Home » Search Center » Results: Album Review
Results for "Album Review"
Mike Jones: Are You Sure You Three Guys Know What You're Doing?
by Jack Bowers
Some years ago, after Penn Jillette heard Mike Jones playing in a small club in Las Vegas, he approached the pianist, introduced himself, and said he would like to hire Jones to open his popular magic show, Penn & Teller--on one condition. And what might that condition be, Jones asked, to which Jillette replied, I'm your ...
Nina Simone: You've Got To Learn
by Scott Gudell
Socially conscious black troubadours such as William Warfield, Harry Belafonte, Odetta and many others were challenging the U.S. government's questionable policies on numerous things including war, civil rights, equality and more, by the mid-20th century. R&B soul master Marvin Gaye would follow in the early 1970s and pointedly ask What's Going On" while the Temptations were ...
Mike Jones / Penn Jillette / Jeff Hamilton: Are You Sure You Three Guys Know What You're Doing?
by Pierre Giroux
If the tired old cliché what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" ruled the roost, perhaps the talents of pianist Mike Jones might have been limited to being the music director for the Penn & Teller Las Vegas show of mind-blowing illusions. Fortunately, a tired old cliché is just that. Jones' dynamic talent and creativity could ...
Maci Miller: Nine
by Richard J Salvucci
Philadelphia-based singer Maci Miller gives her audience a variety of looks, all of them good. On first hearing, Blossom Dearie, but then, Blossom Dearie was Blossom Dearie. No one ever sounded quite like her. Then again, there is some mid 1960s Nancy Wilson, hushed, clipped, all business. On reflecting that Dearie and Wilson an odd combination ...
Benjamín Gísli Trio: Line of Thought
by Mike Jurkovic
More often than any are willing to confess, it is a pundit's easy way out to compliment and praise an artist by saying that they are reminiscent of some legend and that this legend inspired the artist etc, etc. It looks good for both the reviewer and subject, and serves to make the reviewer sound smart ...
Luciana Souza: Cometa
by Katchie Cartwright
Luciana Souza and Trio Corrente inhabit the deep intersections of Brazilian and jazz practices, a realm Souza's double-take Yemanjá-Lady Liberty garb suggests lies somewhere in the Atlantic (see the album cover). They share rarified air as Grammy winners, as composers and as performers. It seems inevitable that they would eventually collaborate. A fan of Trio Corrente ...
Jim Josselyn: Shape Shifter
by Kyle Simpler
Keith Richards once said if you don't know the blues, there's no point in picking up the guitar." This is certainly true about rock, but it could just as easily apply to jazz. Many of the great jazz guitarists have roots in the blues, and Jim Josselyn is no exception. His album Shape Shifter offers a ...
Wasted Generation: Introducing Wasted Generation
by Neil Duggan
The Italian group, Wasted Generation can often be found playing the clubs and festivals around Rome. They usually play straight ahead jazz but their first album Introducing Wasted Generation, reveals a totally different side of their character. This album shows a young band focused on free contemporary jazz, melodic explorations and an avant-garde approach to improvisation. ...
Eunmi Lee: Introspection
by Jack Bowers
Eunmi Lee is a quick learner. The South Korean-born pianist, who now makes her home in New York City, did not become acquainted with or interested in jazz until a friend introduced her to the GRP Records catalogue. That was more than a year after she had received a degree in contemporary piano from the Seoul ...
Bill O'Connell: Live In Montauk
by Jack Bowers
After years of gigging in the New York City area, while honing his credentials as a first-call contemporary jazz pianist, Bill O'Connell and his family moved to Montauk, the easternmost point on Long Island, where he expressed his appreciation of the area's many wonders by recording this impressive album at the celebrated Gosman's Dock, during the ...


