Home » Search Center » Results: Dan McClenaghan

Results for "Dan McClenaghan"

404

Article: Album Review

Cecilia Smith: Dark Triumph

Read "Dark Triumph" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
July 22, 2006

Victoria L. Smith was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1931. She was the first black nurse hired in St Charles Hospital in Toledo, Ohio. She served in the Red Cross and the Peace Corps. By the measure of fame and popular recognition, she is an ordinary woman, but by another measure--the real and truthful one--she is ...

408

Article: Album Review

Helen Sung: Helenistique

Read "Helenistique" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
July 16, 2006

New York-based pianist Helen Sung's debut as a leader, Push (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2003), featured mostly original tunes. For her sophomore effort, Sung has chosen some jazz standards, a Prince tune, and one from her own pen, “H*Town," an homage to her hometown of Houston, Texas.In covering jazz standards, one measure of success ...

403

Article: Album Review

Buck Hill: Relax

Read "Relax" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
July 14, 2006

Relax has an old-school feeling, like a Blue Note album from the sixties. It's a straight-ahead sound, with Buck Hill's brawny, relaxed tenor saxophone in the embrace of a fine organ trio. I compare it to an “album" in part because there's a two-sided feeling to the eight songs. “Side one" opens with a with the ...

230

Article: Album Review

Chris Walden Big Band: No Bounds

Read "No Bounds" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
July 11, 2006

Chris Walden has been on a heck of a roll lately, with two Grammy nods for last year's Home of My Heart, one of the finest big band efforts of the year. He also in did the orchestrations for the acclaimed Michael Bolton set Bolton Swings Sinatra.Home of My Heart deserved all the accolades ...

186

Article: Album Review

Junk Box: Fragment

Read "Fragment" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
July 6, 2006

A bird chirps a tentative melody over the gentle percussion of plinking raindrops in the beginning of the opening cut on Fragment, “A Dream in the Dawn." Trumpeter Natsuki Tamura supplies the avian input; Satoko Fujii's piano is the rain. Now settle down for the sound of surprise.Junk Box is Satoko Fujii's new trio, ...

326

Article: Album Review

Joshua Bayer: New Voice: Old Voice

Read "New Voice: Old Voice" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
June 27, 2006

A couple of alto saxophones, wailing sweet and lovely on Charles Mingus' “Nostalgia in Times Square," open up Washington, DC-based bassist Joshua Bayer's New Voice: Old Voice. The rhythm section--Bayer, drummer Luther Gray and keyboardist Bob Sykes--inject a propulsive light touch into the swing; Sykes' Fender Rhodes floats in with a vibraphone-like sound.Bayer's last ...

183

Article: Album Review

Wilton Felder: Let's Spend Some Time

Read "Let's Spend Some Time" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
June 22, 2006

Wilton Felder, a founding member of the legendary Jazz Crusaders, presents his trademark smooth jazz sounds with a satisfyingly funky touch and laid-back soulfulness on Let's Spend Some Time.The arrangements--not always a strong element in smooth jazz outings--have a particularly fine quality, an intermingling of sax/trumpet, synth and loops. The first two cuts, “Smoke ...

180

Article: Album Review

Toby Koenigsberg Trio: Sense

Read "Sense" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
June 19, 2006

On Sense, pianist Toby Koenigsberg's trio offers up a wistful and straightforward take on the American Songbook classic “My Foolish Heart," including a poignant, spare reading of the familiar melody. However, everything else on the disc pushes the boundaries.The trio opens and closes the set with tunes by the New York-based trumpeter Andre Canniere: ...

158

Article: Album Review

Jason Rigby: Translucent Space

Read "Translucent Space" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
June 17, 2006

Multiple reedman Jason Rigby plays soprano, alto and tenor saxophones, as well as bass clarinet and wood flute, on Translucent Space. But it's not his skill with the instruments that makes the disc so rewarding, it's the fully realized ensemble sound he's crafted. The 31-year-old musician's debut recording puts on full display his considerable skills as ...

180

Article: Album Review

Scott Feiner: Pandeiro Jazz

Read "Pandeiro Jazz" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
June 13, 2006

If you're not a fan of Brazilian music, chances are you're not already familiar with the pandeiro, a small hand-held frame drum that's similar in appearance to the tamborine. This unpretentious percussion instrument lends a uniquely airy texture and soft-tufted pop to the small jazz ensemble mix on Scott Feiner's Pandeiro Jazz.Feiner started out ...