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Results for "Dan McClenaghan"
Bongwool Lee: My Singing Fingers
by Dan McClenaghan
The music of pianist Bongwool Lee has a hopeful feeling. The Korean-born and now New York-based artist drew her first jazz inspiration--after classical studies in her homeland--from the work of Oscar Peterson, who sent much musical time walking on the sunny side of the street. But where Peterson rolled mostly in the jazz standards/Great American Songbook ...
Brad Mehldau Trio: Seymour Reads The Constitution!
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Brad Mehldau has an adventurous and innovative side, one that he displays on Largo (Warner Brothers, 2002) and Highway Rider (Nonesuch, 2010), albums that feature expansive and--with Largo--electronic inputs. But he always returns to the acoustic trio format that brought him to prominence. It began with a series of five Art Of The Trio albums ...
Solon McDade: Murals
by Dan McClenaghan
This all started with the washtub bass for Solon McDade, slipping into the switch to the more refined upright bass, and years of performance with the McDade Family Band, Canada's contribution to roots music. His career branched out and resulted in his playing bass on several recordings that won the coveted Juno Award, perhaps most notably ...
Niran Dasika Quartet: Suzaku
by Dan McClenaghan
Trumpeter Niran Dasika grew up in Melbourne, Australia, and worked professionally as a musician in Tokyo, Japan, during 2016 and 2017. But his music sounds European, like an ECM Records outing by a group out of Norway or Poland. Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko and his New York Quartet come to mind with “Seek the Middle Ground," ...
Yelena Eckemoff: Desert
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Yelena Eckemoff's backstory doesn't suggest the potential for a rise to the category of top level jazz pianist. But here she is, after emigrating to the U.S. from Russia with her husband--leaving her children (temporarily) and everything else (permanently) behind in 1991 to escape repression and to start a new life. Classically trained in her ...
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong: Cheek to Cheek
by Dan McClenaghan
Cheek to Cheek, a four CD box set, collects three classic albums from Verve Records featuring Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald: Ella and Louis (1956), Ella And Louis Again (1957) and Porgy And Bess (1958). This sequence began before rock and roll had deepened its roots--in spite of the Elvis Presley blossoming--and before The ...
Fred Hersch Trio: Live In Europe
by Dan McClenaghan
Fred Hersch's 2009 recording, Whirl (Palmetto Records), was where pure magic first occurred in the pianist's extensive and consistently superb discography. That particular outing introduced his now long-standing trio with bassist John Hebert and drummer Eric McPherson. Alive At the Vanguard (2012), Floating (2014), and Sunday Night At The Vanguard (2016) by the group followed, all ...
Oscar Peterson: Oscar Peterson Plays
by Dan McClenaghan
Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson (1925-2007) was just starting what turned out to be terrific career in 1951 when jazz impresario extraordinaire Norman Granz took him into the studio to record Plays Cole Porter (Clef Records, 1952). Granz had a grand plan: To have this then-promising jazz pianist record a number of albums under the Oscar Peterson ...
Kira Kira: Bright Force
by Dan McClenaghan
The label “music" may be too confining for these sounds. Let us call it an ear-opening sonic experience. That's what pianist Satoko Fujii, with her new group, Kira Kira, has created with a compelling recording called Bright Force. In the year 2018, every review of Fujii's output will include a prelude describing her decision ...
Hans Teuber & Jeff Johnson: Deuce
by Dan McClenaghan
Bassist Jeff Johnson's first recording for Seattle's Origin Records was 1999's Free. Saxophonist Hans Teuber was there, and he was there on Johnson's subsequent Origin outings: The Art Of Falling (2001), Near Earth (2004), and Suitcase (2011). It's a relationship that has made beautiful music--mysterious and oddly sacred sounds that exude a smooth-flowing timelessness. All of ...
