It’s always seemed ironic to me that people have associated Madeleine Peyroux’s voice and style with Billie Holiday. As this album points out, while she may have some of Lady Day’s timing, her sound and nuance points more to another…
Month: October 2016
A GIANT STILL WITH US…Don Menza: Horn of Plenty
I’ve never figured out why Don Menza is never mentioned in the Top Ten list of tenor sax players. He’s got an incredibly meaty tone, had a few great runs with Maynard Ferguson, Buddy Rich, Elvin Fones and Louis Bellson,…
Richard Elliot: Summer Madness
Richard Elliot brings his tenor sax to a soul stirring session on this toe tapping album. He mixes elements of classic R&B and funky horns with a backbeat with Franklin Richardson III/dr, Lenny Castro/perc, Randy Jacobs-Gerey Johnson/g Nathaniel Phillips/b and…
Guidi/Petrella/Sclavis/Cleaver: Ida Lupino
While not as dramatic as her role in High Sierra, Carla Bley’s title song about Ida Lupino’s exotic beauty is captured by this free form album lead by pianist Giovanni Guidi and his interactions with Gianluca Petrella/tb, Louis Sclavis/cl-bcl and…
BLUES IN GREEN
20 years ago, there was a classic book How The Irish Saved Civilization, describing how the Catholic Monks preserved all of the classic writings while the Roman Empire was collapsing due to the Barbarians. If you take a trip to…
The Time Jumpers@Smothers Theatre 09.30.16
There’s nothing like a Western Swing band to show what’s wrong with both today’s Country Music and Jazz. As violinist Kenny Sears said at the beginning of the show, “We’re called the Time Jumpers because we play music that is…
MARQUIS HILL: THE WAY HE PLAYS
CHOPS HAVE NEVER REALLY IMPRESSED ME. AS MY SAX TEACHER USED TO SAY, ‘MOST MUSICIANS ARE LIKE A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN WHO JUST KEEPS ON CONSTANTLY CHATTERING ABOUT HOW GORGEOUS SHE IS. YOU FEEL LIKE SAYING ‘JUST SHUT UP AND LET…
LEW TABACKIN’S SOUNDSCAPES: LAST OF THE BIG-TONED TENORS.
IT SEEMS SO SIMPLE AND BASIC, BUT FEW ARTISTS EVER GRASP THE TRUTH OF IT. EVEN LOUIS ARMSTRONG ONCE SAID THAT THE MOST IMPORTANT ADVICE HE WAS EVER GIVEN WAS ‘DEVELOP A GOOD TONE SO PEOPLE WILL WANT TO LISTEN…