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Kenny Reichert: Deep Breath
by Richard J Salvucci
Kenny Reichert is a Chicago-based guitarist of broad background, Berklee training, and wide-ranging tastes in pop and jazz. He has self-released one studio album, Interpretations (2015). Reichert records mostly originals. If you are looking for influences, Spears" (a play on Sphere"?) sounds Thelonious Sphere Monk-ish enough, with plenty of solo space for saxophonist Tony Barba woven ...
Kevin O'Connell Quartet: Hot New York Minutes
by Jack Bowers
Although Hot New York Minutes is Chicago-based pianist Kevin O'Connell's date, it could well be saxophonist Adam Brenner's, as the two share roughly equal time soloing and contribute their talents as writer and/or arranger on half a dozen of the album's ten numbers. In fact, the subtitle reads Featuring Adam Brenner," and the album, O'Connell writes, ...
Claire Daly (with George Garzone): VuVu for Frances
by Troy Dostert
Working jazz musicians have long been accustomed to the necessity of playing just about anything, in any setting, and Claire Daly is no exception. The intrepid baritone saxophonist has recorded tributes to Thelonious Monk and Rahsaan Roland Kirk and, in 2016, she even offered a distinctive take on Motown classics with 2468 West Grand Boulevard (Glass ...
Rory Gallagher: All Around Man: Live In London
by Doug Collette
To the uninitiated, Rory Gallagher's All Around Man -Live in London may appear to be nothing more than a routine live release from the late Irish bluesman's archive. Even to fans who take only a cursory glance at the title and its contents, it could well seem to be a somewhat desultory effort in the wake ...
Balimaya Project: When The Dust Settles
by Chris May
Formed in 2019 by London-based drummer and percussionist Yahael Camara Onono, the sixteen-piece Balimaya Project blends traditional West African Mandé music with modal jazz and other sounds out of modern Black London. The ensemble's closest comparator, albeit at some remove, is the veteran Senegalese band Orchestra Baobab who, in the 1980s, were hugely popular at home ...
The 14 Jazz Orchestra: Islands
by Jack Bowers
The music on these Islands is almost as sizzling as the summer weather in sun-drenched Miami, thanks to composer/arranger Dan Bonsanti's Florida-based, world-class The 14 Jazz Orchestra, whose fourth album provides yet another textbook lesson in the art of colorful and swinging big-band rhetoric. Bonsanti formed the ensemble as a rehearsal band in ...
Luis Vicente 4tet: House In The Valley
by John Sharpe
Portuguese trumpeter Luis Vicente wrote the four compositions which make up House In The Valley during lockdown. His intention was to evoke childhood memories of times at his grandparents' rural house. Judging from the outcomes there must have been a lot of '60s American New Thing on the turntable at the time. In particular the way ...
Doug MacDonald: Big Band Extravaganza
by Richard J Salvucci
Some reviewers have been known to complain that contemporary big bands can do most anything but swing. Like all generalizations, there is some merit to the observation. But, like all generalizations, the occasional exception falsifies it. Looking for a big band that pushes all the right buttons? Look no further. Doug MacDonald's desert jazz" band is ...
Douyé: The Golden Sèkèrè
by Jim Worsley
Nigerian-born singer Douye has integrated the essence of Western jazz with the polyrhythmic sounds of African percussion. In doing so, she has spun the incomparable musical and lyrical genius of The Great American Songbook off its axis. These precious standards have been rearranged and reimagined hundreds if not thousands of times over the years. Douye was ...
Moss Freed / Union Division: Micromotives
by John Sharpe
A question any composer for improvisers must face is whether they can create something more worthwhile than what they might come up with if left to themselves. It can be a tough call. For some, such as Alexander von Schlippenbach's Globe Unity Orchestra or Peter Brötzmann's Chicago Tentet, the ultimate conclusion was no, while for others ...


