Home » Search Center » Results: John Coltrane
Results for "John Coltrane"
Chris May's Best Releases of 2019
by Chris May
The world may be going to hell in a handcart, but the year has been full of uplifting jazz. Here are ten of the best albums--the first seven newly recorded, the final three reissued or recently unearthed. Each one is the coyote's cojones. Yazz Ahmed Polyhymnia Ropeadope The eagerly ...
Alan Pasqua: Keys That Unlock Many Doors
by Jim Worsley
Recently, and just a few days before Thanksgiving (2019), I was thankful for the opportunity to have two separate conversations with renown pianist Alan Pasqua. As generous with his time and candid commentary as he is talented as a musician and composer, both conversations crashed the one-hour mark. For you non mathematicians, that is over two ...
Pat LaBarbera Kirk MacDonald Quintet: Trane of Thought, Live at the Rex
by Jack Bowers
Sometimes the name of an album can be a dead giveaway. Clearly, tenors Pat La Barbera and Kirk MacDonald, the co-leaders of this admirable quintet from north of the border, are enthusiastic admirers and champions of the late great saxophonist John Coltrane. Disciples, yes, but leagues away from slavish imitators. LaBarbera and MacDonald have strong and ...
Ruby Rushton: Ironside
by Don Phipps
Ruby Rushton's Ironside is like a trip back to the jazz of Dave Grusin's late 1980s film soundtrack The Fabulous Baker Boys. Hard driving bop, the music bubbles along with syncopated riffs and upbeat, energetic shuffles interlaced with soulful intervals. Woodwind player Edward Cawthorne penned six of the tunes, keyboardist Aidan Shepherd penned two ...
UNT One O'Clock Lab Band: Lab 2019
by Jack Bowers
UNT is the University of North Texas, home to the country's flagship Jazz Studies program since its inception in the mid-1940s, and home as well to no less than a dozen undergraduate big bands, each one named for its daily rehearsal time. Pride of place goes to the One O'Clock ensemble whose special artistry has been ...
Ryan Porter: Force For Good
by Chris May
The Los Angeles jazz scene clustered around the community of session musicians known as the West Coast Get Down (WCGD), and its most prominent member (and now ex-session musician), Kamasi Washington, is a US equivalent of London's underground jazz scene. Both exist in parallel universes to the jazz establishment, both are culturally inclusive though peopled mainly ...
Blue Note Records Beyond The Notes
by Chris May
Blue Note Records Beyond The Notes Director: Sophie Huber Run Time: 111 minutes Eagle Rock Entertainment 2019 Blue Note fans will love this film. It is an unblemished, 360-degree, feel-good feast for the eyes and the ears. Intended by director Sophie Huber to make sense ...
David S. Ware Quartet: Théâtre Garonne, 2008
by Mark Corroto
In 2008, when this live concert was recorded, saxophonist David S. Ware was ill, but concert goers would have no idea of this fact. He has been suffering, since 1999 from kidney failure and eventually had a kidney transplant in 2009. Ware and the latest configuration of his quartet traveled to Toulouse, France, just a few ...
Mike Murley: Taking Flight
by Don Phipps
Mike Murley's Taking Flight is a candlelight romance of well-chosen covers and two original compositions. At times, Murley's sax sound is slightly reminiscent of Ben Webster while, when he plays ballads, one can hear echoes of John Coltrane. In short, his sound is sweet and warm. Combining this sound with the elegant contributions of his bandmates ...
Ramsey Lewis & Urban Knights: VII
by Phillip Woolever
Back in 1995, an executive named Carl Griffin at Ramsey Lewis' record label reportedly conceived the idea of forming a jazz “super group" around the well-established Chicago pianist. The resulting all-star project, deemed Urban Knights, featured Grover Washington Jr. and a rhythm section with Omar Hakim and bassist Victor Bailey, who'd worked together in the early ...
