Here are a pair of albums that show the interplay between two artists. Communication is everything here! Kenny Wheeler brings his trumpet and flugelhorn to bat with pianist John Taylor for a collection of mostly originals. Wheeler’s horn is Herb…
Month: January 2016
Kim Nazarian: Some Morning
Here’s a lady I’ve never heard of that knows how to deliver a tune. Kim Nazarian mixes and matches with some heavy hitters including “Mark Soskin-Mark Shilansky/p, Leo traversa-Dwayne Dolphin/b Roger Humphries-Jamey Haddad/dr and guests John Pizzarelli, Gary Burton, Sean…
Montreux: Sign Language
New Age music continues its comeback with this reissue of the 1987 classic Sign Language by Darol Anger/v, Mike Marshall/g-mand, Barbara Higbie/key and Michael Manring/b. Much of the feel is folksy here as on the upbeat and melodic “Skywriting” and…
Matthew Stevens: Woodwork
Guitarist Matthew Stevens leads an impressive group of Gerald Clayton/p, Vicente Archer/b, Eric Doob/dr and Paula Stanaro/perc through a collection of originals plus a David Bowie tune. Of the latter, “Sunday” has glowing keys from Clayton as well as spacious…
Slivovitz: All You Can Eat
Here’s a fun and funky band consisting of Marcello Giannini/g, Vincenzo Lamagna/b, Salvatore rainone/dr, Ciro Riccardi/tp, Pietro Santangelo/ts-as, Roccardo Villari/vio and Derek Di Perri/harm. The band is quite eclectic, and though all are Italian, have a fantastic grasp of American…
***RINGER OF THE WEEK****BRAZILIAN MILES…Racha Fora: Racha S’Miles
Racha Fora is the name of a quartet lead by Hiroaki Honshuku/fl-ewi, forming a core team with Mauricio Andrade/g, Rika Ikeda/v and Rafael Russi/b and along with guests Benhur Oliveira/perc and Dave Liebman/ss the whole band delivers a clever tribute to Miles…
Grace Kelly: Trying to Figure It Out
If there was ever an appropriate title for an artist, this one fits Grace Kelly. She’s released albums of straight-ahead jazz as well as ones with pop-oriented vocals. This one straddles the two worlds, as she’s captured in a variety…
BOPPING B3…Schneider-Vallet-Schmidlin Organ Trio: Live at the Bird’s Eye, Jeff Jenkins Organization: The Arrival
Nothing like a Hammond B3 to blow away the blues. Here are a couple! The trio of Claude Schneider/g, Pierre-Luc Vallet/B3 and Peter Schmidlin/dr fill the Swiss jazz club Bird’s Eye with some swinging sounds on this recent release. Schneider…
SOULFUL SOUNDS…Kingly T: Life in the City, Narada Michael Walden: Evolution
Soul music and reggae both get the feet moving, and with social conscious messages, the package gets complete. Titus “Kingly T” Whittle leads a band of Leslie Randolph.voc, Jennifer Grove/key, Dave Grove/b, Anthony Hunter/dr, Ryan Marsh/sax and Drew Darby /tb…
Geof Bradfield Quintet: Our Roots
Tenor saxist Geof Bradfield takes us on a tour of the origins of jazz, and it isn’t to the brothels that have become the myth de jour. Instead, Bradfield and his team of Marquis Hill/tp, Joel Adams/tb, Clark Sommers/b and…