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Results for "Eric McPherson"
Benjamin Drazen: Inner Flights
by Raul d'Gama Rose
Inside Benjamin Drazen is an old soul, nestling cheek-by-jowl in a fertile mind, brimful with new ideas that undulate and flow beautifully from his alto saxophone. That he is able to take control of this force, and harness its power to open a virtual door to the temple of his muses--running the gamut of saxophonists from ...
Shimrit Shoshan: Keep It Movin’
by Javier AQ Ortiz
Paying the proverbial musical dues is part and parcel of a musician's evolution, and an unavoidable experience that can be as trying as it can be rewarding. The common jazz lore takes for granted that doing so in New York puts a musician in an altogether singular phylum in the jazz evolutionary tree. Pianist/composer Shimrit Shoshan ...
Diego Urcola: Musical Ecstasy
by R.J. DeLuke
Jazz music, its freedom and emphasis on self-expression through improvisation, has always had a strong pull on its practitioners, its artists. As fans and listeners, those qualities are also treasured. The infectious nature of those qualities is why jazz fans are passionate and loyal. It's music, born and bred in the United States, that has a ...
Benjamin Drazen: Inner Flights
by Bruce Lindsay
Benjamin Drazen has been on the New York scene for over 15 years, working with established players including Lew Soloff, George Garzone and Rashied Ali. The saxophonist cannot be accused of being in a hurry to get his name on a CD cover: a 15-year wait to release a debut is a lifetime in today's scene, ...
Diego Urcola Quartet: Appreciation
by Charles Walker
Subtlety seldom brings rewards in the life of a journeyman jazz musician. In a field overcrowded with competent colleagues, plagued by spotty media coverage and half-starved by the problems facing the music industry more generally, a gimmick is often required to garner even scant attention. Argentinian-born, New York-based trumpeter Diego Urcola--a long-time member of Paquito D'Rivera's ...
Benjamin Drazen: Inner Flights
by Dan Bilawsky
The peaceful, John Lennon-like face on the cover of Inner Flights is merely a mask. Behind that calm exterior is a musician with killer instincts and serious chops. Sure, saxophonist Benjamin Drazen can be calm and graceful when he wants to, as he is on Inner Flights' closing track, “Polka Dots And Moonbeams," but more often ...
Diego Urcola Quartet: Appreciation
by Raul d'Gama Rose
Trumpeter Diego Urcola's is a voice that has remained somewhat hidden--certainly tucked away--for two decades in Paquito D'Rivera's quintet. And then there is the subdued role he has played in Guillermo Klein's fabulous larger ensemble, Los Guachos. However, the graceful candor of his voice is irrepressible, and it was only a matter of time before he ...
Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet: Natural Selection
by Raul d'Gama Rose
Profound spirituality and soulfulness is not a quality associated with secular music. However, once in awhile, even secular music reaches levels of such ecstasy that these elements become entwined in the heart of its melody and harmonic changes, as well as its iterant rhythm. Less often, this fusion is found at the confluence of mystic rivers ...
53rd Monterey Jazz Festival: A Distinctive New Orleans Flavor
by Larry Taylor
To summarize the high spots of the 2010 Monterey Jazz Festival would certainly take more than one lead paragraph. From Sept. 17 through 19 at the Monterey, California, Fairgrounds, there was a pervasive New Orleans spirit in the air and the music. This was emphasized by the appearances of Trombone Shorty on Saturday afternoon, and Harry ...
