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Roberta Piket: Domestic Harmony: Piket Plays Mintz
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Roberta Piket was subbing in trombonist Joey Sellers' band in 1998 when she first met drummer Billy Mintz. In an All About Jazz interview, in 2011 with Victor Schermer, Piket said of that first encounter: “I noticed Billy, because the room was very dark, and yet he was wearing sunglasses; he seemed very strange. But I got to know him a bit..." Then one thing led to another, a musical collaboration was born and they got married. ...
read moreBilly Mintz: Ugly Beautiful
by David A. Orthmann
Consisting of seventeen tracks spanning over two hours of playing time, Ugly Beautiful is a large, sprawling, wise, unflinchingly honest, powerful work of art. Billy Mintz's third recording as a leader--all of which were made in the most recent decade of a fifty-year plus career--stubbornly refuses to conform to stylistic boundaries and gleefully defies expectations of any kind. The record demands to be taken on its own terms. Trying to pin labels or anticipate the course of almost any track ...
read moreBilly Mintz: Ugly Beautiful
by Dan McClenaghan
Drummer/composer Billy Mintz has a long career of enhancing the music of others with his percussive artistry, everyone from saxophonist Lee Konitz to pianist Hal Galper, to clarinet master Perry Robinson. His own discography as a leader is small, with frequent revisitations of a handful of original compositions that are as distinctive and as worthy of the multiple version approach as the music of Thelonious Monk. He writes small masterpieces and turns his ensembles loose on them, resulting in a ...
read moreRoberta Piket: One for Marian
by Victor L. Schermer
In 1945, as World War II came to an end, Marian McPartland (1918-2013) moved from England to the United Sates with her then husband, trumpeter Jimmy McPartland. She had already achieved some notoriety as a pianist on radio shows and with the USO, and in the U.S., with her husband's encouragement, she found a secure niche as a jazz pianist, leader, and composer, most notably as a house pianist at the famed Hickory House in New York, where many greats ...
read moreRoberta Piket: One For Marian: Celebrating Marian McPartland
by Karl Ackermann
A young, unrecorded artist is asked to share her talents, sitting in a chair that had been warmed by Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Brad Mehldau, Mary Lou Williams, Dave Brubeck, Chick Corea and Dizzy Gillespie to name just a few of the legends who graced Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz series. It says a great deal about Roberta Piket, that McPartland would welcome her into the fold of this company and now Piket pays tribute to her host with One For ...
read moreRoberta Piket: Emanation (Solo: Volume 2)
by Karl Ackermann
The daughter of noted Austrian composer/conductor Fredrick Piket, New York native Roberta Piket took to the piano at an early age, later receiving a degree in jazz piano from New England Conservatory. Piket studied with pianist Richie Beirach, upon returning to New York and receiving an NEA grant. Years later, Beirach has demonstrated his sureness of Piket by serving as production assistant and writing the liner notes for Emanation (Solo: Volume 2). Piket's early jazz influences and an interest in ...
read moreRoberta Piket: Emanation
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Roberta Piket sat down at her instrument alone on Solo (Thirteenth Note Records, 2012). It was her first recording in the format, after and marvelous series of trio and quartet sets. An artist known for her “inside/outside" abilities and a cerebral yet emotive approach to piano, her recording debut as a solo artist was unabashedly beautiful and straight ahead, with much familiar turf: Wayne Shorter's “Nefertiti," saxophonist Sam Rivers' perfect “Beatrice," the American Songbook jewel “I See Your Face ...
read moreRoberta Piket: Emanation (Solo: Volume 2)
by Dan Bilawsky
In the liner notes for this stimulating album, pianist Richie Beirach, Roberta Piket's friend and once-upon-a-time teacher, refers to the art of solo piano playing as “the Mount Everest of challenges for a jazz pianist." Ain't that the truth. When put in other situations, from episodes in duo discourse to large ensemble endeavors, pianists have the opportunity to play around, with, and off of others. And although it's completely accurate to say that musically communicating in real time with other ...
read moreBilly Mintz: The 2 Bass Band...Live
by Glenn Astarita
Venerable first-call session artist and bandleader, Billy Mintz (Alan Broadbent Trio, Eddie Daniels Quartet) has logged years of productive time within the East and West Coast USA jazz communities. Calling New York home since 2001, he formed the 2 Bass Band, which is a unit that performs at many of the well-known Manhattan venues, but surprisingly, has never recorded an album until now. And it's probably fitting that the large ensemble--anchored by bassists Masa Kamaguchi and Cameron Brown --is captured ...
read moreLena Bloch: Feathery
by Hrayr Attarian
Saxophonist Lena Bloch's Feathery is a cerebral album laced with a mature, tender passion. It is also a collaborative effort with her sidemen contributing to the creative process democratically while maintaining their individuality.Drummer Billy Mintz's thunderous beats and crashing cymbals set an expectant and dramatic mood on Guitarist Dave Miller's solemn and ethereal “Rubato." Miller's haunting almost baroque explorations add a mystical touch while bassist Cameron Brown's bowed and reverberating strings maintain the western classical sensibility while meandering ...
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