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Results for "Dan Bilawsky"
Orrin Evans: Freedom
by Dan Bilawsky
Philadelphia was a symbol of freedom long before Elton John ever penned his well-known tribute to tennis legend Billy Jean King. The city was a hotspot for American revolutionaries when the British were running the show, and Philadelphia played host to the First Continental Congress and the Second Continental Congress, which signed the Declaration of Independence. ...
Itai Kriss: The Shark
by Dan Bilawsky
New and/or notable flute voices in jazz don't seem to come around very often. While scores of saxophonists double on this instrument, very few players that enter the jazz trenches are pure flautists, through and through. When a musician makes the decision to focus solely on an instrument like the flute, they might be narrowing their ...
Curtis Macdonald: Community Immunity
by Dan Bilawsky
"The Jazz Community" is a phrase that shows up in more than a few album reviews, but what does it really mean? Like-minded jazz musicians certainly gravitate toward one another, but they don't live in some massive, hippie-like commune where people play John Coltrane and Charlie Parker licks ad infinitum and bow down in front of ...
James Carter: Caribbean Rhapsody
by Dan Bilawsky
Reconciling the improvisational nature of jazz with the semi-rigid confines of classical constructs like the concerto has never been easy. While concertos are meant to highlight a soloist, making this format seem like a perfect home in which a jazz instrumentalist can dwell, the oft-scripted nature of all parts involved, including the solo, works against one ...
Augmented Reality: Augmented Reality
by Dan Bilawsky
Collaborative trios are a tricky business. While all three members might set out to form an equal musical partnership, that rarely happens. Sometimes the instrumentation dictates the focal point, as with the fascinating group, Fly--drummer Jeff Ballard, bassist Larry Grenadier and tenor saxophonist Mark Turner--which is as democratic as they come, yet the horn draws the ...
Judy Wexler: Under A Painted Sky
by Dan Bilawsky
Few singers would dare dive into music associated with Johnny Mathis, Carmen McRae, Abbey Lincoln and the 1962 film, The Music Man, on the same album; even fewer would be able to pull it off as vocalist Judy Wexler does on Under A Painted Sky. Wexler possesses a voice for the ages, and puts it to ...
Dana Lauren: New York, May 22, 2011
by Dan Bilawsky
Dana Lauren Metropolitan Room New York, NY May 22, 2011 Sunday night shows are a tough sell to the average music fan. Weekend gatherings, housework and Saturday evening soirees often take their toll and sour people from making their way out to hear live music on a Sunday evening, but diehard ...
Nelson Montana: Jazz Un-Standards
by Dan Bilawsky
Nelson Montana wears many hats on Jazz Un-Standards. Playing, bass, drums, guitar and keyboards, providing all of the arrangements, singing, and producing a record is quite a chore. While Nelson brings some guest horn players and pianist Mark Berman into the fold to help flesh out his interpretations of standards and a pair of originals, the ...
Larry Goldings: In My Room
by Dan Bilawsky
Sentimentality gets a raw deal in the eyes of many a jazz fan and journalist. Somewhere along the line, a lot of artists began indulging in overwrought expressions of emotion in an effort to artificially enhance their work with a sense of depth that might not truly exist, but that shouldn't taint the very idea of ...
Phil Woods and Bill Mays: Woods & Mays
by Dan Bilawsky
Putting two musicians of this caliber in a room and recording the results is a surefire recipe for success. Pianist Bill Mays and saxophone icon Phil Woods have little to prove at this point in their respective careers and their music isn't about defying expectations. Both men, on the contrary, carry the reputations that they do ...
