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Henry Hey Trio: Watershed
by Alexander M. Stern
Pianist Henry Hey is having a very good year. He’s already appeared on Michael Pope’s excellent The Lay of the Land, as well as Jeff “Tain” Watts’ all-star sophomore effort Bar Talk. Now Hey steps up to the plate with Watershed, his debut recording as a leader. Considering the quality of his sideman appearances, it comes ...
Tim Armacost: Brightly Dark
by Alexander M. Stern
The ghost of John Coltrane hovers over Brightly Dark. At times, Tim Armacost sounds startlingly like the late saxophonist, especially when he plays soprano, as he does on 'Afro Pentameter' and on the title track. Armacost is an extremely talented musician and an excellent composer, but he is still somewhat lacking in originality. Not that anyone ...
Jeanne Lee and Mal Waldron: After Hours
by Alexander M. Stern
Mal Waldron’s passing this past December robbed jazz of one of its finest and most original pianists. His long career was marked by many high points, including stints with Billie Holiday, Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy and Booker Little. It is especially wonderful to listen to Waldron in solo and duet settings, where his unique style on ...
The Adrian Cohen Trio: Standardized
by Alexander M. Stern
The body of music collectively known as “standards” consists of old show tunes, pop songs, and contributions to the jazz songbook by some of the most important composers and improvisers in the history of the music. These works became known as standards because they represented a musical lingua franca, a common language of shared cultural references, ...
Mike Pope: The Lay of the Land
by Alexander M. Stern
In a year that has already produced a number of excellent recordings, Mike Pope's The Lay of the Land may well be one of the best. It's certainly one of the most exciting new albums this reviewer has heard in a long time. Pope, who excels on both acoustic and electric bass, has surrounded himself with ...
Rosa Passos and Ron Carter: Entre Amigos
by Alexander M. Stern
The bossa nova's not so new anymore. It's been forty years since Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd brought its gentle pulse north of the border. Getz and Byrd's version of “Desafinado was a surprise hit, and a Grammy winner to boot. Getz and Joao Gilberto's recording of “The Girl From Ipanema was an even bigger hit, ...
Alas, Poor Ghost: Echoes of Johnny Hartman
by Alexander M. Stern
At the time of his death in 1983, Johnny Hartman was already a ghost. A supreme interpreter of ballads with a lush, velvety baritone, Hartman combated indifference for nearly forty years, his one moment in the sun a 1963 collaboration with saxophonist John Coltrane's classic quartet. That album, the superb John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, is ...
Brian Patneaude Quartet: Variations
by Alexander M. Stern
Any self-help guru will tell you that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. In jazz, that truism can easily apply to debut albums: You only get to make one. A strong first album can set the pace for the rest of an artist’s career as a leader. Think of debuts like ...
