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Mike Wofford: It's Personal
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Pianist Mike Wofford can boast decades of high-caliber sideman gigs: notably with vocalists Ella Fitzgerald (for whom he served as music director), Mel Tormé and Sarah Vaughan, as well as drummer Shelly Manne, saxophonist Phil Woods, guitarist Joe Pass and others. His studio work is amply represented on records by a dizzying variety of artists. And ...
Convergence Quartet: Slow And Steady
by John Sharpe
It might just be that the third record from the Transatlantic Convergence Quartet is its best yet. Recorded live at north London's Vortex at the conclusion of a short British tour, the band was firing on all cylinders. Not that its previous two outings were in any way remiss. Live In Oxford (FMR, 2007) documented a ...
Tyler Mire Big Band: Enter the Atmosph-Mire
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Originally televised back in the black-and-white 1960s, Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone broadcast an episode--now classic--in which miniature alien spacemen land and terrorize a woman who is frightfully alone in her farmhouse. The cover art depicting happy little musician-nauts" walking in space notwithstanding, Enter the Atmosph-Mire does no terrorizing. It does, however, shoot for, hit, and ...
Frank Wess: Magic 101
by Hrayr Attarian
In 2007, saxophonist and flutist Frank Wess was named NEA Jazz Master, and Magic 101 amply demonstrates why. This mellow session covers six standards and a Wess original, with a candid and unadorned style that is nevertheless powerful in its apparent simplicity.Like a wise raconteur, the 89 year-old (at the time of the recording) ...
Ben Monder: Hydra
by Troy Collins
New York-based guitarist Ben Monder has been an active member of the contemporary jazz scene for more than two decades, appearing on over 100 sessions as a sideman for such luminaries as Paul Motian, Maria Schneider and Kenny Wheeler. Despite such prestigious collaborations, Monder has maintained a relatively low profile as a solo artist, with less ...
Candi Staton: Evidence - The Complete Fame Records Masters
by C. Michael Bailey
American roots musician Jason Isbell, on his live recording Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit Live in Alabama (Lightning Rod Records), performed a potent cover of Candi Staton's Heart on a String," recorded at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals in 1970. In that performance rests an entire history of American music of the period. Muscle Shoals ...
Deborah Shulman: Get Your Kicks
by Dan Bilawsky
Vocalist Deborah Shulman wanted Get Your Kicks to be a jazz album with a party vibe," which is something far different from her previous record--the wonderful (and weightier) Lost In The Stars: The Music Of Bernstein, Weill & Sondheim (Summit Records, 2012). The differing moods of each album, ultimately, reflect the musical nature of the composer(s) ...
Alberto Pinton: Nascent
by Glenn Astarita
Italian multi-woodwind specialist Alberto Pinton earns his living in Stockholm. Spanning the past several years, and via the level of band support he receives, it reaffirms that there's no shortage of world-class talent in Sweden. Pinton's muscular and hard-driving presence on clarinet and baritone saxophone signals a program that largely smokes, other than when he tempers ...
Pietro Tonolo: Dajaloo
by AAJ Italy Staff
"Dajaloo," in lingua wolof, significa esser simili, stare insieme". Questo album, nel rispetto di una tradizione, di una tensione verso la Grande Madre Africa che accompagna il jazz da tempo immemorabile, ne è l'esemplificazione più nitida. Lo spunto contingente è rappresentato da un viaggio compiuto da Pietro Tonolo in Senegal, ma è evidente che la reunion ...
Peter Sprague String Consort: Dr. Einstein's Spin
by Robert Bush
Composer/guitarist Peter Sprague isn't well-known, but there are few musicians operating at his level; he counts pianist Chick Corea, bassist Charlie Haden and fellow six-stringer Pat Metheny among his enthusiastic supporters.One of his ongoing projects, The Peter Sprague String Consort, represents a true marriage of jazz trio with string quartet, and the ensemble is ...

