a Grammy Award. This New Celebration, Woods' second recording ...

Bill Mays Inventions Trio: Life's a Movie

by Jack Bowers
October 11, 2013

For pianist Bill Mays' Inventions Trio, the third time is indeed a charm, as it would be difficult to find music more charming than that performed by Mays, trumpeter Marvin Stamm and cellist Alisa Horn on Life's a Movie, the trio's third album together (and first for Chiaroscuro Records). This is “chamber jazz" of the highest order, with the classically trained Horn complementing perfectly the jazz-inflected sorties of Mays and Stamm in a program whose beauty is equaled only by ...

Junior Mance: Music of Thelonious Monk

by Riel Lazarus
December 3, 2003

In November of 2000 aboard a ship adrift on the Atlantic Ocean, reedman Joe Temperley joined pianist Junior Mance's Floating Jazz Festival Trio in what proved to be a perfect setting for a tribute to the music of Thelonious Monk. Like Monk, the waters beneath them were capable of powerful swings and torrents, and also like Monk, their music was pronounced amid a shroud of relative isolation.Throughout this live set, Temperley and Mance--joined by the gifted rhythm section ...

Milt Hinton: The Basement Tapes

by Riel Lazarus
November 17, 2003

In recent years, much of the attention given to late bass great Milt Hinton's career and legacy has been directed at his prowess as a jazz photographer. Nevertheless, we must not forget that behind those extraordinary photographs was an equally extraordinary musician. With Chiaroscuro's recent release of The Basement Tapes, jazz fans will find a welcome reaffirmation of Hinton's formidable gifts as both timekeeper and soloist. Composed of previously shelved material, the disc's 14 tracks offer up ...

John Bunch: English Songbook

by Mark Corroto
October 25, 2003

An admitted supporter of free jazz and the avant guard of music, I felt like a lurker as I pushed the play button on jazz piano traditionalist John Bunch’s recording of the British songbook. After a couple of tracks, I was hooked and an instant fan of this octogenarian master.

Bunch, born in Indiana, began playing jazz before WWII and continued his career after a stint as a POW. His career took him from Woody Herman, Buddy Rich ...

The National Jazz Ensemble: 1975-1976

by Jack Bowers
July 25, 2003

I don’t know what brought the National Jazz Ensemble together or what ever happened to it, but I’m thankful that Hank O’Neal, the head man at Chiaroscuro Records, had the foresight to usher the ensemble into a studio to record three albums before it went the way of so many other promising ideas and vanished into the mists of time. Those weighty sessions from more than a quarter-century ago, all conducted by bassist / leader Chuck Israels, have been condensed ...

Jesse Green: Sylvan Treasure

by Dave Nathan
December 2, 2002

More and more jazz CDs these days are being released with a track listing dominated by original works of the principal performer. Jesse Green has followed this path with his latest offering. The pianist augments his regular group with bassist Frank Hauch and drummer Bruce Cox, adding some of the most entertaining and technically dominating veteran jazz artists working in contemporary jazz these days. Guesting with Green is an assembly of extraordinary musicians who are responsible for a significant share ...

The Jesse Green Trio: Sylvan Treasure

by C. Michael Bailey
October 23, 2002

A trio of saxophonists...

Wunderkind pianist, 29 year-old Jesse Green enlists the services of three saxophone heavyweights for his new recording, Sylvan Treasure. David Liebman, Chris Potter, and Phil Woods join brassman Patrick Dorian and the Jesse Green trio for a rollicking roll through Be Bop ("Extreme Sporting"), Post-Coltrane free bop ("Hesplopia"), and probing post bop ("Sylvan Treasure"). Green’s trio is crisp and polite and fancies order execution over the “Let Freedom Ring" principle. Green uses his sidemen in a ...

Ruby Braff and Ralph Sutton: R & R

by C. Michael Bailey
October 17, 2002

Two Like Minds...

Two classic traditional jazz recordings have finally made it to compact disc. The Ralph Sutton—Ruby Braff Duet (Chaz Jazz 101-2. 1979) and The Ralph Sutton—Ruby Braff Quartet (Chaz Jazz 102-2, 1979) have been re-released on a single Chiaroscuro CD— R & R: Ruby Braff and Ralph Sutton. This disc is a welcome addition to the digital age as this is the jazz of the 1920s and ‘30s as played by two of the greatest practitioners of the ...

Kenny Davern and Joe Temperley: Live at the Floating Jazz Festival

by C. Michael Bailey
October 14, 2002

A Rollicking Blowing Session on the High Seas...

The musicians comprising this band, save possibly for Joe Temperley, are all associated with a traditional mainstream group of musicians typically showing up on the Arbors, Nagel Heyer, Chiaroscuro, and Concord Labels. They include, in addition to these present, Ruby Braff, Howard Alden, Randy Moss, Randy Sandke, Mark Shane, Ken Peplowski, etc. They are all expert practitioners of jazz, a bit right of center, but able to play what is asked of ...