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14

Article: Album Review

Jim Snidero: Live at the Deer Head Inn

Read "Live at the Deer Head Inn" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

Any short list of the finest alto saxophonists playing today must include the name Jim Snidero who has been a force to reckon with on the New York City jazz scene for almost four decades. Snidero earns high marks on his latest album not only for his typically sharp and fluent improvisations but also for his ...

12

Article: Album Review

Rale Micic: Only Love Will Stay

Read "Only Love Will Stay" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

Only Love Will Stay, a tasteful and even-keeled trio date, embodies seven of Serbian-born guitarist and leader Rale Micic's original compositions and a lone standard, Irving Berlin's venerable “How Deep Is the Ocean." Micic is ably supported by organist Jared Gold and either Johnathan Blake (five tracks) or Geoff Clapp (three) on drums. Micic's themes are ...

6

Article: Album Review

Shawn Maxwell: Expectation & Experience

Read "Expectation & Experience" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

On Expectation & Experience, his tenth recording as a leader, Chicago-based woodwind specialist Shawn Maxwell is accompanied by almost thirty musicians—but never by more than three on any of its seventeen tracks. Maxwell says the compositions were written during the global Covid-19 pandemic, and the musicians were mustered singly, most in their own homes. While each ...

10

Article: Album Review

Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra: Twisting Ways

Read "Twisting Ways" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

For the better part of its latest recording, Twisting Ways, Canada's Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra may as well scrub the word “Jazz" from its name, as the music mostly bears scant resemblance to that time-honored genre. The overall mood may best be described as funereal, epitomizing themes of a mostly exploratory nature, interrupted all too seldom by ...

6

Article: Album Review

Madre Vaca: The Elements

Read "The Elements" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

Ambitious? How about depicting musically four basic elements--fire, water, earth, wind--and doing so with only four musicians. On its fourth recording, The Elements, the guitar-led quartet Madre Vaca endeavors to do exactly that, and in roughly forty-one minutes. Each of the album's four selections was written by a member of the group: “Fire" by drummer Benjamin ...

14

Article: Album Review

The KUH Trio: Old Souls

Read "Old Souls" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

Here is yet another European trio whose name is an acronym, in this case, K for guitarist Edi Kohldorfer, U for bassist Frantisek Uhlir, H for drummer Jaromir Helesic, who when numbered together (or even singly) are Old Souls. Uhlir (70) and Helesic (73) are Czechs, while Kohldorfer (age unknown but has been around the block ...

8

Article: Album Review

Gabriel Evan Orchestra: Global Entry

Read "Global Entry" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

At least one dictionary defines an orchestra as “a large instrumental ensemble...which combines instruments from different families including bowed string instruments...woodwinds...brass...percussion..." and “other instruments such as the piano, celeste...and harp..." Or, in the vernacular of New York-based saxophonist Gabriel Evan, a jazz sextet with some but not all of the above. Which is an around-the-block way ...

13

Article: Album Review

Arturo O'Farrill: Virtual Birdland

Read "Virtual Birdland" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

Whenever an obstacle presents itself--even one as devastating and disruptive as a global pandemic--it's a sure bet that musicians will find a way around it, a way to keep making music even in the most grievous circumstances. Jazz musicians have been especially creative during the Covid-19 scourge, using social media, the internet and any other means ...

11

Article: Album Review

BEL Trio: Beyond Rivers

Read "Beyond Rivers" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

Recording a guitar-and-rhythm trio can be a tricky proposition. First, the guitarist, who carries almost every melody, must be well-spoken and easy on the ears. Second, the bass and drums, if that is the format, must be supportive but not intrusive. Third, the music must be for the most part bright and engaging. And finally, the ...

10

Article: Album Review

The Echo Park Project: It's My Turn

Read "It's My Turn" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers

There is an abundance of salsa and soul (soulful salsa?) on It's My Turn, the sixth recording by conguero Carlo Lopez's Los Angeles-based Echo Park Project. Most of the sunny, light-hearted music was written and arranged by Joe Mannozzi (the one exception is bassist John Belzaguy's “Can't Complain"). “These tunes," Lopez says, “are for listeners and ...


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