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Chucho Vald: Live At The Village Vanguard
by Jim Santella
The high energy Chucho Valdés Quartet frames the leader’s powerful piano melodies with timeless Afro-Cuban rhythmic patterns. Swarming forcefully at the New York nightspot, the pianist shows his audience many different sides of his acoustic jazz piano quartet, from sweet and gentle to highly dramatic. Creative throughout, Valdés moves from traditional dance steps to avant-garde distinction ...
Greg Osby: The Invisible Hand
by Jim Santella
What is the invisible hand? Maybe it’s the helping hand Greg Osby gets on his 14th Blue Note album from veterans Jim Hall and Andrew Hill. We could all use a helping hand like that from time to time. They’ve each written one selection for The Invisible Hand. Hill’s “Ashes" lopes along with a dramatic sense ...
Sonny Clark: My Conception.
by John Sharpe
In the late 50s and early 60s Sonny Clark functioned as the de facto house pianist for the fabled Blue Note label. Many of his recordings with giants like Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, Curtis Fuller among many others are considered classics of the hard bop genre. Unfortunately, this Bud Powell-influenced pianist suffered from drug and alcohol ...
Brian Blade Fellowship: Perceptual
by C. Andrew Hovan
Far from your typical young jazz artist, drummer Brian Blade seems almost bent on avoiding classification. He's been found in the studio and/or on the road with such disparate employers as Joshua Redman, Bob Dylan, Seal, and Joni Mitchell. With technical prowess of obvious proportions, Blade is equally reticent about flashy drum displays, content to merely ...
Greg Osby, Stefon Harris, Mark Shim, Jason Moran: New Directions
by Jim Santella
Another modern mainstream sextet plays standards. Not exactly. It’s true that Greg Osby, Stefon Harris, Mark Shim and Jason Moran are four of the most exciting younger cats to come along in years. And it’s true that they’re playing classic tunes from the modern mainstream vocabulary. But this front line is made up of two saxophones, ...
Sabu: Palo Congo
by Jim Santella
Recorded in 1957, the Afro-Cuban music of Sabu Martinez carries both a spiritual and improvised modern jazz connotation. Derived from African tradition, the music relies on a constant riff over which singers relate colorful stories in Spanish. From their call and response vocals to the hypnotizing hand drum riffs, the primitive music sends an historic message. ...
Lee Morgan: Taru
by Jim Santella
Just look at that rhythm section. One of the best in the business. The personnel on Lee Morgan’s 1980 album make this one valuable right from its opening bars. George Benson only appears on three tracks, but Morgan’s regular sidekick Bennie Maupin was in his prime. As was Morgan and the rhythm section. John Hicks, Reggie ...
Art Blakey and the Afro-Drum Ensemble: The African Beat
by Jim Santella
Bridging cultures, Art Blakey combined powerful African rhythms and American jazz melodies on a session that Blue Note reissued recently because the album explores roots common to all of jazz. Blakey’s ensemble for this 1962 project included artists from both worlds: Solomon G. Ilori and James Ola. Folami are from Nigeria, Chief Bey is from Senegal, ...
Candido: Thousand Finger Man
by Jim Santella
The late 1960s and early 1970s introduced changes to jazz as well as to all of music. Pop organ and whacka-whacka electric guitar sounds invaded the studio when Candido recorded these sessions in September 1969. This reissue with Dr. Billy Taylor’s original liner notes only measures 38 minutes in length, but its value lies in the ...
Greg Osby: The Invisible Hand
by Mark Corroto
Greg Osby has come a long way from his beginnings in St. Louis playing funk and R&B. His sound crossed our radar screens after moving to Brooklyn and joining forces with Steve Coleman in the mid-‘80s to form M-BASE, an urban-beat driven jazz. Osby had a very calculated, sometimes emotionless sound. It was if he was ...
