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234

Article: Album Review

Hal Schaefer: How Do You Like This Piano Playing?

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by Dan McClenaghan
March 19, 2009

File this prosaically-titled How Do You Like This Piano Playing? under the “music discovered in a backyard shed" category.Pianist/composer/arranger/conductor Hal Schaefer's musical journey began with stints in big bands led by Benny Carter, Harry James, and Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, but his most notable gigs--from a fame-gaining perspective--have been as a vocal coach to ...

282

Article: Live Review

Amina Figarova in Concert, La Jolla, CA, Feb. 26, 2009

by Dan McClenaghan
March 9, 2009

Amina Figarova Sextet Athenaeum Music and Arts Museum La Jolla, California February 26, 2009If you can believe pianist/composer Amina Figarova--speaking to the audience after her opening tunes at the February 26, 2009 show at the Athenaeum Music and Arts Museum in La Jolla (San Diego), California--she is ..."just ...

397

Article: Album Review

Ofer Assaf: Tangible Reality

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by Dan McClenaghan
March 6, 2009

Israeli-born, tenor saxophonist Ofer Assaf, who is now New York-based, looks every bit the modern jazz man on the cover of Tangible Reality. He's got the shades, the beret-style hat worn backwards, and--truth in advertising--he's also got the modern jazz man goods.A big percentage of young mainstream jazz artists try to take the “Miles ...

381

Article: Album Review

Greg Reitan: Some Other Time

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by Dan McClenaghan
February 19, 2009

Elegance is a difficult quality to pin down, but you know it when you see it--or hear it. Duke Ellington, of course. Lester Young: Oh yeah. Or to take it into the piano trio game: Bill Evans, Hank Jones, Jessica Williams, Ahmad Jamal.With his debut Some Other Time, Los Angeles-based pianist Greg Reitan can ...

298

Article: Album Review

Ray Levier: Ray's Way

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by Dan McClenaghan
January 18, 2009

New York-based drummer Ray Levier contends for debut CD of the year with Ray's Way. He's assembled an all-star cast, including two of the finest guitarists plying the six string trade: John Abercrombie and Mike Stern, on five and four cuts respectively.Levier's drumming has a “serve the music" approach that can be subtle or ...

326

Article: Album Review

The West Point Band's Jazz Knights: At First Light

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by Dan McClenaghan
January 9, 2009

The Jazz Knights, West Point's jazz ensemble, is the U.S Army's contribution to big band jazz. An outfit that recruits its members from the finest of the nation's music education schools, it has produced a vibrant, first rate outing with At First Light.It's obvious within the first moments of the opening cut, the Dietz/Swartz ...

303

Article: Album Review

Gene Ess: Modes of Limited Transcendence

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by Dan McClenaghan
January 3, 2009

Guitarist Gene Ess put together a quartet with saxophonist Donny McCaslin for his Sandbox and Sanctum (SIMP Music, 2005) . On Modes of Limited Transcendence he ups the harmonic ingenuity factor with a different quartet, replacing the horn with a guitar, to craft an often cooking, quartet-of-equals chamber vibe.Ess began his musical journey as ...

409

Article: Year in Review

Dan McClenaghan's 2008 Top Ten

by Dan McClenaghan
December 27, 2008

Here are ten of 2008's jazz CDs that charmed and seduced me, or grabbed my lapels and wouldn't let go. Bobo Stenson Trio Cantando ECM Records A piano trio set of incredible subtlety, depth and beauty, with Swedish pianist joined by bassist Anders Jormin ...

324

Article: Album Review

Shawn Maxwell: Originals II

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by Dan McClenaghan
December 26, 2008

Multiple reedist (alto saxophone, mainly) Shawn Maxwell titled his fine debut CD Originals (Self-Produced, 2005). It was an apt tag for a set of all original tunes, played by Maxwell and an excellent backing unit fronted by the leader's distinctively tart and intrepid horn sound. His sophomore outing, Originals II, is more of the same, and ...

452

Article: Album Review

Michael Dease: Clarity

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by Dan McClenaghan
December 16, 2008

The eminent J.J. Johnson casts a big jazz shadow, as the trombone master was instrumental in bringing the big brass horn out of the harmonic background and into the ensemble forefront, beginning with his late 1940's work with Charlie Parker. Without him, we might never have seen the star of Curtis Fuller rise on the classic ...