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Young Men With A Horn: Ambrose Akinmusire & Vitaly Golovnev
by George Kanzler
Trumpeters Ambrose Akinmusire and Vitaly Golovnev were the winner and semi-finalist, respectively, in the 2007 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition. On these debut albums as leaders, they reveal ambitions that go beyond expressing trumpet prowess, which they both have, to personal conceptions as composers and bandleaders. On that score, the two trumpeters' paths ...
Peter Bernstein: Monk
by George Kanzler
How and by whom a piece of music is presented profoundly influences how it's heard. This would seem to be a truism, but it is one often contradicted. Case in point: a band begins playing a Duke Ellington standard and there's recognition and approval from the audience, the “I like Duke" effect. When this happens with ...
Wayne Escoffery: Hopes and Dreams
by George Kanzler
There's a distinguished history of tenor saxophonist and vibes player combos in jazz, including Lucky Thompson/Milt Jackson and Harold Land/Bobby Hutcherson. But those combos featured bands with piano. Tenor Wayne Escoffery and vibraphonist Joe Locke put more emphasis on their teamwork by eliminating the piano in Escoffery's Veneration quartet--quintet on three tracks featuring guest trumpeter Tom ...
Mickey Roker
by George Kanzler
“I started out in rhythm 'n' blues when I first got a trap drum set as a teenager," says Mickey Roker, 76, from his home, “because I was young and it was easier to play that music than playing jazz since I didn't go to school for music". But after he got back to Philadelphia from ...
Violin: Costel Nitescu, Jonathan Russell, Skye Steele & Aaron Weinstein
by George Kanzler
Costel Nitescu Forever Swing Grappelli Forever Le Chant du Monde 2007 Jonathan Russell Puttin' On the Ritz Self Published 2008 Skye Steele Late Bloomer Self Published 2008 Aaron Weinstein/John Pizzarelli Blue Too Arbors 2008 As recounted in the notes to Blue Too, the pioneering jazz violinist Stuff Smith once said: “You can ...
Dave Brubeck: Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival 1958-2007
by George Kanzler
One of the paradoxes of jazz is that the individual is highly valued, yet iconoclasts are often undervalued, either by critics or audiences. Pianist Dave Brubeck has had no trouble attracting fans over more than half a century, but critics have been less embracing, often saying he doesn't swing. Brubeck became wildly popular ...
Eli Yamin: You Can't Buy Swing
by George Kanzler
Pianist Eli Yamin is a communicator who believes jazz can foster a sense of community. His work is expansive and extroverted, populist in the best sense. As a teacher--he's now part of Jazz at Lincoln Center's education program--he's created jazz dramas and the dramatic impulse is a strong component of his music. So is swing. This ...
Louie Bellson/Clark Terry: Louie & Clark Expedition 2
by George Kanzler
Drummer Louie Bellson and trumpeter/flugelhornist Clark Terry first worked together in the Duke Ellington Orchestra in the '50s and the Duke or, as Terry always refers to him, “The Maestro," remains central to both players' jazz conception. This is more a Bellson big band project than a true collaboration, as Terry only appears on seven of ...
Baritone Saxophones: Joe Temperley, Dale Fielder, George Haslam, Denis Diblasio & Jam Session
by George Kanzler
Take cover behind a bass clef and yell "Timbre" and hearken to six baritone saxophonists featured on five albums. There area few octet tracks on Joe Temperley's CD, but also quartets and duets, and the other CDs range from quartet to sextet--with another bass clef horn, the trombone, featured in Denis DiBlasio's Quintet and ...
Sadao Watanabe
by George Kanzler
"I want to get back to basics, I want to play saxophone. I've started to love playing straight-ahead again," Sadao Watanabe said over the phone during a break in a gig at a Japanese club. The statement might be a little puzzling to American jazz fans who know Sadao (in Japan "Sadao" is ...
