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David Chevan: The Days of Awe
by Elliott Simon
With the Afro-Semitic Experience, bassist David Chevan and pianist Warren Byrd use jazz to entice African American and Jewish spiritual music to meet as brothers. On Chevan's first solo effort, The Days of Awe , he instead chooses to filter Jewish High Holy Day melodies through a multifaceted “jazz prism." The outcome is highly accessible music ...
Bob Mintzer: Gently
by Elliott Simon
There are instances as a guy gets older when he thinks he is turning into his father. I had just such a moment as I began to listen to Gently from tenor saxophonist Bob Mintzer's Big Band. I saw myself as my father, listening to his mood music that came in large boxes from Reader's Digest ...
Frank Carlberg: In the Land of Art
by Elliott Simon
The beat poets and writers of the '50s idolized the bop players of their day. Jazz served as a template for their compositional methods, performing styles and as soundtrack to their writings. This adulation may not have gone both ways, though, as a quote attributed to Miles Davis indicates: “The Beat Generation ain't nothin' but just ...
Catching Up With Joe Lovano
by Elliott Simon
Cleveland born saxophonist Joe Lovano consistently tops the polls and is a Grammy winner who has interpreted Sinatra and Caruso and worked within both the mainstream and avant-garde. He recently became artistic director of New York's Caramoor Festival and is the Gary Burton Chair of Jazz Performance at Berklee College of Music. He maintains a busy ...
Barbara Sfraga: Under the Moon
by Elliott Simon
Singer Barbara Sfraga's sophomore effort draws from the artist's strength: retooling well-worn classics into lean arrangements that highlight her mastery of phrasing and rhythm. Although guitarist John McLean adds a bit of spice to several cuts, Sfraga is most at home riffing off her rhythm section that includes drummer Paul Wertico, percussionist Kevin Patrick and bassist ...
Lenny Breau: The Hallmark Sessions
by Elliott Simon
Following the reissue of Lenny Breau's Complete Living Room Tapes, Art of Life Records has released another CD of historical import and musical excellence. Recorded in 1961, The Hallmark Sessions are the heretofore unreleased first studio recordings of this guitarist who most capably fused classical, flamenco, and country finger picking with contemporary jazz. Seven of the ...
Michael Brecker: Wide Angles
by Elliott Simon
Assembling fifteen top jazz musicians to play complex original material is risky business. The session could turn into a repetitive solo showcase or conversely lose its sharpness amidst overproduced arrangements. However, Wide Angles, from tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker, comes off as an adventurous presentation of new music in a format rife with possibilities. With a string ...
The 4th Annual Django Reinhardt NY Festival
by Elliott Simon
When Django Reinhardt infused American jazz with his Gypsy soul, the result was a “swing with strings” that has remained a landmark in jazz/world fusion. With the addition of two rhythm guitars, a bass, and his longtime partner violinist Stephane Grapelli, a unique sound developed. This continental brand of jazz delighted pre-WWII Paris at the “Hot ...
The Modern Jazz Quartet: The Music Inn
by Elliott Simon
...in our desire for beauty in all things we are open, and one in our search for that little city of gold where the flute-player never wearies, and the spring never fades, and the oracle is not silent, that little city which is the house of art, and where, with all the Music of the Spheres, ...
John Zorn: Not All About Jazz
by Elliott Simon
Over a 30-year period, John Zorn has produced a compendium of original work that while daunting in scope and complexity is equally enticing for its musical and cultural sensibility. As a musician, composer and producer, he has expanded the way we think about art, cultural identity and the artificial boundaries that exist among musical genres. John ...
