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Article: Extended Analysis

Sangeeta Michael Berardi: The Mr. P Sessions

by Dan McClenaghan
February 9, 2014

In October of 1996, guitarist Sangeeta Michael Berardi went into Nevessa Studio in Woodstock, New York, and laid down the tracks for what would become two monumental recordings, Earthship (Sunjump Records, 2008) and Calling Coltrane (Sunjump Records, 2011). This is stunning music from a man who played with Alice Coltrane, Roswell Rudd, Rashied Ali, Archie Shepp--a ...

Article: Album Review

Cava Menzies/Nick Phillips: Moment to Moment

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by Dan McClenaghan
February 6, 2014

This feels like a chance ramble off of dimly lit streets into a wee hours night club; and the quartet--trumpet, piano, bass and drums--has slipped into a blue mood. A few notes from the muted horn, a half a dozen supple touches of the piano keys sets the introspective and melancholy tone for the evening. The ...

Article: Album Review

Scenes: ...but not heard

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by Dan McClenaghan
February 1, 2014

ECM Records has been noted for its “Nordic Cool," school, from its many recordings of Scandinavian artists, with pianist Tord Gustavsen coming most readily to mind. Seattle's Origin Records has what can be called its “Northwest U.S. Cool" with recordings from bassist Jeff Johnson, saxophonist Hans Teuber, and the collective trio Scenes, with guitarist John Stowell, ...

Article: Album Review

Clare Fischer Orchestra: Extension

Read "Extension" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
January 24, 2014

The late 1950s and early 1960s saw a change in the approach to big band arranging. Voicings and colorings became more luxuriant, and the palettes began to include more pastels; classical harmonies began to creep in to charts. Gil Evans brought the arranging prowess he developed in the Claude Thornhill Orchestra and the the ...

Article: Album Review

Helen Sung: Anthem For A New Day

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by Dan McClenaghan
January 17, 2014

There's a bit of the iconoclast in pianist Helen Sung. Her musical journey began in the classical world, and didn't take its rebellious tangent into jazz until her college years, after a chance encounter with a Harry Connick, Jr. concert, in a “bang on the piano" solo interlude. And then there was pianist Tommy Flanagan's solo ...

Article: Album Review

Frank Wess: Magic 201

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by Dan McClenaghan
January 1, 2014

Saxophonist Frank Wess was born in 1922. He played in Billy Ecstine's orchestra, after World War II interrupted his burgeoning career, and he played in Count Basie's band from 1953 to 1964. With those early experiences on his resume, the fact that he was a traditionalist in the mode of saxophonists Ben Webster, of Duke Ellington ...

Article: Extended Analysis

Paul Motian: Jack of Clubs

by Dan McClenaghan
December 31, 2013

As a drummer, Paul Motian (1931-2011) came to an early fame from his association with Bill Evans. It was the pianist's 1961 Riverside Records trio albums Waltz for Debby and Sunday at the Village Vanguard that did the trick, shifting the way of the piano trio into the direction of democracy and intricate interplay, also launching ...

Article: Album Review

Victory Jazz Quartet: Origin

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by Dan McClenaghan
December 27, 2013

Most of the jazz fusion groups of the 1970s threw more instruments into the mix than flugelhornist Al Moretti does on Origin. His Victory Jazz Quartet finds Moretti with his horn, fronting a simple rhythm section--keyboard, bass and drums. Fusion evolved from trumpeter Miles Davis' In a Silent Way (Columbia Records, 1969), sparkling music ...

Article: Album Review

Jeremy Steig: Flute Fever

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by Dan McClenaghan
December 21, 2013

Flute Fever, the 1963 Columbia Records debut by flutist Jeremy Steig, has somehow, until now, avoided release on CD. Thanks to reissue producer Jonathan Horwich, Steig's beautifully remastered and packaged freshman recording is now available. And it's not only Steig's premier as a recording artist, it's also a recording first for pianist Denny Zeitlin, on a ...

Article: Album Review

The Bill McBirnie Trio: Find Your Place

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by Dan McClenaghan
December 20, 2013

The standard organ trio doesn't usually include a flute. On paper, it sounds like a bad idea. It seems as if the cool breeze aspects of the airy blowing of the flute would get lost in the organ's electric woosh. As it turns out, flutist Bill McBirnie's Find Your Place, proves those seemingly similar sounds to ...