Home » Search Center » Results: Album Review
Results for "Album Review"
Tumbao Bravo with Paul Vornhagen: Joy of the Mambo
by Dan McClenaghan
Dance music means a good time. The mambo, the cha cha, 'rhumba' and bolero beats challenge the feet to stay still, they challenge the butt to stay in the chair. The music is pure joy, and reed man Paul Vornhagen and his sextet, Tumbao Bravo, exploit that joy to the max on the fittingly titled Joy ...
Maria Schneider Orchestra: American Crow
by Dan McClenaghan
Maria Schneider has a thing for birds. Credible sources have reported sightings of the jazz composer frequenting Central Park wearing a floppy hat, a pair of binoculars hanging from her neck. Her 20-plus minute Cerulean Skies," from her album (one of her masterpieces) Sky Blue (ArtistShare, 2007) speaks to her love for birds; her fascination with ...
Pat Bianchi: Confluence
by Pierre Giroux
Pat Bianchi has never been content to let the organ settle into its own mythology. With Confluence, he shows that the organ trio, when in skilled hands, remains one of the most energetic formats in jazz. Joined by saxophonist Troy Roberts and drummer Colin Stranahan, Bianchi delivers a seven-track session that feels more like a late-night ...
Dara Starr Tucker: Time Wouldn't Wait
by Angelo Leonardi
L'ultimo album della cantante Dara Tucker conferma la sintesi tra l'estetica dominante nella prima parte della sua carriera (i quattro album dal 2009 al 2019 per Watchman Music, impegnati di jazz, blues e soul) e quella più incline al neo-soul e al pop, presente in Dreams of Waking--Music for a Better World (Green Hill 2021) e ...
Art Pepper: Everything Happens to Me 1959 - Live at the Cellar
by Jack Kenny
The work of great artists is often discussed in terms of distinct periods--Picasso had his Blue Period, Rembrandt his Leiden Period. An album like this invites a similar framework for Art Pepper: the post-Stan Kenton era, the Renaissance Years, the Final Period. The performances captured here belong to a pivotal moment in Pepper's career. ...
Niklas Lukassen: Still Waters
by Konstantin N. Rega
Multi-instrumentalist Niklas Lukassen spins a pleasant mix of tunes on Still Waters. Joined by a stellar team, including saxophonist Ben van Gelder, pianist Kit Downes and drummer Francesco Ciniglio (as well as several others spotted throughout), the quartet moves with the ease of skilled swimmers through the music. An internationally influenced album, the music reflects his own life experiences of ...
Brian Eley & Ashley Wales: Songs
by John Eyles
Brian Eley and Ashley Wales both have impressive histories with other musicians, which makes this duo album, Songs, fascinating. In the 70's Eley was a member of the vocal quartet Voice, alongside esteemed vocalists Julie Tippett, Maggie Nicols and Phil Minton, which recorded the album Voice (Ogun 1977). In London, in 1993, Wales and John Coxon ...
Raphaël Pannier Quartet & Khadim Niang Sabar Group: Live In Saint Louis, Senegal
by Ian Patterson
For many people, life is a maze that they navigate the best they can--unaided by the guiding hand of destiny. For a much smaller number, the clear course of their life presents itself early on. Take Raphael Pannier. At just three years of age, he saw Djabote, a performance video by Senegalese sabar percussionist N'Diaye Rose. ...
The Interplay Jazz Orchestra: Bite Your Tongue
by Jack Bowers
Even though it began life as the Hofstra University Alumni Orchestra before being renamed in 2013, the Interplay Jazz Orchestra has proven time and again during the course of five splendid recordings that its noble heritage remains intact and that it bears an indomitable spirit of its own, one which affirms that it need not bow ...
Immanuel Wilkins Quartet: Immanuel Wilkins Quartet: Live At The Village Vanguard
by Mike Jurkovic
Firebrand alto-saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins takes over the Village Vanguard and keeps it loose, y'all. From the rogue bossa nova Ring Shout" and its immediate successor, Composition II," each scenario has its very own sweep and sway. Take, for instance, the hell-raising, elders-chant fever inherent in Composition IX." Twenty-three raucous, raise-the-rafters minutes wherein each participant--pianist and fellow ...


