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Mike LeDonne: The Heavy Hitters
by Mike Jurkovic
Homing in on the electric, ancestral vibe of Rudy Van Gelder's house of musical myth and magic in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, the Heavy Hitters, spearheaded by journeyman pianist Mike LeDonne and well-traveled saxophonist, Eric Alexander, approach this eponymous debut with a ballsy, brassy, big sounding blueprint which carries through the entire recording. In ...
Miles Davis: Miles Davis With Tadd Dameron Revisited
by Chris May
1949 was a year of massive change for Miles Davis, and not in a good way. It began, in January, with him fronting the first of the recording sessions, made with a nonet, that became generically known as The Birth Of The Cool and which, if he had achieved nothing else of note, would have secured ...
Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis with Shirley Scott: Cookin’ with Jaws and the Queen: The Legendary Prestige Cookbook Albums
by Mark Corroto
There is something undeniably hip about the four discs which make up Cookin' With Jaws And The Queen, the music by tenor saxophonist Eddie “Lockjaw" Davis and Hammond B3 organist Shirley Scott. Recorded in three sessions between June and December 1958, at Rudy Van Gelder's studio, which happened to be in his parents' home, the music ...
Aubrey Johnson & Randy Ingram: Play Favorites
by Jerome Wilson
At its best, the pairing of piano and voice can create special chemistry, as in the cases of Ran Blake and Dominique Eade or Bill Evans and Tony Bennett. The combination of Randy Ingram's piano and Aubrey Johnson's voice is in the same class on this album. The two musicians exude a sense of familiarity and ...
Mickylee, John Stowell, Ulf Bandgren: Portuguese Blue
by Nenad Georgievski
Portuguese Blue is a record that joins the talents of three jazz guitarists, Mickylee, John Stowell, and Ulf Bandgren. It is one of those guitar summit" recordings which combines the talents of exceptional guitarists and, as such, is an inviting document. Groups consisting of three guitarists are not unheard of in jazz music but they are ...
Mike LeDonne: The Heavy Hitters
by Pierre Giroux
There was a period back in the middle years of the 20th Century and beyond when All-Star Groups were quite common, including the Buck Clayton All-Stars, Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars, and Gene Harris and the Phillip Morris Superband among several other similar aggregations. In today's musical environment, this kind of coming together of high profile musicians ...
ALATI: Ascending The Morning
by John Sharpe
Although combining poetry and jazz can sometimes be as thankless as mixing oil and water, ALATI has come up with a near perfect formulation. On Ascending The Morning, the three piece band, led by Norwich-based trumpeter Chris Dowding and completed by vocalist Brigitte Beraha and pianist Dave O'Brien, sets to music eight nature-inspired poems by Oxford ...
Stan Kenton: Salute!
by Jack Bowers
Stan Kenton, one of the most renowned and influential bandleaders of the twentieth century, died on August 25, 1979. Fortunatelyfor the sake of history in general and creative music in particularKenton's remarkable legacy lives on, and in a perceptive and open-minded world would endure forever. Even to this day, small but devoted groups of enthusiasts share ...
Mimi Fox: One for Wes
by Jack Bowers
To mark the hundredth anniversary of the great Wes Montgomery's birth in March 1923, guitarist Mimi Fox has recorded One for Wes, an earnest tribute that consists of eight Montgomery-inspired tunes adeptly performed by Fox's San Francisco Bay-area organ trio with Brian Ho on Hammond B3 and Lorca Hart on drums. As one ...
Redman / Mehldau / McBride / Blade: Long Gone
by Scott Gudell
The mid-1990s saw the first recorded and officially preserved union of four up-and-coming jazz newcomers--Joshua Redman (saxophone,) Christian McBride (bass,) Brad Mehldau (piano) and Brian Blade (drums.) All four were dedicated followers of classic jazz and came together, but soon scattered and began charting their own individual courses. There was a long delay before they reunited ...


