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Kimoko Kasai with Herbie Hancock: Butterfly
by Chris May
Reissues from Herbie Hancock's jazz-funk catalogue are always welcome, and few more so than Be With Records's vinyl-only edition of this long-neglected beauty. Recorded in Tokyo in 1979, it is comprised in the main of vocal versions of six Hancock originals and was singer Kimoko Kasai's fourth CBS-enabled collaboration with a leading US jazz musician--following Satin ...
Roy McGrath: Remembranzas
by Edward Blanco
Honoring special memories of the past, Chicago-based Puerto Rico-born tenor saxophonist Roy Mcgrath presents a light Latin-styled session on Remembranzas, featuring eight new compositions, including a special tribute to Puerto Rican poet Julia de Burgos. A fixture in Chicago's music scene, Mcgrath has led various groups performing jazz, funk, Latin and Salsa. While the ...
Dafnis Prieto Big Band: Back to the Sunset
by Troy Dostert
The astonishingly talented and prolific drummer Dafnis Prieto has done a lot since moving to the States from his native Cuba in 1999. He's made a host of sideman appearances with musicians of widely varying stripes, including Peter Apfelbaum, Michel Camilo, Steve Coleman, Marilyn Lerner, Brian Lynch, Henry Threadgill, Chucho Valdés, and John Zorn. He won ...
Tom Wheatley: Double Bass
by John Eyles
With improvising double bassists of the calibre of Olie Brice, John Edwards, Dominic Lash, David Leahy, Peter Marsh, Marcio Mattos, Jordan Muscatello and Guillaume Viltard being regulars on the London improv scene, it is not an easy place for young newcomers to make an impression and gain a reputation. But every once in a while, a ...
Caroline Davis: Heart Tonic
by Glenn Astarita
Reared in Chicago where she attained her PhD in Music Cognition at prestigious Northwestern University, alto saxophonist / composer Caroline Davis recently migrated to New York, while nestling into its fertile jazz and improvisational environs. And while this vibrant quintet date is perhaps more conventional than some of her freer works, Davis' complex harmonic fabrications ring ...
Danny Green Trio Plus Strings: One Day It Will
by Dan McClenaghan
Charlie Parker, alto saxophonist/bebop pioneer, got the ball rolling on the adding of strings to jazz. This went down in the late 1947 through 1950, on a pair of releases on Mercury Records introducing the sound of the Yardbird backed by a symphony orchestra. These sets were later compiled by Verve Records and issued in 1995 ...
Dafnis Prieto Big Band: Back to the Sunset
by Jack Bowers
The alliance of Latin music and American jazz ripened on these shores more than seventy years ago, nourished by pioneers such as Mario Bauza, Chano Pozo, Dizzy Gillespie, Machito, Tito Puente and others. It has been carried forward and enhanced since then by a succession of remarkable innovators including in recent years the Cuban-born drummer Dafnis ...
Dan Weiss: Starebaby
by Mark Corroto
It is always interesting when a musician's newest release zigzags away from previous works, making an abrupt change of course. Often it happens at the request of a producer or record company, and probably because his/her previous disc was not well received. This in no way explains Starebaby by drummer Dan Weiss. Sixteen: Drummers Suite (Pi ...
Manuel Valera: The Planets
by Mike Jurkovic
Cuban-born pianist Manuel Valera is not unknown to jazz-heads who make it their business to listen and champion. But, since his acclaimed 2004 debut Forma Nueva, a couple of Grammy nods, and last year's quietly brilliant The Seasons, Valera's name and exciting blend of culture, tradition, and progression has spread deservedly like wildfire through the larger ...
Carl Bartlett, Jr.: Promise!
by Don Phipps
Winner of the USA 2015-16 International Songwriting Competition Jazz Category, Carl Bartlett Jr. showcases his skills on PROMISE!. The album's warm, vivacious compositions offer plenty of cheer and good feelings. The result is guaranteed to bring a Billy Higgins smile to your face. Bartlett's alto sax playing is equally sunny. Like Bobby Watson or Donald Harrison, ...
