You know, you don’t have to be smart as long as you know smart people. I had never heard of guitarist Greg Koch until my friend Kevin emailed me that he’d just seen him interviewed by Rick Beato. “We gotta…
Month: January 2025
Jerry Kalaf: Safe Travels
Drummer Jerry Kalaf mixes his classy trio of Tom Ranier/p and Trey Henry/dr with the serene strings supplemented by ATLYS (Sabrina Tabby-Jinty McTavish/I, Erin Raffrty/va, Genevieve Tabby/cel). The strings serve as a reflective muse, not overpowering or strangling the trio,…
Joe Elefante: Wheel Of Darma
Pianist Joe Elefante serves up a blue plate special of Blue Note inspired bopping originals with Freddie Hendrix/tp, Erena Terakubo/ts, Sameer Shankar/b and Dave Hellman/dr. The horns give wonderful harmonies on the hip fingersnapping “Bad Dancing” and sprint like Olympians…
Rick Roe: Tribute
Modern jazz composer Gregg Hill has some of his nuggets warmed up and served in a trio setting by pianist Rich Roe with Robert Hurst/b and Nate Winn/dr. There’s a taste of Ellingtonia in the elegant “Summer Nights” wile Latin…
JAZZ IN PRINT…The Jazz Omnibus-21st Century Photos and Writings
Yes, I know that the Tenth Commandment says “Thou Shall Not Covet”… However, as a fellow jazz journalist, I can’t help but be a bit jealous of the talents of the writers and photographers who submitted their works for this…
Charles Mingus: Reincarnations
One of Charles Mingus’ overlooked gems is this recently reissued 1960 album from Candid Records. The bassist mixes and matches here with Dannie-Jo Jones/dr, Eric Dolphy/as-fl-bcl, Booker Ervin-Roy Eldridge-Ted Curson-Lonnie Hillyer/tp, Tommy Flanagan-Paul Bley-Nico Bunick/p, Charles McPherson/as and Britt Woodman-Jimmy…
THE STANDARD BEARER…The Mills Brothers: Tiger Rag-The Singles Collection, Volume 1 1931-47, Volume 2 1947-60
Known as “Four Boys and A Guitar”, the Mills Brothers (originally Donald/t, Herbert/t, Harry/bar and John Jr/b) the Mills brothers not only originated the concept of male small group vocals and harmonies, but defined it and perfected it over the…
THE BEST VOICES THAT TIME FORGOT…Jerri Winters: Winter’s Here/Genie Pace; Love In A Midnight Mood, Jerri Adams: It’s Cool Inside/Marlene Cord: Marlene Cord
Fresh Sound’ s series of forgotten singers continues to astound-how did these ladies not find our ears? Husky toned Jerri Winters has a dash of Anita O’Day, fitting since whe had a stint with Stan Kenton. Here, in a band…
Jackson Potter: Small Things
Guitarist Jackson Potter mixes post bopping originals with some clever takes of standards with a super hip team of Alex Ridout/tp-f, Troy Roberts/ts, Hamish Smith/b and Marcello Cardillo/dr. The tone and mood is set from the get go with Roberts’…
Dennis Mitcheltree & Johannes Wallmann: Holding Space
I’m a sucker for jazz duos, and this one with tenor saxist Dennis Mitcheltree and piano man Johannes Wallmann is a delight. Ok, so there are also a handful of tunes with Russ Johnson throwing in his horn, as on…