Home » Search Center » Results: Dan McClenaghan
Results for "Dan McClenaghan"
Nick Finzer: Hear & Now
by Dan McClenaghan
New York-based trombonist Nick Finzer has benefited from mentorships under trombone masters Wycliffe Gordon and Steve Turre; but his third CD release, Hear And Now also brings the original trombone master, J.J. Johnson to mind. One of Johnson's last CDs, the minor masterpiece, Heroes (Verve Records, 1995), featured a sextet configuration with an enormously-talented pianist, Rene ...
The Three Sounds: Groovin' Hard: Live At The Penthouse 1964-1968
by Dan McClenaghan
The old tapes hide in the archives, deep in the dark corners of record company closets, and even the occasional back yard tool shed--Hal Schaefer's How Do You Like this Piano Playing (Summit Records, 2009). Finding and bringing these lost treasures to the listening public seems to have turned into an industry of its own. And ...
The Brian Dickinson Quintet: The Rhythm Method
by Dan McClenaghan
Toronto-based pianist Brian Dickinson explores the quintet with a two sax front line" on The Rhythm Method. He takes his lead from the somewhat overlooked pianist/conceptualist Lennie Tristano, who broke the ground with his historic 1949 Capitol Sessions featuring Lee Konitz on alto sax and Warne Marsh on tenor sax; and with his 1956 recordings with ...
Handmade Blade: Aram Bajakian's Dolphy Formations
by Dan McClenaghan
Guitarist Aram Bajakian has always played music that made things happen, whether it was with his contributions to Lou Reed's band, or Diana Krall's, or on his work on Tzadik Records, or his own self produced CD, 2016's superb Music Inspired By The Color of Pomegranate, an unofficial alternative soundtrack to the Russian movie of the ...
Satoko Fujii Orchestra Tokyo: Peace
by Dan McClenaghan
The rumor rolled out in mid-2016 that Japanese pianist/composer/bandleader Satoko Fujii had another orchestral album on the way. Peace was the title. Peace" isn't a word that normally comes to mind when considering Fujii's music. Bedlam," maybe, but not peace." In preparation for the oncoming Peace, three previous Fujii orchestral CDs on Libra Records ...
Emilio Solla: Tributango
by Dan McClenaghan
There's nothing quite so romantic and life-affirming, in its exuberantly dance-able way, than the tango. It's a sensuous, sinuous sound that bubbled up from the streets of Argentina where bandoneonist/composer Astor Piazzolla found it, and refined it and took it to the concert halls. And in the tradition of all great music, assimilations occur, hand-offs to ...
Modus Factor: The Picasso Zone
by Dan McClenaghan
Modus Factor, a trio based in Toronto, says it creates Electro ambient improvisational bedlam." An accurate description of their sound except, perhaps, for the bedlam part (for the most part). Featuring a drums/bass/electric trumpet line-up, with effects, the comparisons that come to mind are Nils Petter Molvaer's spacey approach on sets like Switch (OKeh Record, 2014) ...
Dan McClenaghan's Best Releases Of 2016
by Dan McClenaghan
The music keeps moving forward, evolving to higher levels. My search for the best jazz recordings of 2016 led me to these marvelous CDs. Wadada Leo SmithAmerica's National Parks Cuneiform Records Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith has attempted in, the new millennium, to create his magnum opus. He may have succeeded ...
Ed Neumeister: Suite Ellington
by Dan McClenaghan
Trombonist Ed Neumeister opened his excellent quartet outing, New Standards (Meistero Music, 2005) with an energized take Duke Ellington's signature tune, Take The 'A' Train." It was apparent that he had a way with Duke's music. A quick dip into Neumeister's resume finds that he played in Duke Ellington's Orchestra for sixteen years, post-Duke, when the ...
Frank Kimbrough: Solstice
by Dan McClenaghan
A stellar interlude of three-way instrumental interplay can be found on composer/conductor Maria Schneider's first masterpiece, Concert In The Garden (ArtistShare, 2004), on the set's title tune, beginning about five and a half minutes in. Ben Monder lays down a ghostly guitar solo that climbs to an eerie climax, as a handoff to pianist Frank Kimbrough, ...

