Results for "Jason Lewis"

The Michael O'Neill Quartet: And Then It Rained

by Dan McClenaghan
October 24, 2020

San Francisco area-based reedman Michael O'Neill, noted most prominently for his work with vocalist Kenny Washington, takes his artistry on a new tangent with And Then It Rained. The set features a top-tier Bay Area quartet which digs deep into a set of O'Neill originals. Recording-wise, this is new territory for O'Neill, who, in addition to ...

Jason Lewis

Ten Artists: April 2019

by C. Michael Bailey
April 2, 2019

Claudia Vorbach Is There a Time? Phoneector 2018 Claudia Vorbach follows up Come Down Easy (Phoneector, 2016) with these 14 smart original compositions infused with the swagger of a confident composer/singer. At first blush, Vorbach sounds like a relaxed Nora Jones, playfully whimsical and vocally daring. Vorbach sings with an assured ...

Kristen Strom: Moving Day: The Music of John Shifflett

by Jack Bowers
December 24, 2018

The esteemed bassist John Shifflett was for roughly thirty years a mainstay in countless San Francisco Bay Area sessions and recordings until his untimely passing in April 2017. Gone, that's true, but far from forgotten. Shifflett, as it turns out, had another largely hidden talent as a composer of bright and accessible jazz tunes, seven of ...

John Stowell/Michael Zilber Quartet: Basement Blues

by Dan McClenaghan
August 4, 2016

Basement Blues is the third Origin Records CD offering from the John Stowell/Michael Zilber Quartet, following Shot Through With Beauty (2009) and Live Beauty, (2013). Guitarist Stowell's approach is distinctive--silvery chords and pinprick single notes that reverberate from the rafters. Saxophonist Zilber is a flawless, soulful technician on soprano and tenor saxophones. Bassist John Shifflett and ...

John Stowell/Michael Zilber Quartet: Live Beauty

by Dan McClenaghan
February 27, 2015

Part of the appeal of the teaming of guitarist John Stowell with various “post Coltrane" saxophonists is the cool/hot dynamic. Stowell is the guy with a Zen restraint, the cool guy, his chords sometimes sounding as if they are ringing from frozen stalactite filaments in ice caves. Saxophonists? Some blow cool-- those of the Lester Young/Stan ...

Jim Norton Collective: Time Remembered: Compositions of Bill Evans

by Jack Bowers
December 12, 2014

The late Bill Evans was so celebrated a pianist that even some partisans may overlook the fact that he was also a splendid composer with a number of oft-revisited jazz themes to his credit. Saxophonist / arranger Jim Norton hasn't forgotten, and has entrusted Time Remembered, his debut album as leader of the Jim Norton Collective, ...

Lissy Walker: Wonderland

by Bruce Lindsay
September 7, 2014

Alice had many adventures in Wonderland: they could be fun, they could be touching, but they were seldom musical. Lissy Walker's second album, Wonderland, also provides lots of adventures--some fun, some touching, all musical.A quick glance at the song titles--"Something Wonderful," “Where Or When," “Isn't It Romantic?"--put this album fairly and squarely into American ...

Lissy Walker Returns With "Wonderland" Another Sublime Collection Of Classic, Soulful Folk/Jazz September 23

August 12, 2014

Lissy Walker is a jazz singer, but she brings her own unique spin to the music by adding elements drawn from the worlds of folk, country, and 70s acoustic pop. Walker's burnished vocals and her virtuosic band slip effortlessly between genres to create their own soulfully sweet sound–dreamy and bittersweet, heartfelt and swinging–on her stunning new ...

Anya Malkiel: From the Heart

by Geannine Reid
September 1, 2013

Anya Malkiel is a Bay Area-based vocalist who grew up in a musical environment in the former Soviet Union. Jazz was taboo, but would nevertheless become a vital part of her life. Malkiel states, “It was always the human voice that drove my musical aspirations." After leaving for the United States in 1990, she shared a ...