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Scott Feiner: Accents
by Dan Bilawsky
While drummer-leaders don't usually get enough credit, pandeiro-leaders usually don't exist. The pandeiro--a small, handheld instrument that marries that best traits of a deeper-sounding, jingle-less frame drum and a tambourine--is a staple of Brazilian percussion. When Scott Feiner first encountered the instrument, during his first trip to Brazil in 1999, he immediately took to it. In ...
Andy Farber and his Orchestra: This Could Be The Start Of Something Big
by Dan Bilawsky
Whatever happened to big bands that swing? While the big bands of yesteryear provided music for dancing and a healthy appreciation for swinging soloists and hip arrangements, that isn't the case today. Many of the most popular--and critically acclaimed--large ensembles in modern times are winning fans with highbrow conceptualism and compositions that, as brilliant as they ...
Footprints: When You Dream
by Dan Bilawsky
Dreams can be vivid or cloudy, mellow or intense, and everything in between. Ditto for the music on When You Dream, the debut release from Footprints. This New York City-based band might bear the name of one of Wayne Shorter's most popular songs--and take inspiration from none other than Miles Davis, Shorter's longtime employer--but their music ...
Luis Bonilla: Twilight
by Dan Bilawsky
I Talking Now! (Planet Arts, 2009) presented a brazen bonanza of trombone playing from Luis Bonilla. That high energy outing--filled with intense, outspoken instrumental wonders--contained great music that was, to some extent, one-sided in the way that it portrayed Bonilla and his quintet. Twilight, on the other hand, is a well-balanced feast for ...
Lauren Hooker: Life Of The Music
by Dan Bilawsky
In 2007, vocalist Lauren Hooker turned out an impressive debut, Right Where I Belong (Musical Legends, Inc., 2007), which highlighted her solid, yet flexible, voice, and an ability to graft her own lyrics onto familiar instrumental jazz standards. Three years later, Hooker returns with a program that largely focuses on her own lyrics and music, demonstrating ...
Jazz Is For The Birds: An Aviary In Song
by Dan Bilawsky
In jazz--as in all else in life--different words mean different things to different people. The way we associate words or sounds with meaning is unique to the individual, but certain words tend to draw similar thoughts from within the jazz community. “Bird" is one such word. Whether you're an avant-garde aficionado, a “moldy fig," a modernist ...
Tarbaby: The End Of Fear
by Dan Bilawsky
Virtually every musician deals with fear at one time or another. Perhaps it comes with a first opportunity to perform in an ensemble, or maybe it arrives when first taking flight and leaving the relative comforts of written music, searching for an elusive sound through an improvised medium. Regardless of when it happens, performers have to ...
Greg Lewis: Organ Monk
by Dan Bilawsky
Fairly recent work from guitarists Bobby Broom and Peter Bernstein helped open up possibilities for Thelonious Monk's music as guitar repertoire; Greg Lewis' debut looks to do the same for the organ. Monk's music has been notoriously tough to translate on other chordal instruments, partially because of the song structures and melodies themselves, ...
Dave Frank: Portrait Of New York
by Dan Bilawsky
Jazz and New York are like hot dogs and baseball, or peanut butter and jelly. The Big Apple has been the epicenter of so many important movements and moments in jazz, that it's hard to think of any other place--save perhaps New Orleans--that deserves the honor of being captured in song. Pianist Dave Frank, widely recognized ...
Dan Adler: Back To The Bridge
by Dan Bilawsky
Guitarist Dan Adler's debut , All Things Familiar (Emdan Music, 2009), demonstrated his formidable skills, and brought together a noteworthy roster of artists, such as saxophonist Grant Stewart, to fill out a quintet lineup. For his followup, the Israeli-born, New York-based six stringer pares things down and goes with an organ trio format, enlisting the most ...
