Jazz Articles
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Julian Shore: Where We Started
by Troy Dostert
A pianist of uncommon sensitivity and graceful temperament, Julian Shore crafts music with atmosphere and feeling, aiming for emotional depth rather than settling for typical jazz devices. On Where We Started, his third release, he offers eight well-honed tracks which are both evocative and nuanced; while they might not win over the uninitiated in a crowded club, they offer plenty of introspective delights to listeners prepared to settle in with the music. Joined by a fine ensemble, Shore ...
read moreChristian Li & Mike Bono: Visitors
by Chris Mosey
The New York-based duo of guitarist Mike Bono and pianist Christian Li celebrate a decade of collaboration with Visitors, which they see as a souvenir of the past and a blueprint for the future." It's a varied album of nine originals, with engineer Pran Bandi trying as much as possible to recreate a live atmosphere in the studio, facilitating communication and connection. The opening number, Puddles," is pleasantly meditative with an interesting solo from Dayna Stephens on ...
read moreRicardo Grilli: 1954
by Jerome Wilson
Ricardo Grilli is a New York-based guitarist whose music is a gentle blend of jazz and progressive rock. He leads a quartet of accomplished musicians who know how to alternately be calm and spacious or rhythmic and grooving. On the calmer side Rings" has a quietly throbbing beat and mellow texture set up by Joe Martin's bass and Eric Harland's simple drum patterns and Breathe" is much the same but with a Latin tinge to the rhythm and delicate, lively ...
read moreJulian Shore: Which Way Now?
by Dan Bilawsky
If the jazz world decided to elect a single questioning phrase to sum up its craft, this album title would be a great candidate. With three words and a single punctuation mark, the very heart of jazz--a music of infinite decision(s), not indecision, as some may (mis)read that--is laid out for all to see. Those who operate in the jazz orbit are constantly searching, peering at the unknown and exploring the recesses of nature, body, and mind. Pianist Julian Shore, ...
read moreAndrew Hadro: For Us, The Living
by Dan Bilawsky
Abraham Lincoln had one eye on the past and the other on the present and future when he gave his famous Gettysburg Address. In that speech, celebrating its sesquicentennial when this album was recorded in 2013, Lincoln spoke of honoring the fallen, furthering what they started, and looking forward to a new birth of freedom." As most everybody knows, Lincoln's speech had nothing to with creative music, yet the general theme(s), as viewed in modern times, have everything to do ...
read moreJulian Shore: Filaments
by Dave Wayne
There is nothing wrong with mellow jazz. As long as distance can be maintained from the hackneyed, dialed-in feel of smooth jazz, it can be a refreshing change of pace from the intensity and analytical focus of a lot of modern art music, jazz or otherwise. Listening to pianist Julian Shore's Filaments, there's the sense that he set out to craft music easy on the ears without compromising any of his personal artistic values. The opening Grey Light, Green Lily" ...
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