Here’s an interesting tale, bassist of over 30 years Howard Britz decided to learn the piano, and leads here an impressive trio on a mix of well written originals and swinging standards. He’s got an incessant feel of swing on…
Month: October 2013
SOMETHING GOOD FROM VENEZUELA! Jose Duque’s Reload: Fragility, Revisited
When the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez met with Barack Obama a few years ago, the world would have been better off if he had given our President a copy of this session by compatriot drummer Jose Duque than his…
Marco Santiago: Rudiments, Surrender
Here’s a guy that’s a throwback to the days of singer/songwriter/producers like Todd Rundgren and Roy Wood who did every part of a record to make it a true personal project. Hawaiian based Marco Santiago releases two impressive discs, the…
The Miami Saxophone Quartet: Four of a Kind: Live in Concert
Here’s a sax quartet that is quite ecumenical in its delivery. Made up of Gary Keller/ss, Gary Lindsay/as, Ed Calle/ts and Mike Brignola/bari, the Miami Sax Quartet mixes and matches originals with standards, and unaccompanied reeds with various supporting teams.…
Platz-Demos-Delvo-McLellan: Differential Equations
The team of Jeff Platz/g-elec, Kit Demos/b-elec, Fabio Delvo/as and John McLellan/dr join together for a truly collaborated effort of angular musical permutations that focus more on interaction and muscularity than mere melody.. Assertive and edgy pieces such as “Bell…
Chad Lefkowitz-Brown: Imagery Manifesto
Here’s an impressive debut by a NY-based tenorist who I hope comes to the Best Coast sometime soon. Chad Lefkowitz-Brown (from now on referred to as “L-B”)graduated from the Brubeck Fellowship Program, winning 15 Downbeat awards and has started paying…
Steve Gadd Band: Gadditude
One of the guys artists like Chick Corea, Bob James and Al DiMeola have made their first call drummer, Steve Gadd has also had an impressive career as a leader in his own right. Here, he leads a nifty quintet…
David Weiss: Endangered Species: The Music of Wayne Shorter
Trumpeter David Weiss has come up with an inspired idea-put together a tribute to Wayne Shorter’s compositional pen with a large ensemble that takes away some of the tangential distractions and emphasizes the rich complexities by making them fuller and…