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Pete Malinverni: On the Town: Pete Malinverni Plays Leonard Bernstein
by Pierre Giroux
The presumptive title of this release is On The Town, but in reality it covers more than just the music from that titled 1944 Leonard Bernstein Broadway musical. The ever thoughtful and vivid pianist Pete Malinverni along with his savvy and accomplished companions bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Jeff Hamilton have made this release an oeuvre to New York City as exemplified by the music of Leonard Bernstein which was presented in three well known musicals: On The Town, Wonderful ...
read morePete Malinverni: On the Town: Pete Malinverni Plays Leonard Bernstein
by Jack Bowers
Pianist Pete Malinverni's album, On the Town, is subtitled “Plays Leonard Bernstein," and it's an homage he has wanted to put on record for many years—ever since he met Bernstein in person while performing at an opening-night party for a production of the opera Tosca at the Met in NYC. Bernstein, he recalls, spent much of the evening hanging around the piano, not with his more celebrated dinner companions. ("Real musicians want to hang out with the band," Malinverni says). ...
read moreBill Warfield and the Hell's Kitchen Funk Orchestra: Smile
by Jack Bowers
Having no idea what to expect from an ensemble labeled the Hell's Kitchen Funk Orchestra, the game plan must be to advance with caution, as any orchestra with trumpeter Bill Warfield at the helm can't be all bad. After listening, it becomes clear that the game plan was sound and the premise accurate: Smile, the HKFO's second recording, isn't all bad. The question is: did Warfield and the orchestra have its own game plan? If snatching every ingredient within reach ...
read moreChris Pasin: Ornettiquette
by Mark Corroto
Included on an album dedicated to the legendary Ornette Coleman, it is “Ghosts," a composition by saxophonist Albert Ayler. Trumpeter Chris Pasin assembled an impressive collection of musicians to record Ornettiquette with Karl Berger and vocalist Ingrid Sertso, both connected to the 1960s revolution through their work with Coleman and Don Cherry. In addition, there's saxophonist Adam Siegel, drummer Harvey Sorgen, and heavyweight bassist Michael Bisio.The Ayler connection is arrived at here from Don Cherry's tenure with Ayler's ...
read moreChris Pasin: Ornettiquette
by Chris Mosey
It's amazing how quickly what was billed as the future of jazz became its past. In 1959 when saxophonist Ornette Coleman released his third album, he wanted to call it Focus On Sanity. Instead, at the insistence of Atlantic producer Nesuhi Ertegun, it was portentously titled The Shape Of Jazz To Come. Other musicians took heed and the free jazz movement was born. Commercially this was a disaster for jazz, with record buyers deserting the music en ...
read moreDiane Moser: Birdsongs
by Jerome Wilson
There is a tradition of composers finding inspiration in the songs of birds. Olivier Messiaen did it in the classical realm and Eric Dolphy did it in the jazz world. Pianist Diane Moser follows in that tradition on this CD, turning birdsong into a bevy of haunting compositions both for solo piano and the trio of piano, flute and bass. Many of these pieces start out as twittery, piping bird imitations but eventually morph into solid jazz rhythms. ...
read moreBill Warfield: For Lew
by Jack Bowers
The “Lew" referred to on Renaissance man Bill Warfield's latest big-band album, For Lew, is the late trumpeter Lew Soloff, whom Warfield remembers in the liner notes as “my mentor, colleague, friend and inspiration." The inspiration arrived when the teen-age Warfield, who had switched from trumpet to piano after losing his front teeth in an auto accident, heard Soloff's memorable solo on “Spinning Wheel" by the group Blood, Sweat & Tears. “I decided at that point," Warfield writes, “that I ...
read moreDiane Moser: Birdsongs
by Troy Dostert
While she hasn't gotten quite the recognition she deserves, pianist/composer Diane Moser has steadily released a series of fine recordings over the last couple decades. Her 17-piece Composers Big Band recorded Live at Tierney's Tavern in 1999 (on the New Arts label), but she's also made some excellent smaller-group records, some of which have featured some pretty illustrious company, such as bassist Mark Dresser, drummer Gerry Hemingway and multi-reedist Marty Ehrlich--all of whom are featured on her superb quintet album ...
read moreChris Pasin: Baby It's Cold Outside
by Dan Bilawsky
Chris Pasin clearly buys into the idea that spreading holiday cheer with and for those who are near and dear is a beautiful manifestation of the Christmas spirit. For Baby It's Cold Outside the veteran trumpeter gathered seven of his musical chums and put together a program of tried-and-true yuletide nuggets, remaining loyal enough to the templates while also juicing the mix. Six different personnel configurations are in play across this album's eleven tracks--everything from a Patricia ...
read moreINNERrOUTe: Fourmation
by John Ephland
Starting with keyboardist Joe Vincent Tranchina's steady, alarming tone, Fourmation suggests an emergency of some kind. “Consensual Motion" gradually includes the other three members entering the fray, a fray that's loose and free-form, and eventually calming, not to mention a little bit funky. Michael D'Agostino's drum fills combine with Bill McCrossen's probing basslines to form a rhythmic framework for trumpeter Rick Savage to follow suit, his tone softer, more meditative even as it follows a similar probing trajectory.
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