Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Adam Birnbaum: Travels

230

Adam Birnbaum: Travels

By

View read count
Adam Birnbaum: Travels
Pianist Adam Birnbaum gets around a lot, both geographically and musically—touring West Africa, for example, as part of the Rhythm Road program. Here however, he and his traveling companions—Sharel Cassity (alto and soprano saxophone), Joe Sanders (bass) and Rodney Green (drums)—take a musical journey through material mostly composed by the pianist.

Birnbaum's credentials are impressive. He studied at the New England Conservatory of Music's Preparatory School, graduated from Juilliard's Jazz Studies inaugural class and has won numerous competitions and honors. He has an ability to play in different styles—as in the bop-oriented "Three For One" and "Band Call," the lightly swinging "House Party Starting" or the haunting minor ballad adaptation of Robert Schumann's "Hor Ich Das Liedchen Klingen." But most notable is his reflective, less-is-more rendition of the standard "The Very Thought of You." Birnbaum's writing is varied style-wise as well, but usually features interesting and inventive chord and rhythm changes.

Cassity's writing and playing is featured on his "Those Who Seek," in which he delivers a nicely crafted alto solo. Sanders shows off his lyrical bass style to great advantage on "Kate The Great" and "Three For One." And Green lends punctuation on all of the tracks and a skillfully built drum solo on the up-tempo "Urgency."

Birnbaum has provided an enjoyable travel itinerary, though it would be nice to have more recognizable standard stops on his next recorded musical journey.

Track Listing

Jackhammer; Kat's Dance; Three FOr One; Kate The Great; Travels; Band Call; Song Of Those Who Seek; House Party Starting; Hor Ich Das Liedchen Klingen; Urgency; The Very Thought Of You; Camden.

Personnel

Adam Birnbaum: piano; Sharel Cassity: alto and soprano saxophones; Joe Sanders: bass; Rodney Green: drums.

Album information

Title: Travels | Year Released: 2008 | Record Label: Smalls Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

Near

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.