If you’re looking for your next post bop disc, here’s a great find. Tenor saxist Anton Schwartz has a warm and beefy sound not unlike Hank Mobley, and he forms a glistening front line with radiantly toned trumpeter Dominick Farinacci…
Month: February 2014
Volcan: Volcan
The quartet Volcan consists of Gonzalo Rubalcaba/p-key, Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez/dr, Jose Armando Gola/b-eb and Giovanni “Manenguito” Hildago/perc. This collection of songs is a bit different than other Rubalcaba recordings in that he mixes electronic piano with his acoustic work,…
Cava Menzies/Nick Phillips: Moment to Moment
I’m a sucker for “ballads” albums. Always have been, and always will be. It can be with strings, as in “Clifford Brown with…” or a small combo like with John Coltrane’s quartet. Here, we’ve got a lovely one with co-leaders…
Earl McIntyre: Brass Carnival & Tribute!
What trombonist/arranger Earl McIntyre gives you is two, two, two bands in one. The Brass Carnival is a band similar in construction to the Salvation Army brass band, yet with Latin percussion, which focuses on street and carnival music. The…
Tom Danielian: Metaphonically Speaking
You can tell by the feel on this session that trumpeter/composer Tom Denielian has kept company as a sideman for the likes of The Temptations, The O’Jays, The Four Tops and The Spinners. This disc has him in a funky…
Mike Longo & the NY State of the Art: Live from New York
Pianist and composer Mike Longo delivers a well paced and diverse concert here with a big band that is right in the pocket and shifts gears like Mario Andretti. A couple of bop standards such as “Whisper Not” and “Wee”…
The Living Earth Show: High Art
While the title suggests a major sized ensemble, The Living Earth Show actually consists of two Bay Area guys Travis Andrews/g and Andy Meyerson/dr-perc. Mixing art with craft, this album of five tunes veers somewhere between assertive ambience and tongue…
THEY WROTE ‘EM FOR THIS GUY…Fred Astaire: The Early Years at RKO
When you think of the Great American Songbook, who comes to your mind? Why, of course, Frank, Ella and Tony. If you said “Michael Buble’,” please go to the end of the line. What most people don’t know is that…
The Doors: R-Evolution
In retrospect, the Doors were one of the most influential 60s rock bands, mixing jazz, classical and poetry with pop music to create not only a genre of its own, but a mindset as well. This dvd culls together some…
HIP 50s JAZZ SOUNDTRACKS…College Confidential/Synanon, Crime in the Streets/Dino
Here’s a genre that needs to be revisited! Back in the 1950s a ton of “teenage movies” about rebellion, gangs, drugs, romance and juvenile delinquency came out. Ah! The good old days!! Fresh Sound Records has brought together some of…