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Allen Toussaint and Friends: A New Orleans Christmas
by Robert Spencer
Allen Toussaint appears on piano and / or keyboards on ten of these thirteen tracks, which are a good representative sampler of the current New Orleans sound. If that doesn't mean anything to you, think of “The Man who Sang with Linda Ronstadt" a few years back. He, of course, doesn't appear here, but the folks ...
The New Birth Brass Band: D-Boy
by Robert Spencer
This disc is a wonderful treat from the young (no one is over 31) New Orleans sextet that is reviving the brass band sound that came out of New Orleans and swept the country in the early years of this century. But the New Birth Brass Band is by no means a tired trad group reviving ...
Larry Bluth, Don Messina, Bill Chattin: Five Concerts and a Landscape
by Robert Spencer
The title to this one derives from the five concerts where these ten selections were recorded; the landscape, by the late Annette Bluth-Lukemire, to whom this disc is dedicated, is on the front cover. Most of the cuts are the sorts of standards favored by Tristano-school players like Warne Marsh and Lee Konitz; pianist Bluth, backed ...
Allen Toussaint: Connected
by Robert Spencer
Allen Toussaint is back. Let the world know. Connected is his first full-length national release in nearly twenty years, and it is a full resume of the New Orleans institution's many talents. His funky R&B piano is the centerpiece of this disc, which features a host of New Orleans luminaries including Dave Bartholomew on trumpet, Leo ...
Ken Peplowski: Grenadilla
by Robert Spencer
Here clarinetist extraordinaire Ken Peplowski takes on some challenges: alongside his sidemen pianist Ben Aronov, bassist Greg Cohen, and drummer Chuck Redd, are guests Howard Alden on acoustic and electric guitars (on five tracks), Marty Ehrlich on clarinet and bass clarinet (four tracks), Kenny Davern on clarinet ("Farewell Blues"), and Scott Robinson on alto clarinet and ...
Grace Darling: Imaginary Lover
by Robert Spencer
Grace Darling is your standard tenor sax-playing vocalist, and Imaginary Lover is just another one of those discs where the leader plays tenor sax and sings in front of New Orleans funk-gospel backbeats. Seriously, that this accomplished singer plays sax at all (or should that be “that this accomplished saxophonist sings at all"?) is intriguing; the ...
Amadee Castenell: Amadee
by Robert Spencer
More groove-laden contemporary jazz from Allen Toussaint's NYNO. Amadee Castenell plays a gritty R&B tenor (and flute on “Angels"), backed by a funky ensemble consisting of Toussaint's piano on four tracks, pianist Chuck (not Charlie) Chaplin on three others (he also plays Fender Rhodes on one), the smooth synthesizers of Larry Sieberth, Scott Goudeau on guitar, ...
Marshall Travis Wood: Bodywork
by Robert Spencer
Marshall Travis Wood is John Marshall, the accomplished British drum veteran, Theo Travis on tenor, soprano, and flute, and Mark Wood on guitars. Bodywork was formed when a bassist didn't show up for their recording date, and the three others spent the time improvising. Instead of trotting out the standards, they threw away the net altogether, ...
Matt Catingub: George Gershwin 100
by Robert Spencer
This cheerful Gershwin hundredth-birthday tribute kicks off in high gear with “Blues for Mr. G," a tight medley of themes from Rhapsody in Blue, Porgy and Bess, and elsewhere. Catingub, arranger, alto saxophonist, pianist, and vocalist, shows off his mighty alto chops before a charged-up big band backdrop. Catingub commands a 15-piece band, plus guest stars ...
Acoustic Alchemy: Positive Thinking
by Robert Spencer
Nick Webb is dead; the Acoustic Alchemy guitarist succumbed to pancreatic cancer not long ago. In the months before he died, his longtime partner Greg Carmichael worked up these tunes with him. He wasn't able to play on the album (he is credited with “composition, arrangements and inspiration"), so John Parson was recruited to take Webb’s ...
