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Roni Ben-Hur: Fortuna

by Andrew Velez
This is a worthy follow-up to Roni Ben-Hur's Smile (Motema, 2009), on which he was memorably paired with fellow guitarist Gene Bertoncini. The Israeli-born composer and arranger is teamed here with three stalwarts, the late pianist Ronnie Mathews, percussionist Steve Kroon and drummer Lewis Nash. This is the same rhythm section Ben-Hur used for the album ...
David "Fathead" Newman: The Blessing

by Andrew Velez
What an apt name The Blessing is for David Newman's final recording before his death ended a long career last January (2009). He played for more than a decade with Ray Charles and alongside Herbie Mann, Aretha Franklin and Roy Ayers, among many others. For this last studio session he was in fine form. A Milt ...
Roger Kellaway: Roger Kellaway Live at the Jazz Standard

by Andrew Velez
Pianist Roger Kellaway can swing hard and has played with everyone from Sonny Rollins to Joni Mitchell. His knowledge of music is encyclopedic and his pianism is instantly recognizable for its airy, sparkling quality, flowing from a singular skill he has to incorporate stride, swing, boogie and more into something totally modern. Long an in-demand sideman, ...
Harry Allen-Joe Cohen Quartet with Rebecca Kilgore and Eddie Erickson: The Harry Allen-Joe Cohn Quartet Plays Music From South Pacific

by Andrew Velez
The days when recordings were routinely issued covering a current Broadway hit musical are long past. Fortunately no one told that to Arbors Records. With Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific enjoying a smash revival, here comes the Harry Allen/Joe Cohn Quartet and vocalists Rebecca Kilgore and Eddie Erickson with innovative, knockout performances of one of the ...
Daryl Sherman: Johnny Mercer A Centennial Tribute

by Andrew Velez
Choosing I'm Shadowing You" as the opener on Daryl Sherman's fine Centennial Tribute to composer and lyricist Johnny Mercer inevitably recalls Blossom Dearie. Heretofore that tune has pretty much been the exclusive property of the late vocalist. There are also other, more than passing, resemblances between the two singers, both first-class self-accompanists on piano possessing underage ...
Nina Sheldon: Harvest

by Andrew Velez
Songstress and pianist Nina Sheldon's readings have a savvy, smiling quality. If she has been around the block some, she is nevertheless not going to lay too heavy a trip on us. Precise in her lyric delivery and rhythmically surprising, she gets right into a snappy groove with a Cole Porter evergreen, You'd Be So Nice ...
Duke Ellington London and New York 1963-1964 The Great Concerts, The Duke of Elegant - Gems From the Duke Ellington Songbook

by Andrew Velez
Duke EllingtonThe Great Concerts (London & New York 1963-1964) Musicmasters-Nimbus 2009 Various ArtistsThe Duke of ElegantHighNote2009 First of all the kids in the band want you to know they love ...
Benny Goodman: Benny Goodman Yale University Archives Volume 1

by Andrew Velez
The sound of the opener is unmistakable; it's the familiar, driving urgency of Benny Goodman's clarinet, which made him the undisputed King of Swing," heard again in all its electrifying glory on Sweet Georgia Brown," the 1967 take which opens this collection. Recorded live in New York's old Rainbow Grill, Goodman is in solid company with ...
Chet Baker / The Bradley Young Trio: Chet In Chicago

by Andrew Velez
The reservation approaching this late-in-his-career and previously unreleased 1986 set happily proved to be unwarranted. Attending a dismal Chet Baker set in a brief-lived New York Village club that same year left me sad and depressed at the state of his playing and appearance, vowing to enjoy him only on record. Yet here he is in ...
Hal Schaefer

by Andrew Velez
The most important thing about me has to be that what I did musically has always been the most meaningful music that I could make at the time. ...I did the most honest music that I could." As he approaches his 84th birthday this month, pianist, conductor, arranger, composer, accompanist and vocal coach Hal Schaefer is ...