Jazz Articles

Robi Botos: Old Soul

by Anya Wassenberg
February 26, 2018

Old Soul is a personal meditation wrapped up in a contemporary jazz album, offering complex yet accessible music with diverse influences that stem from Robi Botos' life story. Pianist and multi-instrumentalist Robi Botos takes his core quartet of Seamus Blake on sax, Mike Downes on bass, and Larnell Lewis on drums through a collection of largely original tracks that revolve around themes of lost places and friends, new hope and optimism for the future. “Old Soul," ...

Everette Harp: All for You

by Woodrow Wilkins
January 30, 2005

Get into the groove. The opening track of Everette Harp's new album sends that message, loud and clear. “Kisses Don't Lie," an upbeat, contemporary jazz groove with a hint of funk and a danceable beat, sets the tone for All for You , the saxman's latest from A440 Records. A glance at the personnel listing might lead one to believe this album is overly dependent on programming. However, programming is just a tool--the use of modern technology to ...

Clark Terry: Porgy & Bess

by Alex K. Fong
November 15, 2004

The Gil Evans arrangements of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess have lain fallow ever since their 1958 recording by iconic trumpeter Miles Davis.

That is, until now.

Trumpeter and flugelhornist Clark Terry replaces Davis, his former protégé, as the soloist on the Chicago Jazz Orchestra's rendition of the Evans Porgy and Bess arrangements. Terry is an inspired choice by the orchestra's conductor Jeff Lindberg because Davis employed both the trumpet and flugelhorn on his version.

But the merit of revisiting ...

Clark Terry: Porgy & Bess

by Michael P. Gladstone
October 14, 2004

For the second time in a year, a major collaboration of Miles Davis-Gil Evans from the late 1950s has been repackaged with a new dressing. This venture is not another ho-hum guest shot from a jazz dignitary sitting in with an orchestra. Clark Terry lends not only his noted name but his distinctive talents to this project, and despite the many references to his advancing age and health problems in the media, he sounds robust on this recording at the ...

Clark Terry: Porgy & Bess

by Jerry D'Souza
October 13, 2004

Experience and imagination are brothers-in-arms when it comes to Clark Terry and his insight into the remaking of the Gil Evans charts for Porgy and Bess. The Miles Davis recording could well have been the definitive work, but now Terry and the Chicago Jazz Orchestra breathe in some fresh air and bring in another phase to the much-hallowed music. Terry still has his chops and the ability to inject passion; age certainly has not withered those strengths. He reads with ...

Clark Terry: Porgy & Bess

by Jim Santella
October 4, 2004

With the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, trumpeter Clark Terry interprets memorable selections from America's favorite jazz opera. These arias have long been a favorite of every influential jazz artist. Like Gil Evans and Miles Davis, conductor Jeff Lindberg and maestro Terry have come up with a winning formula. Using Evans' orchestral arrangements, they have recreated all the thrills.

At 83, Terry sounds better than ever. He's kept his full-textured tone in good shape, and continues to massage every note ...

Clark Terry with the Chicago Jazz Orchestra: Porgy & Bess

by Jack Bowers
October 3, 2004

More than four decades ago, trumpeter Miles Davis collaborated with arranger Gil Evans to produce what many observers look upon as the definitive jazz version of George Gershwin's groundbreaking folk opera, Porgy and Bess. It takes a sturdy backbone, not to mention enormous talent, to reproduce and strive to enrich a classic, but into the breach have stepped veteran trumpeter Clark Terry and Jeff Lindberg's 25-member Chicago Jazz Orchestra to do precisely that.

All of the songs save one, Evans' ...

Clark Terry and the Chicago Jazz Orchestra: Porgy & Bess

by Dan McClenaghan
September 17, 2004

Can a remake of a classic album also be considered a classic? It's hard to say. George Gershwin's Porgy & Bess, as done by Miles Davis on flugelhorn in front of Gil Evans' fabulous lighter-than-air arrangements--this was back in 1958--certainly qualifies as a major work of art, quite innovative at the time. The venerable trumpeter/flugelhornist Clark Terry, taking Davis's part in front of the Chicago Jazz Orchestra's reverent reproduction of the Evans charts, makes for a close match to the ...

Clark Terry with Jeff Lindberg and the Chicago Jazz Orchestra: Porgy & Bess

by John Kelman
September 13, 2004

2004 appears to be the year for reevaluation of Miles Davis classics. First came g.org's A New Kind of Blue , applying a more modern bent to the iconic Kind of Blue. Now the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, under the direction of Jeff Lindberg, takes on the Miles Davis/Gil Evans classic Porgy & Bess , this time with Clark Terry in the trumpet seat. Tackling such a seminal album, where Miles was the featured soloist, may seem presumptuous, but the choice ...

Bob Baldwin: Brazil Chill

by Brian Soergel
May 16, 2004

The music of Brazil has always tempted smooth jazz musicians. It can be sexy, dreamy, rhythmic, soulful, sexy and even more sexy. Pianist Bob Baldwin traveled to steamy Rio de Janeiro to record Brazil Chill, which is all smooth jazz and shouldn’t be confused with “chill music.”

It’s in Brazil that Baldwin recruited some of the country’s best players, including the great saxophonist Leo Gandleman, guitarist Torcquato Mariano, percussionist Café and others. Baldwin is alternately jazzy and smoothy. The beauty ...