Jazz Articles

Eldad Tarmu: Aluminum Forest

by Jack Bowers
January 1, 2002

With an uncelebrated vibraphonist at the helm of an album titled Aluminum Forest, I was bracing myself for music aimed straight toward the heart of “smooth Jazz” radio. Wrong. This is uncompromisingly straight–ahead post–bop Jazz — and I should have guessed as much from the list of personnel, which includes such prominent names as trumpeters Oscar Brashear and Jack Coan, reedmen Bob Sheppard and Jeff Clayton, bassist Dave Carpenter and the underappreciated vocalist Sue Raney (on “Hold That Thought”). Tamu ...

Mark Winkler: Easy the Hard Way

by Dave Hughes
September 1, 2000

Mark Winkler, one of today's most underrecognized vocalists, has some decent CDs in his discography. He released three excellent contemporary CDs on Chase Music Group in the late eighties: Ebony Rain, Hottest Night of the Year , and Color of Love , all of which are well worth seeking out. 1995's brilliant Tales From Hollywood was jazzier and artsier, while 1998's City Lights was admittedly geared towards the smooth jazz airwaves in an attempt to gain wider visibility. But I ...

Mark Winkler: Easy the Hard Way

by Dave Nathan
September 1, 2000

P>Long a fixture on the West Coast smooth jazz scene, Mark Winkler for his 6th album moves closer to contemporary adult pop seasoned with a large dash of straight ahead jazz, with a style which combines the hip Mark Murphy, the irony of Dave Frishberg with the respect for melody of Tony Bennett. Accompanied by sympathetic musicians, Winkler story tells his way through a play list of twelve tunes, seven of which he wrote. And a prolific composer is Mr. ...

Matthias Lupri: Shadow Of The Vibe

by AAJ Staff
June 1, 2000

Performing for the most part on the periphery of jazz listener consciousness in the catalytic environment of Boston and its environs, Matthias Lupri has dedicated himself to one of those instruments sometimes insultingly listed as “miscellaneous" in jazz categories. While a few acknowledged masters of the instrument have transcended such categorization--and in the process have challenged assumptions about the nature of jazz itself (I'm thinking Red Norvo and Gary Burton here)--the dismissive mindset often prevails.That's a shame. We ...

Solar Wind: Grand Tour Alignment

by AAJ Staff
February 1, 2000

The cover is grandiose: the title refers to a rare occurrence, when all planets are in the same corner of sky. You expect something cosmic; for the first minute (all synths and passing comets) that’s what you get. And then it comes down to earth: twirling guitars, airy keys, and the occasional horn (Eric Marienthal, whooping it loud.) It’s an expected approach, but done with flair; smooth, but not sleepy. And the title fits: they do have everything all lined ...

Matthias Lupri: Shadow of the Vibe

by Glenn Astarita
February 1, 2000

You can add the name Matthias Lupri to the list of talented young jazz vibraphonists! On Shadow of the Vibe this former student of Gary Burton exhibits a strong compositional pen while maximizing his 4-mallet technique in articulate fashion. Here, Lupri receives the additional benefit of performing with elder statesman and critically acclaimed saxophonist/educator George Garzone, all-world bassist John Lockwood and the sure-handed and fiery drummer, Sebastian de Krom.

The first piece, “Invention" gets out of the box ...

Barbara Morrison: Visit Me

by AAJ Staff
February 1, 2000

This isn’t a record; it’s a conversation. Barbara Morrison talks to her band, her duet partners; most emphatically she talks to you, in a piercing style hard to forget. While her background’s in R&B (many years with The Johnny Otis Show, a European tour opening for Ray Charles) here Barbara displays her flair for jazz, with a cast to match.. Plenty of big names, but she outplays them all: urgent, exuberant, and more than a little sassy. An intriguing sound, ...

Matthias Lupri Quartet: Shadow of the Vibe

by Glenn Astarita
February 1, 2000

You can add the name Matthias Lupri to the list of talented young jazz vibraphonists! On Shadow of the Vibe this former student of Gary Burton exhibits a strong compositional pen while maximizing his 4-mallet technique in articulate fashion. Here, Lupri receives the additional benefit of performing with elder statesman and critically acclaimed saxophonist/educator George Garzone, all-world bassist John Lockwood and the sure-handed and fiery drummer, Sebastian de Krom.

The first piece, “Invention" gets out of the box ...

Solar Wind: Grand Tour Alignment

by Jack Bowers
January 1, 2000

Grand Tour Alignment (Chartmaker)

Here’s yet another album of acoustic and synthesized dross masquerading as Jazz. Solar Wind is a splendid title for the core group (Sean Mason, Eric Robson) as this sounds at the outset like the soundtrack for a Star Wars sequel before settling into a threadbare groove aimed straight at the heart of “smooth Jazz” radio. Mason wrote eight of the nine pieces, Robson the other, and except for “Grand Tour Alignment” (the pseudo–soundtrack) they are instantly ...

Matthias Lupri: Window Up Window Down

by Jack Bowers
May 1, 1998

A melodically invigorating session consisting of nine largely easygoing compositions by the quartet's leader, German-born and American-raised vibraphonist Matthias Lupri. The album's title denotes one of Lupri's more prominent inspirations, the window in his Boston apartment through which he often gazes at the passing parade while composing. Through that window he sees “Children," “The Fruitlady," the masses whose faces he sees but whose “Names" he doesn't know, or people who will “Just Say Anything," and aspires to convert these and ...