It’s a pretty good bet that somewhere you’ve got an album with bassist Rufus Reid on it. Not only has he done tons of sessions and gigs for artists such as Freddie Hubbard and Dexter Gordon and has been the…
Month: April 2014
REEDS & RHYTHM…Sigurdor Flosason Copenhagen Quartet: The Eleventh Hour, B.J. Jansen: Ronin-The Masterless Samurai
Lester Young started the sax quartet back in the forties, and few things display the basics of jazz improvisation and interplay like it. Here are two torch carriers. The reason I never doubled on alto sax (I play clarinet) is…
SPARTAN GUITARS…Jason Vieaux: Play, Judy Philbin and Adam Levine: Keeping It Simple
No big productions here. Just a guitar, either all by its lonesome, or along with a vocalist. Nowhere to hide, except behind talent and taste. Jason Vieaux plays classical guitar here with a wide ranging collection of material ranging from…
Daniel Smith: Smokin’ Hot Bassoon Blues
Daniel Smith is beating the odds by making the unyielding bassoon work in a jazz setting. He’s got incredible chops and is able to coax some dynamics out of the double reeder. His core team of Robert Bosscher/p, Michael O’Brien/b…
Jason Anick: Tipping Point
There’s a new violinist on the scene and he’s pretty impressive. Jason Anick (who’s also one of the youngest instructors at Berklee, by the way) shows some impressive chops and style on violin and mandolin on this recent release, his…
Janice Borla Group: Promises to Burn
Here’s a lady that really defines “jazz vocalist”. Janice Borla teams up with a sleek and swinging team of “Scott Robinson/ts-fl, Art Davis/tp-fh, John McLean/g, Bob Bowman/b and Jack Mouse/dr for a mix of delivering lithe and expressive readings of…
THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’…From Another World: A Tribute to Bob Dylan
Sick of Bob Dylan tributes by wannabes? Burnt out by Dylan’s latest voice? WAIT UNTIL YOU HEAR THIS ALBUM! You’re going to think life has meaning again! What you’ve got here is musicians and vocalists from various parts of the…
The Harder They Come: Restored, Remastered in HD
One of the all time important movies about modern music has been cleaned up and available on itunes and VHX. The 1973 film about a Jamaican singer not only catapulted Jimmy Cliff onto the pop stage, but introduced reggae to…
Sound Liberation: Days
The group Sound Liberation mixes styles ranging from modern R&B to rap and hip-hop, with this album, produced by jazzer Gene Pritsker, showing the good, bad and ugly of the genres. Of the former, a trio of songs by Chanda…
Brian Culbertson: Another Long Night Out
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of his debut disc, Long Night Out, Brian Culbertson goes back in time to re-visit those original tracks with the wisdom of a score of years under his belt. He brings together contemporary/smooth jazzers such as…