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Howard McGhee: Maggie's Back In Town!!
by Richard J Salvucci
A picture (a video, in fact) is worth a thousand words. Consider one of Howard McGhee around 1966. It is at the Newport Jazz Festival, and an unlikely group of trumpeters is doing a bop tune at metronome-busting speed. The group includes Bobby Hackett and Ruby Braff (unlikely, no?). Hackett is delightedly laughing. Braff walks off ...
Rollin' With Leo
by Richard J Salvucci
Leo Parker may not be a name that instantly springs to mind in the world of late 1940s bebop. There was one point, in 1948, however, when serious people, like Barry Ulanov, regarded Parker as the best baritone saxophonist around--in company with Charlie Parker and Fats Navarro. That is fancy company, so it is worth asking ...
Champian Fulton: Flying High - Big Band Canaries Who Soared
by Richard J Salvucci
If memory serves, Woody Herman was once quoted as saying “it's tough to be a canary," or words to that effect. “Canary" of course, was just one of the many euphemisms used for female big band singers in the 1930s and 1940s. Herman's pointed observation was spot on. He thought, correctly, that most female singers were ...
Ellie Lee: Escape
by Richard J Salvucci
The term “promising" is typically used to describe a new arrival on the jazz scene. It may be synonymous with “hard to pigeonhole," or, perhaps, not yet completely realized in some stylistic sense. In the case of Ellie (Seunghyung) Lee, the word is misleading. Lee conjures up echoes of other distinguished players, but she clearly has ...
Marcel Bonfim: Farewell/Despedida
by Richard J Salvucci
Brazilian-born bassist Marcelo Bonfim is relatively new on the scene. This is his debut recording, and it is a good one. Based in Chicago, Bonfin entitles one of his compositions “When I First Met You." One thinks it must have been some first date, because the tune is a bit more frantic than most on this ...
Zarek Silberschmidt: Rips and Tears
by Richard J Salvucci
It is reasonable to suppose that a recording like this might have a limited audience, although “adventurous" might be a better choice of words. Zarek Silberschmidt is a virtuoso acoustic guitarist, familiar to audiences in Switzerland and Germany, and a disciple of Django Reinhardt, even if some Chet Atkins seems to slip in as well. George ...
Hampton Hawes: For Real!
by Richard J Salvucci
There are, Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote, no second acts in American life. For pianist Hampton Hawes, born in 1928, there was scarcely a first. No sooner was he established as an up-and-coming talent than he was drafted into the Army. When he got out, he tried to pick up where he left off. A heroin habit ...
Emilio Reyna: Los Niños Perdidos
by Richard J Salvucci
If one were to use this recording for a blindfold test, it would be interesting to see what emerged. Pianist (composer?) has an affinity for minor harmonies and repeated figures. Somewhere, deep in the background, there are echoes of Maiden Voyage (Blue Note, 1965). Band is all good players, post-bop, for sure. So, what ...
Dominik Schürmann: The Seagull's Serenade
by Richard J Salvucci
Insularity is a funny thing. With globalization on everyone's mind--one way or another--it is ironic that parochialism affects the fine arts in any important way. It is not as if Pablo Picasso or Gustav Mahler were merely local celebrities. In classical music, composers have long been peripatetic figures--think of G.F. Handel, as likely regarded as British ...
Albert Vila: Reality Is Nuance
by Richard J Salvucci
Notwithstanding a sojourn at the Manhattan School of Music, Albert Vila is better known in European jazz circles than in the U.S.A.. A native of Barcelona, Vila does his touring in Europe but the appeal of his playing is much broader. If there ever was a jazz guitarist “deserving of wider recognition" in US circles, it ...
