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Eric Alexander: The First Milestone
by David A. Orthmann
With the release of The First Milestone, Eric Alexander continues to make the transition from a young, hard-blowing tenor saxophonist to a mature soloist and leader of interesting small bands. Alexander is simply getting better at what he’s been doing quite well all along; that is, making high-energy music largely based on the spectrum of straight-ahead ...
Charlie Byrd: Byrd By the Sea
by Derek Taylor
Charlie Byrd was that rarest of birds in the ornithology of music- one who could shape his plumage to fit into virtually any setting. Not content to rest on his laurels as a virtuoso jazz guitarist, Byrd was equally comfortable negotiating a tightly composed classical chart, sculpting a lilting Bossa Nova, strumming out a down-home blues ...
Marty Grosz: Hooray For Bix!
by C. Andrew Hovan
A native of Germany, guitarist and vocalist Marty Grosz's especial personality has been part of the traditional jazz scene since the early '50s. Growing up in New York and later moving to Chicago, Grosz has played over the years with renown musicians such as Dick Wellstood, Art Hodes, Jabbo Smith, and the group Soprano Summit. Still ...
Sonny Rollins: The Freelance Years:The Complete Riverside & Contemporary Recordings
by C. Andrew Hovan
In the collective media catalog that has been developed by Sonny Rollins over the past many decades there is much that is of tangible worth, while only his recordings of the past 15 years or so tend to be dispensable in the long run. Taken together as a group, first-rate Rollins would have to include his ...
Sonny Rollins: The Freelance Years: The Complete Riverside and Contemporary Recordings
by Robert Spencer
If Sonny Rollins is the King of the Tenor Saxophone, it was during the late Fifties, the period covered by this magnificent collection, that he earned his crown. He casts a long shadow on the cover of this five-disc set, and his shadow grows even longer immediately as the music starts, which Monk's treacherous tempo-shifting “Brilliant ...
Hal Gaylor/Walter Norris/Billy Bean: The Trio
by Derek Taylor
This disc presents the all-too-common story of a jazz group that should have recorded far more often than it did, but fell apart just as things were getting really interesting. It’s no mere afterthought that the three musicians documented here took the epithet “The Trio” to describe their collective vision. As the eight tracks on this ...
Ernie Henry: Presenting
by Derek Taylor
Long available on LP in the Fantasy Records catalog this reissue marks the first compact disc appearance of Ernie Henry’s auspicious debut as a leader. In the annals of jazz lore Henry has sometimes been discounted as merely a Charlie Parker imitator on alto saxophone. Based on his work on this inaugural album and the handful ...
Oscar Peterson (OJC: Night Child
by Douglas Payne
This 1979 quartet recording makes an ideal blindfold test for the most practiced of jazz piano admirers. From the “oscillating Martianisms" on electric piano of the moody opening track, “Solar Winds," to the rollicking cop-show funk (!) of “Teenager," it would be difficult to name - or convince the listener - that this is ...
Bobby Timmons (Riverside: From the Bottom
by C. Andrew Hovan
Although he's largely remembered for his “soul-jazz" hits such as “Dat Dere" and “Moanin'," pianist Bobby Timmons was an accomplished enough musician that the range of his abilities far exceeded his commercial successes. As a result, over the course of a half dozen trio dates he led for Riverside in the early '60s Timmons put on ...
Gerry Wiggins (HiFi Jazz: Wiggin' Out
by C. Andrew Hovan
Very much a behind-the-scenes type of musician, pianist Gerald Wiggins is an excellent player who came up during the swing era working with Louis Armstrong and Benny Carter, among others. In the early '50s, he headed to California where he would accompany divas such as Eartha Kitt and Kay Starr, in addition to day gigs in ...
