Home » Search Center » Results: Matt Dennis
Results for "Matt Dennis"
Brandon Goldberg: Let's Play
by Don Phipps
Can a 12-year old pianist offer up the emotional depth necessary to handle tunes like Duke Ellington's “In a Sentimental Mood," Matt Dennis's “Angel Eyes," or Thelonious Monk's “Well You Needn't?" The answer appears to be yes, and then some. Brandon Goldberg's exciting album, Let's Play, reveals that a young man can not only convey emotional ...
Sam Dillon: Out in the Open
by Jack Bowers
One thing that must be said for Cory Weeds, the head man at Canada's Cellar Live Records: he knows talent when he sees and hears it. Tenor saxophonist Sam Dillon, who leads an excellent quartet on Out in the Open, his debut recording for Cellar Live, is a case in point. While Dillon is essentially unknown ...
Petra van Nuis: Because We’re Night People
by Hrayr Attarian
On the elegant and delightful Because We're Night People Chicago natives, vocalist Petra van Nuis and pianist Dennis Luxion, interpret thirteen night-themed tunes with charm and sophistication. The two musicians are superbly matched, she with her refined grace and emotive vocals and he with his vibrant lyricism. The pair performs a selection of standards in a ...
Adam Shulman Sextet: Full Tilt
by Jack Bowers
In music, as in life, not every new voice is worth hearing. Here's one that is. Full Tilt, the fifth CD by San Francisco-born and based pianist Adam Shulman's sextet, is a throwback to those halcyon days when bop was king and giants like Diz, Bird, Miles, Max Roach, Hank Mobley, Benny Golson, Horace Silver, Wardell ...
John Stein: Color Tones
by Jack Bowers
On Color Tones, his ninth album for Boston's Whaling City Sound label, Kanas City-bred guitarist John Stein has chosen a quintet whose front line includes trumpeter Phil Grenadier and flute specialist Fernando Brandao. All tones considered, it's a splendid idea, as Grenadier and Brandao blend well with Stein's lucent, well-groomed guitar, while bassist John Lockwood and ...
John MacLeod & His Rex Hotel Orchestra: Our Second Set
by Jack Bowers
Somewhere, Rob McConnell must be smiling broadly. McConnell, once the peerless leader of Canada's flagship jazz ensemble, the Boss Brass, is no longer with us, sad to say, but the Brass lives on in the guise of trumpeter John MacLeod's superlative Rex Hotel Orchestra, which mirrors McConnell's band from its skin-tight section work and well-drawn charts ...
Allison Neale: I Wished on the Moon
by Jack Bowers
There was a time, roughly half a century ago, when West Coast jazz was seen as the hippest music on the planet, its leading lights known and praised far and wide for espousing a brand of “cool jazz" that stood in stark contrast to its more heated East Coast counterpart. Much like any other trend, the ...
Afro Bop Alliance: Angel Eyes
by Edward Blanco
Latin Grammy Award-winning group Afro Bop Alliance lend their infectious hard-driving and percussive Latin-tinged sound to Angel Eyes, the group's fifth album staking one more claim for yet another future Latin Grammy nod. Known for their percolating percussion as well as dipping into straight ahead jazz, this Washington D.C. based octet lets the rumba rumble, the ...
North America Jazz Alliance: The Montreal Sessions
by Edward Blanco
The North America Jazz Alliance brings together two American and four Canadian musicians to perform the music heard in the nightclubs of the 60s and 70s on The Montreal Sessions. Producer Peter Maxymych further wanted to focus on the accordion-led bands of the era of which, the most famous was that of the late Art Van ...
Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams For Beginners
by Skip Heller
Fifty years after his death, Ernie Kovacs is de rigueur. Mainstream, even. His angular, imaginative approach to humor was impossible to imitate, but his influence on television-specifically television comedy-is intractable. He's the Thelonious Monk of the small screen. And just trying to play in a Monkish style always points out that Monk is Monk and nobody ...
