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Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes: The Fever: The Remastered Epic Recordings
by Doug Collette
Unless a musiclover becomes fully-versed in the full career trajectory of Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes via their latter-day work with Barry Beckett, Nile Rodgers, et.al., as compiled on All I Want Is Everything (Rhino 1993), it's difficult if not impossible to avoid seeing the group as a novelty act at best or worse, a ...
Colorado Jazz Repertory Orchestra: Invitation
by Jack Bowers
Here's how to make sure a five-star big-band album receives a four-star review: assemble a group of the finest musicians within a stone's throw or two of the chosen locale, place them in a recording studio, hand them superlative charts to read --then add vocals. In this case three of same, pretty much undermining what is ...
Mats Gustafsson/ Alfred Vogel: Blow + Beat
by Karl Ackermann
Swedish saxophone powerhouse Mats Gustafsson was playing with his trio--The Thing--at the 2016 Beazau Beatz Festival when he hooked up with the excellent, but under-recognized, Austrian drummer Alfred Vogel, who hosts the outing. The resulting Blow + Beat is an extraordinarily challenging musical experiment from two fearless advocates of free thought. The saxophone/drum duo is an ...
Olli Hirvonen: New Helsinki
by Roger Farbey
Hailing from Finland but now resident in Brooklyn, New York, Olli Hirvonen won first prize in the 2016 Socar Montreux Jazz Electric Guitar Competition. Significantly, the jury was presided over by John McLaughlin. Arps" opens with cascades of Robert Fripp-like quick-fire obligato notes, rapidly ascending and descending the fretboard and instantly hooking the listener. ...
Mark Whitfield: Grace
by Troy Dostert
Since his first album as a leader in 1990, guitarist Mark Whitfield has been simultaneously pulled in two directions. Early on, many dubbed him the heir-apparent to George Benson, and on his first several records he offered plenty of evidence to support this assessment with his smooth, laid-back sound and the pop/R&B influences that he readily ...
The Greg Kihn Band: Rekihndled
by Doug Collette
With just a glance at the cover of The Greg Kihn Band's first album in twenty years, Rekihndled, the band leader and namesake hardly looks like he's a day older in his de rigeur outfit of the eighties, white shirt with a vest and a carefully-loosened necktie. But as evidenced with the gleeful stomp ...
Marilyn Scott: Standard Blue
by Dan Bilawsky
With an album title like this, some may be expecting boilerplate jazz that hews closely to some sort of straight-and-narrow musical orthodoxy. That, however, isn't what you get from vocalist Marilyn Scott. While it's true that Standard Blue is filled with familiar titles, these performances never sound platitudinous. Scott paints standards with a ...
Georgia Mancio and Alan Broadbent: Songbook
by Bruce Lindsay
Twenty years ago Georgia Mancio, the London-based singer and songwriter, began listening to pianist Alan Broadbent's recordings with Irene Kral. In 2013 the pair began working together as a duo after Mancio sent Broadbent a message on a whim." In 2015 and 2016 they recorded together and Songbook is the result: a dozen original compositions--music by ...
Matt Holman: The Tenth Muse
by Matthew Aquiline
New York City-based trumpeter and composer Matt Holman cut his teeth performing and recording with distinguished musicians such as Fred Hersch, John Hollenbeck, and Darcy James Argue's Secret Society before displaying his personal aesthetic of atmospheric chamber jazz with his debut album When Flooded in 2013. More recently, Holman found inspiration scouring the annals of history, ...
Chieko Honda: Aquarelle
by Geannine Reid
Japanese born Chieko Honda a jazz singer who now lives in New York City, is devoted to, and passionate about samba and Bossa nova music. Honda's voice is full, with many tangible qualities. She sings in a way that is charming and elegant in style. Aquarelle marks the first full-length album for Honda as a leader, ...

