Back in 1970, Herbie Hancock put together a musically successful/commercially disastrous band called Mwandishi that mixed the then-nascent electronic keyboards with free flowing jazz. Here, Bob Gluck/p-el and Christopher Dean Sullivan/b get two of the alumni together (BillyHart/dr and Eddie…
Month: February 2016
Lisa Hilton: Nocturnal
Pianist Lisa Hilton must have gone to Gold’s Gym a few times the past year, as she shows lots of muscle on this latest disc. She’s teamed up with an aggressive group of JD Allen/ts, Antonio Sanchez/dr, Gregg August/b and…
Eric Olsen Revision Quartet: Sea Changes
Pianist Eric Olsen works on creating a new songbook with Don Braden/ts-ss, Ratzo B. Harris/b and Tim Horner/dr on this latest release of his. He puts new wineskins on material ranging from the church to the concert hall here, and…
Doug MacDonald: Solo Plus
Guitarist Doug MacDonald has been one of the most consistent, if undersung, guitarist around. He’s got a warm and clean tone, and for this “solo” album he gives shows what an orchestra of one can do. H does some rich…
Marlene Ver Planck: The Mood I’m In
Vocalist Marlene Ver Planck gives an old school-styled delivery of standards here with a simpatico team of John Pearce/p, Paul Morgan/g, Bobby Worty/dr, Mark Nightingale/tb and Andy Panayi/sax-fl. She’s got a warm and slightly soft-leathered voice which gives depth to…
The Dan Wilkins Ensemble: Jnana-Vijnana (Awake)
The team of Dan Wilkins/ts, Mike Bono-Vaughn Stoffey/g, Dave Lantz-Kevin Bernstein/p-key, Daryl Johns/b, Patrick McGee/ss and Jimmy Macbride/dr focus on sounds and moods that are pastoral and for the most part genteel on a satisfyingly soft session. The one blip…
Julian Julien: Terre II
Here’s some music that mixes genres like back in the old days of fusion, creating audio soundscapes. You get a plethora of moody keyboard panoramas, sometimes with a pulsating rhythm, or at other instances with a static flow, and guests…
Jason Kao Hwang: Voice
Jason Kao Hwang wrote the music for this album, which accompanies poems by Davida Singer, Lester Afflick, Patirical Sears Jones, Fay Chiang, Seve Dalachinsky and Yuko Otomo. The musicians range from the voices of Deanna Relyea and Thomas Bucker, while…
Jersey Boys@Civics Arts Plaza 02.23.16
The Thousand Oaks production of Jersey Boys took the audience back to the last period of American pop music that was completely joyous. The musical story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons was delivered in an energetic 2 ½…
Gregory Porter and Dianne Reeves @ Disney Concert Hall 02.20.16
Two Grammy winners got together for a soul fest at Disney Hall, mixing past present and future. The hip team of Peter Martin/key, Romero Lubambo/g, Reginald Veal/b and Terreon Gully/dr got the Disney Hall into the mood for soul with…