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Salvatore Bonafede Trio: Sicilian Opening
by Dan McClenaghan
Hailing originally from Sicily, pianist Salvatore Bonafede earned a scholarship to Boston's Berklee School of Music in 1986. A 1989 move to New York saw him playing with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Dewey Redman, Joshua Redman, Lew Tabackin and Joe Lovano. Bonafede moved back to Sicily in 1994, where he has worked with many jazz luminaries, ...
Frank Macchia: Folk Songs for Jazzers
by Dan McClenaghan
Frank Macchia seems to have a thing about American folk songs--a very good thing. On his Grammy-nominated Landscapes, the Los Angeles-based multi-reedist/composer/arranger teamed up with The Prague Orchestra and bookended his superb Landscape Suite" with traditional tunes like Shenandoah," Down in the Valley," and Deep River," with marvelous results.On Folk Songs for Jazzers, Macchia ...
Phil Kelly & the Northwest Prevailing Winds: Ballet of the Bouncing Beagles
by Dan McClenaghan
Phil Kelly spent four decades working the sunny Los Angeles trenches as a composer/arranger for film and television. He wrote music, as well, for more than five hundred television commercials. That was probably a heck of a nice way to pay the rent and put bread and butter on the table. But since his semi-retirement, he ...
Hadley Caliman: Straight Ahead
by Dan McClenaghan
Seattle-based tenor saxophonist, Hadley Caliman took a thirty year hiatus from recording before he released Gratitude (Origin Records, 2008). It was an exceptional mainstream set that displayed Caliman's John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, and Joe Henderson influences, in hints and brief whispers, and reintroduced the saxophonist's own distinctive, full-of-life voicings.With Straight Ahead, he steps out ...
Emilio Solla & The Tango Jazz Conspiracy: Bien Sur!
by Dan McClenaghan
The music on Bien Sur! carries the tag Tango Jazz," but pianist/composer Emilio Solla, leader of the Tango Jazz Conspiracy that is responsible for the sound, says he has no idea what that is. The Argentine-born and now New York-based artist has been introducing himself to American audiences in a world msic vein over the course ...
Trio Reenactment: What Once Was...
by Dan McClenaghan
The Detroit-based Trio Reenactment follows up its self-produced, self-titled 2008 debut with What Once Was...", a piano trio set filled with catchy hooks, engaging can't-get-'em-outta-your-head melodies, a bunch of soul and funk, and some fine mainstream jazz tunes.The set bounces to life with Piano Mang," penned by Trio Reenactment's leader, bassist John Barron. It's ...
Enrico Pieranunzi / Marc Johnson / Joey Baron: Dream Dance
by Dan McClenaghan
Italian pianist Enrico Pieranunzi's music is often said to incorporate European classicism, suggesting seriousness and, perhaps, a staid erudition to those who haven't heard him.Pieranunzi has fronted a trio with bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joey Baron since 1984. While not a working band like Keith Jarrett's enduring Standards Trio, Pieranunzi's recordings and tours ...
Francesco Cafiso Quartet: Angelica
by Dan McClenaghan
Angelica claims a spot as a superior quartet set--alto saxophone and a rhythm section--right at the very beginning, not with the Duke Ellington-penned title tune, but with a Billy Strayhorn gem, A Flower is a Lovesome Thing." Italian saxophonist and jazz prodigy, Francesco Cafiso--just nineteen years old at the time this music was laid down--ignores the ...
Erica Lindsay / Sumi Tonooka: Initiation
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Sumi Tonooka and tenor saxophonist Erica Lindsay are the leaders on Initiation, having contributed five compositions each. It's the chemistry and the collective organic spontaneity of the whole quartet, however, that moves the sound into the level of top-tier excellence. Bassist Rufus Reid constructs solid, big-sound foundations, and drummer Bob Braye --who, sadly, passed away ...
Mostly Other People Do the Killing: Forty Fort
by Dan McClenaghan
Irreverent devils, aren't they, these four guys who make up the piano-less quartet called Mostly Other People Do the Killing (MOPDtK)? This is Our Moosic (Hot Cup Records, 2008) was a play on Ornette Coleman's This Is Our Music (Atlantic, 1960) in title and with the cover photo and design. Forty Fort sports a cover laid ...


