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Dan McClenaghan's Best Releases of 2011
by Dan McClenaghan
It was a very good year, and whittling it down to the customary ten won't do it. So, without regard to an arbitrary number, here are the top jazz recordings of 2011. Lee Konitz/Brad Mehldau/Charlie Haden/Paul Motian Live at Birdland ECM Records If ever there were an ...
Bill Cunliffe: That Time of Year
by Dan McClenaghan
There's always the danger of getting all schmaltzy with Christmas music, but jazz people are hipper than average and can usually come up with something appropriately cool to spin around holiday time. That's exactly what pianist/composer Bill Cunliffe has done with That Time of Year.Cunliffe is a versatile artist who is comfortable in any ...
Denis DiBlasio Quintet: Where the Jade Buddha Lives
by Dan McClenaghan
As a former member/musical director of trumpeter Maynard Ferguson's band, baritone saxophonist Denis DiBlasio is certainly no stranger to mapping out music and following charts. But he also has an adventurous streak, one in which the slightest of frameworks is laid down--maybe just a mood suggested or, perhaps even, a single note brought up as the ...
Ted Rosenthal Trio: Out of This World
by Dan McClenaghan
2011 has been productive year in the recording realm for pianist Ted Rosenthal. His contribution to The Westchester Jazz Orchestra's superb Maiden Voyage Suite (WJO Records) helped elevate the re-imaging of pianist Herbie Hancock's classic Maiden Voyage (Blue Note, 1965) to the highest level of big band artistry. With Out of this World, Rosenthal slips back ...
Hal Galper Trio: Trip the Light Fantastic
by Dan McClenaghan
About eighty percent of the jazz piano players out there can fit into one of two schools: that of the introspective, harmonically rich Bill Evans mode; or the more percussive and gregarious Bud Powell bebop approach. There's also a small slice of the that pie that draws it primary inspiration from bright and splashy Art Tatum/Oscar ...
Sidony Box: Pink Paradise
by Dan McClenaghan
Pink Paradise, by the French power trio Sidony Box, may sport the pinkest cover art since vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson's Happenings (Blue Note, 1966). The music, though, couldn't be more different. Hutcherson put together a bop quartet with pianist Herbie Hancock to craft a mellow and meditative sound. Sidony Box wails with a guitar, sax and drums ...
Nick Ruffini: Pressin' On
by Dan McClenaghan
The Hammond B-3 organ blew into jazz in a big way in the 1950s and 1960s. Employed mostly in small group settings--trios and quartets--the soulful, urban, deep groove music became hugely popular at that time, thanks to organists Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff, as well as guitarists Wes Montgomery and Grant Green, among many others. The ...
Marc Copland / John Abercrombie: Speak to Me
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Marc Copland and guitarist John Abercrombie played together for the first time in the 1970s, in drummer Chico Hamilton's group. This was when Copland was playing saxophone, before his seemingly unlikely but very successful switch to piano. Nearly forty years later, the two artists still find opportunities for musical hook-ups, contributing to extraordinary recordings like ...
Ron Carter's Great Big Band: Ron Carter's Great Big Band
by Dan McClenaghan
Bassist Ron Carter rode to high profile during his stint with trumpeter Miles Davis' second great quintet, the stellar mid-1960s ensemble that also included pianist Herbie Hancock, drummer Tony Williams and saxophonist Wayne Shorter--all of whom, like Carter, went on to create great things. Carter also used the opportunity afforded by the Davis boost to become ...
Yoko Miwa Trio: Live at Scullers Jazz Club
by Dan McClenaghan
Is live always better? Does the no second takes, out-on-a-limb aspect of playing in front of a live audience, and feeding off its energy result in the best recordings? It seems to work that way for Boston-based pianist Yoko Miwa on Live At Scullers Jazz Club, a mix of tunes from The Great American Songbook and ...


