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Marques Tuiasosopo Sextet: Remembering Heidi
by Jim Santella
Performing mostly classic tunes from the Jazz Wayfarers’ archives, Marques Tuiasosopo’s Polynesian Jazz ensemble offers a mellow session with a little fa’alifu fa’i on the side. Over the past fifteen years, the front line in Tuiasosopo’s sextet has always been strong; the personnel changes have been frequent, but the cohesiveness has always been ...
Bruce Barth: Live At The Village Vanguard
by Jim Santella
On Live At The Village Vanguard, Cole Porter’s “In The Still Of The Night” charges straight ahead with the zip, the zig, and the zag of a hound dog chasing a rabbit through open sagebrush. While Bruce Barth is totally unpredictable in places, he is sure to bring back the familiar melody to us before we ...
Peter Cincotti: Peter Cincotti
by Jim Santella
Can a 19-year-old jazz singer interpret standards with authority? Singer/pianist Peter Cincotti is on his way toward that goal. His eponymous album with jazz trio demonstrates the natural talent that’s been attributed to him in the press. Fats Waller’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” for example, rolls out as natural as a day in the park, as ...
John Patitucci: Songs, Stories & Spirituals
by Jim Santella
A straight-ahead session with quiet overtones can provide just what you need after a hard day’s work. John Patitucci enlists the support of vocalist Luciana Souza to make this album fill that want. His superb trio works with several guests to make things perfectly clear. A melody should be pretty. It should be carried ...
Mike Clark: Summertime
by Jim Santella
Pianist Billy Childs and drummer Mike Clark make a great rhythm team. Their modern mainstream journey through new originals and familiar favorites swings with a surging intensity that’s stirred gently – not shaken. It’s your daddy’s music in a new picture frame. ”Summertime,” a personal favorite, is treated to a harmonic makeover. Using ...
Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra: Hiroshima
by Jim Santella
Dedicated to the memory of a city that experienced the unfathomable horrors of war in 1945, Toshiko Akiyoshi’s extended work for big band sizzles. There’s a lesson here for all mankind. In the early movements of her suite, everything’s all right. The band swings with its usual Monday night balance and tips its hat to one ...
Abdullah Ibrahim: African Magic
by Jim Santella
Germany’s Jazz Across The Border Festival had been exploring the effect world cultures have on jazz for more than a decade. That idea remains a topic near and dear to our hearts. In his suite-like concert of impressions, Abdullah Ibrahim infuses South American samba, European bolero and habanera, Asian folk melodies, South African anthems, and Duke ...
The Drummonds: Pas De Trois
by Jim Santella
Would your spouse make a suitable partner for what you do to make a living? Could you have a cooperative and professional association in your day job, and still keep your lifelong marriage relationship alive and healthy? ”Come on, honey, let’s go to lunch with the boss again today at his favorite greasy spoon.”
Mike Longo Trio: Live: Detroit Jazz Festival
by Jim Santella
You can feel the training Mike Longo received from Oscar Peterson when he stretches out liberally on “Fiesta Mojo.” The swing he inherited from Cannonball Adderley and the spontaneity that stems from his long association with Dizzy Gillespie also show up on this live recording from last year’s Detroit Jazz Festival. Bassist Santi Debriano and drummer ...
The New Jazz Composers Octet: Walkin' The Line
by Jim Santella
Rather than going with the common straight-ahead formula of head-solos-head, the New Jazz Composers Octet prefers ensemble counterpoint in which agreed-upon changes add a sense of the exotic. Shifting harmonies and juxtaposed meters combine with the artists’ natural rhythmic swing and reverence for tonal purity. David Weiss’ title track, for example, opens with the kinds of ...
