Jazz Articles

The Reunion Project: Varanda

by Dan Bilawsky
February 16, 2017

If ever there was a gathering that's true to name and a misnomer, this is it. The Reunion Project isn't a glimpse at a band reformation or a grand comeback statement, but rather an expression of shared experiences, influences, and actions. It's both a look back to earlier times and the dawn of a new adventure. Saxophonist Felipe Salles and guitarist Chico Pinheiro grew up together in São Paulo, absorbing the same sounds and making parallel yet ...

Colin Stranahan: Life Condition

by Bruce Lindsay
October 27, 2010

Drummer Colin Stranahan was something of a prodigy, gigging around his home town of Denver, Colorado, aged 11 years and releasing his first album, Dreams Untold (Capri Records, 2004) at the age of 17. Life Condition is his third album--inspired by a trip to India with Herbie Hancock and the Monk Institute Band. It's a mix of originals and standards performed in the main by a trio of Stranahan, alto saxophonist Ben Van Gelder and bassist Chris Smith, with tenor ...

Fred Hess Band: How 'Bout Now

by Jerry D'Souza
April 26, 2006

Fred Hess says that after four recordings with a quartet, he wanted to change the makeup of his group, so he added a horn: cornet player Ron Miles. The music grooves, even as Hess chooses the groove in different ways. He takes his compositions along divergent paths. There is no gainsaying which way a tune will go, which recesses it will duck into, what plateau it will rise from, or which music it will dwell on. All make valid and ...

Fred Hess Band: How 'Bout Now

by Dan McClenaghan
March 19, 2006

If you go down the list of categories eligible for Grammy Awards, you'll find Field 10 (Jazz), category 47, which is “Best Instrumental Solo." So the Grammy folks are telling us that out of all the jazz CDs released in a given year--thousands of discs that must contain almost uncountable solos--they've been able to isolate just one interlude, one inspired rant that is the best.If they can do that, they're better than I am. But I can narrow ...

Fred Hess Quartet: Crossed Paths

by James Taylor
April 9, 2005

Saxophonist Fred Hess' latest release on the independent Colorado-based Tapestry label is his quartet's best. With trumpeter Ron Miles, bassist Ken Filiano, and drummer Matt Wilson, Crossed Paths features a more tight-knit unit and a composer more comfortable writing for this particular ensemble. Like eclectic trumpeter Dave Douglas, the unheralded Hess is versed in the tradition as much as the avant-garde style, and the excitement of not knowing when he is going to draw on one or ...

Fred Hess Quartet: Crossed Paths

by AAJ Staff
March 16, 2005

Crossed Paths is state-of-the-art modern jazz. The members of Colorado tenor saxophonist Fred Hess' quartet explore his themes from every conceivable angle, ranging from skipping swing to brittle abstraction. And there's a blues, too.

Hess appears to enjoy a growing reputation, and he deserves it. He's a monster musician, a saxophonist with a full, distinctive tone, ample chops, and a conception that embraces the tradition, the present, and the future. His solo on the fast “On Perry St." ...

Fred Hess Quartet: Crossed Paths

by John Kelman
March 2, 2005

It's wonderful for an artist to find a group so emotionally linked to his or her conception that the music takes on a greater significance than what's on the written page. Denver-based tenor saxophonist Fred Hess found such a group for his previous release, The Long and Short of It , a record that took his smoky tone and unmistakable roots in Lester Young and brought them forward into a new century. Thankfully the rest of the group--trumpeter Ron Miles, ...

Fred Hess Quartet: Crossed Paths

by Dan McClenaghan
February 16, 2005

Listening to “On Perry St.," the opening cut on Denver-based saxophonist Fred Hess' Crossed Paths --a song that thumps in on a rock-ish beat (by Matt Wilson) and a big loping bass line (by Ken Filiano), followed by some loose two horn harmony--I'm struck, on Hess's first solo of the disc, by what pretty noise the man makes with his horn. Combining perfect control with a sense of fun and wonder and a Lester Young-ish tone, telling us a facinating ...

Fred Hess: The Long And The Short Of It

by Mark Corroto
February 2, 2004

Saxophonist Fred Hess writes dreamy music. Not music that is otherworldly or romantic or visionary per se, but dream inducing, at its plain meaning. His compositions beg for improvisation and its players are required to open up to the possibilities.

The right mix of players is a key to making his music work. The Long And The Short Of It is his third quartet record and follows 2002's Extended Family, also on Tapestry Records. Hess’ combination of musicians ...

Fred Hess Quartet: The Long And Short Of It

by Farrell Lowe
February 1, 2004

The single most striking difference between Fred Hess' latest recording and all of his earlier efforts is the relaxed and joyful feel of the music contained herein. Tyranny to form, an element of Hess' recordings that has caught too much of my attention in the past, is gone, amended by said relaxation and joy. This unassuming release documents a substantial step forward in the realization, if not the compositional understanding of Hess' music by other players. He has chosen an ...