Jazz Articles

Ken Walker Sextet: Terra Firma

by Paul Olson
May 9, 2005

You don't hear much about the Denver jazz scene, but bassist Ken Walker's Terra Firma provides incontrovertible evidence that there are at least six splendid jazz musicians working in that city. Walker's sextet includes drummer Paul Romaine, tenor man Peter Sommer, trumpeter Al Hood, guitarist Dave Corbus, and pianist Jeff Jenkins. Their 2002 session is an antidote to ears fatigued by the mathematical tempos and hypervirtuosity of the contemporary New York scene--wonderful though it is. Instead, it's hard bop and ...

Boy-Girl Band: Drop Your Leotards!

by Mark Sabbatini
December 8, 2004

This is one of those albums where one of the worst things to be said about it is it makes lousy background music.

Boy-Girl Band is a Colorado-based quartet (two men, two women) whose name suggests they're part of some raging teeny-bopper trip-hop scene. It's actually a group of accomplished musicians whose debut album, Drop Your Leotards!, is an eclectic mix of modernistic jazz, free improvisation and extremely odd spoken interludes. Too much multitasking, in other words, for ...

Triangle: 3 Sides of A Question

by Michael P. Gladstone
November 2, 2004

Does anyone out there remember the jazz group that became known as Rubisa Patrol? The quartet recorded two albums for ECM in 1976 and 1977; pianist Art Lande was the leader and trumpeter Mark Isham was among the original members. Lande's own debut came in 1973 with ECM's Red Lanta. After several addition albums under his own name and a two-year sojourn in Switzerland as a jazz educator, Lande relocated to the Boulder, Colorado area, where he has remained since. ...

The Alex Heitlinger Sextet: Green Light

by Jack Bowers
October 28, 2004

Young trombonist Alex Heitlinger, not far removed from his undergrad days at the University of Colorado, leads a seasoned sextet through its paces on a moderately successful debut album of post bop jazz that transcends some problems to offer a reasonably productive listening experience.

The session encompasses ten of Heitlinger's compositions, and therein lies one of its basic shortcomings, as none of them is of more than passing interest. While everyone plays respectably, the smoldering get-together never really catches fire, ...

Alex Heitlinger Sextet: Green Light

by John Kelman
October 23, 2004

One look at the biographical information about the musicians accompanying trombonist Alex Heitlinger on his début release on Synergy Music reveals that, with one exception, the common denominator is pianist Art Lande, whose sharp and imaginative playing graces Green Light. '04 is, in fact, a particularly good year for fans of Lande, who also appears on woodwind multi-instrumentalist Paul McCandless' Shapeshifter (Synergy, '04) and contributes most of the compositions, as he is one of those near-legendary forces who sees widespread ...

Paul McCandless: Shapeshifter

by John Kelman
October 5, 2004

Woodwind multi-instrumentalist Paul McCandless, best known for his work with the genre-bending group Oregon, and pianist Art Lande have a shared history that dates back over thirty years. Surprisingly, however, they have recorded together relatively infrequently, notably on McCandless' albums All the Mornings Bring ('79) and Heresay ('88), as well as the Lande/McCandless album with vibraphonist David Samuels, Skylight ('82). But while their recorded collaborations have been few and far between, they have always been worth waiting for, albums to ...