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Album Review

Marty Elkins: Fat Daddy

Read "Fat Daddy" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


The jazz world is full of singers who deserve a higher profile than they have, and Marty Elkins is most certainly one of them. This trad-jazz true believer and pliantly phrasing charmer has a way with words and an appreciation for the finer things in sound and song. Some might call her an aural antiquarian, but there's nary a speck of dust on the material she chooses to sing. Accompanied by a crack band equally at home with chestnuts of ...

402
Album Review

Donald Harrison: The Chosen

Read "The Chosen" reviewed by Francis Lo Kee


Donald Harrison's The Chosen is dedicated to the people who do their “best, no matter what circumstances come" their way. If you know anything about Harrison, you know that he's from New Orleans and suffered significantly after Hurricane Katrina so he knows what he is talking about. This collection of originals and standards displays Harrison as a saxophonist who prefers the honest, direct route to musical expression. Though there are some intricate approaches to the material, all the pieces display ...

566
Album Review

Ken Peplowski / Jesper Thilo: Happy Together - Live At Birdland Volume One

Read "Happy Together - Live At Birdland Volume One" reviewed by Andrew Velez


Ken Peplowski and Jesper Thilo have much more in common than the solid expertise of each on both tenor saxophone and clarinet as demonstrated here. The two effortlessly and authentically bring the Swing Era to vibrant life anew. With “Peps," who began his professional career with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, one has only to hear the first few notes from his clarinet on “I Want to Be Happy" to appreciate how great an influence Benny Goodman had on him. Thilo's ...

247
Album Review

Spike Robinson: I Wish I Knew: Live in Dublin 1979

Read "I Wish I Knew: Live in Dublin 1979" reviewed by Samuel Chell


This release, dedicated to jazz promoter, producer and late founder of the German label bearing his name, Nagel Heyer, should come as a pleasant surprise to the fans of tenor saxophonist Spike Robinson. It had seemed almost certain that The CTS Session (Hep, 2005) was the final chapter in the story of this musician from Kenosha, Wisconsin who decided to become a full-time jazz musician at the age of 56 (a decision practically requiring that he remain an ex-patriot).

168
Album Review

Warren Vache / Allan Vache: Remember (Ms. Vache's Boys)

Read "Remember (Ms. Vache's Boys)" reviewed by George Kanzler


The Vaché brothers, cornetist Warren and clarinetist Allan, grew up in New Jersey in a hotbed of revivalist trad jazz. Their father, Warren Vaché Sr., was a bassist and writer-editor (a bio of Pee Wee Erwin, the early Chicago-style trumpeter, and editor of Jersey Jazz, a newsletter) and one of the Jersey neo-traditionalists who helped kick-off revivals with the annual Pee Wee Russell Memorial Stomp. But while the brothers were steeped in trad jazz--an experience that has given them a ...

309
Album Review

Carolyn Leonhart and Wayne Escoffery: If Dreams Come True

Read "If Dreams Come True" reviewed by Suzanne Lorge


Singer Carolyn Leonhart and saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, a couple both on and off the bandstand, completed a smooth run at New York's Smoke the weekend of Valentine's Day 2008, highlighting the title cut from If Dreams Come True along with some well-written originals and some intelligently reworked standards. Theirs is a sweetly romantic tale: The couple met at Smoke on Feb. 14th six years ago, married in 2004 and are expecting their first child this year. The romantic backstory aside, ...

774
Album Review

Carolyn Leonhart and Wayne Escoffery: If Dreams Come True

Read "If Dreams Come True" reviewed by Michael P. Gladstone


The combination of jazz vocalist Carolyn Leonhart and saxophonist Wayne Escoffery is an unusual and exciting one. Leonhart, the daughter of jazz bassist Jay Leonhart, has recorded in the past for Sunnyside Records--Steal The Moon (2000) and New 8th Day (2005). She also has provided harmony vocal work for Steely Dan over an eleven-year period. Escoffery was a member of the exciting Ben Riley's Monk Legacy Jazz Septet, with Memories of T (Concord, 2006) being critically well-received. Escoffery released his ...

243
Album Review

Carolyn Leonhart and Wayne Escoffery: If Dreams Come True

Read "If Dreams Come True" reviewed by Woodrow Wilkins


A charming vocalist with solid roots and versatility is a good thing. A saxophonist who can play with verve while also covering a variety of styles is equally good. Put the two together, and you've got a match made in musical heaven. Enter Carolyn Leonhart and Wayne Escoffery, a duo who met on Valentine's Day in 2002 and were married two years later. Leonhart, the daughter of bassist Jay Leonhart has two prior solo releases on Sunnyside Records--Steal ...

238
Album Review

David Ostwald: Blues in Our Heart

Read "Blues in Our Heart" reviewed by Jim Santella


Trad jazz never goes out of style. Thus, David Ostwald's two-step parade draws weekly New York audiences to Birdland in respectable numbers. They come from all walks of life: folks who remember Louis Armstrong as well as those who simply remember “dear old Mom and Dad, and the family getting “high on this exceptional form of traditional music at home in the living room. Ostwald plays tuba and gives his band a regular beat that's hard to miss.

311
Album Review

Donald Harrison: The Survivor

Read "The Survivor" reviewed by John Barron


Donald Harrison has earned premiere status in the jazz world as an inventive improviser with a highly personalized voice. His command of the alto saxophone is second to none and his contributions as a genre-hopping composer are compelling to discerning and casual listeners alike. On The Survivor, recorded for the German Nagel Hayer label, the Art Blakey alumnus takes a brazen leap into the world of modern funk with the support of venerable piano giant Mulgrew Miller and open-minded youngsters ...


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