Results for "Andy Fusco"

Andy Fusco

Four Masters and More

By MARC COHN

After a segment of 21st century music from Andy Fusco, Matt Criscuolo, Wycliffe Gordon and Fred Hersch, we go into celebration mode--saluting Sonny Rollins (with Max Roach) because he IS Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker and Dave Brubeck (with some gorgeous Paul Desmond on the rarely played 'Jazz Goes To College) on their centennial, and 2020 National ...

Vortex

By ANDY FUSCO

Label: SteepleChase Records
Released: 2019
Track listing: Vortex; Friends And Neighbors; Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most; Matador; When Lights Are Low; Desperado; In Your Own Sweet Way; All Or Nothing At All; Tailspin; Windows.

Andy Fusco: Vortex

By DAVID A. ORTHMANN

Vortex, Andy Fusco's fourth release on the SteepleChase imprint in as many years, is cause for celebration. Until recently, recordings by the veteran alto saxophonist as a leader have been few and far between. The date reunites Fusco with tenor saxophonist Walt Weiskopf, who composed four of the selections and arranged nine of the ten tracks. ...

Bill Warfield: For Lew

By JACK BOWERS

The “Lew" referred to on Renaissance man Bill Warfield's latest big-band album, For Lew, is the late trumpeter Lew Soloff, whom Warfield remembers in the liner notes as “my mentor, colleague, friend and inspiration." The inspiration arrived when the teen-age Warfield, who had switched from trumpet to piano after losing his front teeth in an auto ...

John Pizzarelli Soars at Birdland

By NICK CATALANO

Wowing a late night crowd of worshipful fans at a packed Birdland, John Pizzarelli showcased his guitar mastery, vocal excitement, and hilarious patter this past Saturday night. Accompanied by his Swing Seven band of jazz all-stars, the scion of the famed New Jersey Pizzarelli clan (guitarist father Bucky will celebrate his 90th birthday this week at ...

U.S. Jazz From Denmark: Six Recent SteepleChase Releases

By DAVID A. ORTHMANN

The opportunity to listen to six recently released discs on the venerable SteepleChase label (and the SteepleChase LookOut branch) is a little like reading an anthology of short stories by distinguished authors from a particular year or period. You get a hearty helping of vital, mature voices, most of whom operate somewhere in the jazz mainstream, ...

Walt Weiskopf: All About the Sound

By BOB KENSELAAR

What is it that drives Walt Weiskopf? It's all about the music, all about the sound. He's reached a large audience in ten years of touring with Steely Dan. He's written a half dozen books on jazz improvisation techniques and methods, and he's taught at the Eastman School of Music, Temple University and New ...

Steve Smith: Drummer For All Seasons

By R.J. DELUKE

Drummer Steve Smith has traced the history of jazz drumming--pretty much most of American music drumming--in his storied career that has seen him drive big bands, small jazz combos, and fiery fusion groups, including tenures with Jean Luc Ponty and the rock band Journey. Though sometimes--as in the case of jazz-rock fusion--he was thrown ...

Steve Smith and Vital Information NYC Edition: Viewpoint

By DAN BILAWSKY

Drummer Steve Smith has a knack for separating his musical interests and satisfying his varied musical appetites through the use of different bands. But with Viewpoint, he works the inverse angle: Smith's passions and groups converge here, as his respect for the history of jazz, infatuation with sleek modernism, and love of Buddy Rich all inform ...