Drummer Les DeMerle leads a swinging band during a concert on a Celerity Eclipse Cruise Ship that toured from Copenhagen to Estonia. The crowd sure had a fun time between stops, as the team of DeMerle with Johannes Bjerregaard/p, Chris…
Month: July 2016
Danny Marks: Cities in Blue
Here’s an old school swinger that shows he’s still got a lotta heart left in him. Danny Marks sings and plays guitar on this collection of his compositions and a few covers. Along with a snappy team of Alec Fraser/b,…
JAZZ FROM COLOMBIA? MAKU Soundsystem: Mezcla
Yes, they are based in NYC, but most of the artists from MAKU come from that hot bed of jazz, Colombia. Here, you get a taste of what “Afro-Cuban” REALLY sounds like, as sounds from two continents jab back and…
THINK YOU’VE HEARD IT ALL?!?…Pearly Clouds: Pearly Clouds
Just when you think that there are no more worlds to conquer, you get an album like this. How can you even begin to describe the result of two disparate forces such as Hungarian folk music and American acoustic blues?…
Oatmeal Jazz Combo: Instant Oats
The Oatmeal Jazz Combo is a mix and match team of Jonathan Saraga/tp, Kenjiro Miyagishi/g, steven Carrington/reeds, Andrew McGowan/p, James Hubbard/tb, Tristan Eggener/b, Leon Foster Thomas/steel pan and lead by Leander Young/dr. Like its name, the band mixes ingredients to…
WORLD SOUNDS….The Movement: Golden, Silva: Jupiter, Akae Beka: Portals
Here are a couple discs that bring modern sounds to “world music.” The band The Movement consists of Joshua Swain/g-voc, Jason Schmidt/b, Gary Jackson/dr and Matt Goodwin/key-horn as they produce 21st reads of reggae. Most of the tunes have an…
JD Allen: Americana
Tenor saxist JD Allen continues advancing forward in his solo career. This time out he forms a trio with Rudy Royston/dr and Gregg August for some “musings on jazz and blues.” Allen’s tone has imbibed the mid to late period…
VINTAGE HARD BOP FROM AVID…Dexter Gordon: Four Classic Albums, Duke Pearson: Four Classic Albums, Oscar Pettiford: Six Classic Albums, Billy Taylor: Four Classic Albums
The latest collection of reissues from Avid feature artists that play like they invented Hard Bop; hey, wait a minute…THEY DID! Dextor Gordon was the poster child for the hard bop tenor. These four albums from 1961-62 are all Desert…
Nick Fraser Quartet: Starer
Drummer Nick Fraser leads a quartet of Tony Malaby/ts-ss, Andrew Downing/cel and Rob Clutton/b through a collection of his left of center compositions. The music has a light feel, missing a foundations as cello and bass bow and pick to…
LIZZ WRIGHT: SURRENDERING TO FREEDOM AND FELLOWSHIP
IT’S RARE FOR AN ARTIST TO TAKE A SABBATICAL OF ANY KIND IN THE MIDDLE OF A CAREER. SONNY ROLLINS MOST FAMOUSLY TOOK TWO, BUT NEITHER OF THEM WERE AS LONG AS THE 5+ YEARS TIME OUT OF THE STUDIO…