Jazz Articles
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Joe Santa Maria: Echo Deep
by Glenn Astarita
In the liner notes, L.A.-based multi-woodwind specialist Joe Santa Maria, known for his contributions to Vinnie Golia ensembles, Django Django, and Kim Richmond and others, reveals that this project took nearly a decade to complete, shaped by his extensive travels and dedicated studies. Notably, he emphasizes the cyclical, trance-like essence embedded within these compositions. The prolonged wait proves worthwhile as Santa Maria's fusion of worldly influences, rooted in his jazz expertise, culminates in an outstanding album poised to grace numerous ...
read moreDan Rosenboom: Polarity
by Jerome Wilson
On this album, trumpeter Dan Rosenboom and his quartet engage in a free-wheeling session which comes off as a modern update of Wayne Shorter releases such as The All-Seeing Eye (Blue Note, 1966). He engages in playful genre-crossing and experimentation here which incorporate the sensibilities of hip-hop and ambient music as well as modern jazz. The album's key track is the marathon opener, “The Age of Snakes" in which Rosenboom's trumpet and Gavin Templeton's alto saxophone lazily float ...
read moreDan Rosenboom: Polarity
by Pat Youngspiel
Recently, Los Angeles-based trumpeter Dan Rosenboom has been experimenting with somewhat freer and edgier realms of improvisation, giving doomy metal influences a go on Trio Subliminal 2 (Orenda Records, 2022), and indulging high-energy trio interplay with plenty of delay effects and other sonic manipulation on Refraction (Orenda Records, 2021). Not to mention the opulent The Complete Boom Sessions (Orenda Records, 2022), which captured over 400-minutes, live to tape, recorded over five gigs at one of Los Angeles' premiere hubs for ...
read moreDawn Clement, Elsa Nilsson, Emma Dayhuff, Tina Raymond: Esthesis Quartet
by Paul Rauch
The Covid-19 lockdown of 2020 and 2021 mandated that musicians find ways to connect without gathering in person. The pandemic produced a litany of recordings that along with photos of masked loved ones, will serve as tacit reminders of two years of solitude and isolation. For Esthesis Quartet this meant gathering on Zoom to keep the creative juices flowing, and to continue to write inspired music with the quartet in mind. While it is undeniable that this recording bears the ...
read moreZane Carney Quartet: Alter Ego
by Friedrich Kunzmann
While guitarist Zane Carney's work as a leader may have yet to experience the hype it arguably deserves, his session work is another thing. Among other projects, he has played on Thundercat's Drunk (Brainfeeder, 2012) as well as John Mayer's folk album Paradise Valley (Columbia, 2013), the Grammy award-winning Thundercat calling him “a massive guitarist." And, in the continued spirit of name-dropping, Carney formed the band Evan + Zane with actress (and incidentally good singer) Evan Rachel Wood, who might ...
read moreBelievers: Believers
by Friedrich Kunzmann
The three individuals making up Believers are each highly respected musical voices in their own right. Percussionist John Hadfield has performed and recorded with the likes of Nguyen Le and released an inspired duo EP with woodwind autodidact Lenny Pickett, called Heard by Others (Orenda Records, 2020). Sam Minaie, on the other hand, has played bass for household names such as piano virtuoso Tigran Hamasyan and the charming jazz-pop icon Melody Gardot. Which brings us to the last protagonist completing ...
read moreDan Rosenboom: Points of an Infinite Line
by Friedrich Kunzmann
Released in the environment of his own label's absolute creative control, trumpeter Dan Rosenboom's newest outing sees a chordless quartet venturing beyond the borders of swing, exploring heavy grooves and free-wheeling improvisation to the point where jazz, hip hop and the rough edges of many other genres meld together to a single style that simultaneously defies the same categorizes of which it is made. Rosenboom's L.A.-based cohorts, drummer Anthony Fung, saxophonist Gavin Templeton and double bassist Billy Mohler, are instrumental ...
read moreJon Armstrong Sextet: Reabsorb
by Mark Corroto
Saxophonist Jon Armstrong reminds us that life and death are two sides of the same coin. Although seemingly disparate, like two sides of an LP, they cannot be separated. His sextet recording Reabsorb models this contrasting device by presenting two contrasting compositions, one on each side of an LP (also available as a CD and download). The music, inspired by an Erin Armstrong poem, presents both sides, which at first encounter come off as binary elements. Loud and soft. Busy ...
read moreCathlene Pineda: Rainbow Baby
by Jerome Wilson
Pianist Cathlene Pineda has a classical background which is reflected in the lyrical music her quartet creates on this disc. Her compositions here came out of a four-year period during which she became a mother for the first time, suffered two miscarriages and finally gave birth to a second child. The resulting work has a calm, introspective charm. The gentle flow of Pineda's piano mixes well with Kris Tiner's expressive trumpet playing on pieces such as the lyrical ...
read moreCathlene Pineda: Rainbow Baby
by Dan McClenaghan
Charlie Parker said: “If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn." In Cathlene Pineda's case, it could be said: “If you don't live it, it won't come out of your piano, or your compositional pen." Motherhood is a big part of what Pineda has lived, an equilibrium of emotion on the spectrum of sorrow and joy resulting--over a four year period--from two devastating miscarriages and two joyous births. Now, she celebrates that experience in ...
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