One of the underrated joys of jazz is the music that has been on soundtracks for TVs and movies. Some of the hippest sounds have come from the silver screen and the small box in your living room, and Elmer…
Month: January 2015
Lyn Stanley: Potions From the 50’s
Husky toned vocalist Lyn Stanley teams up with some of the best to deliver up some of the best from the 1950s, when Ike was in the White House, and Marlin Brandon was the stud of the screen. Pianists Bill…
Michael Eaton: Individuation
Michael Eaton leads a wide ranging yet bopping band of David Liebman/sax, Brad Whiteley/p, Daniel Ori-Scott Colberg/b, Jon Crowley/tp and Shareef Taher/dr while he himself writest the material and contributes some tenor and soprano work of his own. The main…
Nels Cline & Julian Lage@Largo 01.17.15
If it’s January, and you’re a guitar fan in Los Angeles, this is your month to thank the Good Lord for the abundance of riches that He’s showering down to start off the year. In the wake of Lee Ritenour…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****Omer Avital: New Song
As Art Blakey once said, “All jazz music is dance music.” Bassist/composer Omer Avital takes that proverb to task as he brings dance music from his native Israel and mixes it perfectly with jazz on this latest album with Avishai…
Beka & DJ Logic Project: Chillin’ In Batumi
At one time, if you used the word “fusion” in music, you were usually referring to the mix of jazz (electric) and rock. Here, the fusion is of “fusion” with hip hop sounds delivered by turntable-ist DJ Logic along with…
Eric Schugren/Vin Scialla/Brian Charette/Mike Dirubbo: Wake Up!
Nothing like a Hammond B3 hard bopping band to blow away the blues. This one serves the blue plate special just right, with the team of Eric Schugren/ts and Mike DiRubbo/as creating a two sax front line along with Vin…
James Lee Stanley: The Apocaloptimist
If you miss the old school singer/songwriter sounds of Kenny Rankin, you’ll feel like you just reached the oasis on this album by James Lee Stanley. He uses both acoustic and electric guitar here in a variety of settings, ranging…
Sketches: Volume Two
The quintet Sketches is made up of Matt Holman/tp-fh, Jeremy Udden/as-ss, Jarrett Cherner/p, Martin Nevin/b and Ziv Ravitz/dr and they specialize here in post bop modern sounds. The front line of trumpet and horn is a perennial winner, and it…
Cat Conner: Cat House
Ah! A woman who sounds like a woman! Cat Conner’s got a warm and husky voice as well as a natural sense of swing. She teams up here with some of LA’s best musicians such as Tom Ranier/p, Joe LaBarbera/dr,…