Am I a sexist, or is it just that I have two daughters about Roxy Coss’ age? I first look at the cover of this album and I think, “Any lady that wears a suit like that is either appealing…
Month: April 2016
Leslie Pintchik: True North
If you miss music by Bill Evans, take comfort in that pianist Leslie Pintchik must have a dna connection with him, as her touch and spaciousness captures both his romance and exploration her latest release. She’s here with a core…
Matt Kane & The Kansas City Generations Sextet: Acknowledgement
Drummer Matt Kane, unlike our president, does an excellent job of “leading from behind” on his winning collection of post bop piece. He brings together a muscular team of Ben Leifer/b, Andrew Ouelletete/p, Michael Shults/as, Hermon Mehari/tp and Steve Lambert/ts…
Russ Nolan: Sanctuary From The Ordinary
Saxist Russ Nolan is caught live at the Firehouse 12 in swinging Connecticut with a modern team of Mike Eckroth/p, Daniel Foose/b and Brian Fishler/dr. Eight of the nine pieces are originals, and the one cover, “Thelonious” has a soulful…
Mike Freeman’s ZonaVibe: Blue Tjade
Mike Freeman brings his vibes and marimba to deliver a fitting tribute to Cal Tjader, who pioneered vibes for the genre of Latin Jazz back in the 50s and 60s. Freeman brings together Jim Gailloreto/ts-fl, Ruben Rodriguez/b and a pair…
Samo Salamon Bassless Trio: Unity
Guitarist Samo Salamon teams up with John Hollenbeck/dr and Julian Arguelles/ts-ss to form a lithe and sleekly swinging trio on this collection of originals. Salamon has a clean and glowing touch on his strings, and it works well with Arguelles’…
A SMOKER FROM SMOKE SESSIONS…Jim Rotondi: Dark Blue
Once upon a time, hard hitting bop trumpet albums were a dime a dozen. The Hub, Sandoval, Tim Hagans, Donald Byrd, Woody Shaw, and then newcomers like Roy Hargrove just put out cooker after cooker. Now, it’s all this limp…
Ron Davis: Pocket Symphronica
Pianist/composer Ron Davis hails from Toronto, and this album has him mixing jazz, classical and latin in an exciting album. The jazz team of Davis/-p-B3-key, Kevin Barrett/g-banj, Mike Downes/b and Roger Travassos/dr is supplemented on many of the tracks by…
GET TO WORK! Jameo Brown Transcendence: Work Songs
“Work fascinates me…I can sit and watch if for hours” Badda bom! Here’s a fascinating album put together by drummer Jaimeo Brown. Along with a mix and match team of JD Allen/ts, Jaleel Shaw/as, Chris Sholar/g, Brandon McCune/prg, Marica Miget/fl,…
John Fremgen: Everything That Spring Can Bring
John Fremgen leads a trio of Brannen Temple/dr and Jeff Hellmer/p and guest tenor saxist Elias Haslanger on this collection of rich and accessible originals. The trio bounces with buoyant delight on the quasi-fugue “ All In” as Hellmer’s touch…