Duo piano jazz recordings have been around since the early days of Albert Ammons with Meade Lux Lewis to Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn to Tommy Flanagan joining with Jaki Byard. This teaming together of post moderns Vijay Iyer and…
Month: April 2019
Five Play: Live From The Firehouse
Five ladies from the renowned DIVA Jazz Orchestra take a night off to go quintet for a swinging date led by drummer, composer and arranger Sherrie Maricle. She teams up with fellow composes/arrangers Norika Ueda/b, Tomoko Ohno/p, Janelle Reichman/ts-cl and…
Wild Man Conspiracy & Chris Cheek: Live at the Bimhuis
Tenor saxist Chris Cheeks teams up with the Wild Man Conspiracy of Gerald Kleijn/tp-ef, Guillermo Celano/g and Joost Kesselaar/dr for a March 2018 gig at the Bimhuis Amsterdam. A few of the tunes such as “The Adventures of Evil Pancake…
John Clifton: In The Middle Of Nowhere
The inside photo of this album has vocalist and harmonica man John Clifton hitching a ride on California’s Highway 99, which goes through the dusty boots of towns like Stockton, Turlock, Fresno and Modesto. This is the feel that Clifton…
Yelena Eckemoff & Manu Katche’: Colors
In previous albums, pianist/composer Yelena Eckemoff has explored themes ranging from pastoral settings and seasons of the year to Biblical Psalms, creating ensembles of various sized including artists such as Ralph Alessi, Chris Potter, Joey Baron and Ben Monder. This…
Jason Kao Hwang & Burning Bridge: Blood
Composer, leader and violinist Jason Kao Hwang leads his 7 member Burning Bridge ensemble through 47 minutes and 51 seconds of continuous music, with the “track” separations put in simply for “convenience.” What could have been a major traffic jam…
Thom Rotella: Storyline
Mainstream guitar master Thom Rotella mixes moods of Wes Montgomery with CTI soul on this fun session with a core team of Jimmy Branly/dr, Trey Henry/b and a rotating guest list of Bob Sheppard/bcl, Tierney Sutton/voc, Mitch Forman/key, Nick Mancini/vib…
Steve LIpman: Hats Off
Judging from the album photos, it’s hard to tell what size shirt vocalist Steve Lipman wears, but it has to be an extra long in order to leave enough room for enough heart for the sleeves. He takes on romantic…
Ingi Bjarni Trio: Fundur
Pianist and composer Ingi Bjarni Skulason leads an intuitive trio with Barour Reinert Poulson/b and Magnus Trygvason Eliassen/dr through some contemplative originals. At times, the team sounds like a Scandinavian take of The Bad Plus,as the title track has a…
The Interplay Jazz Orchestra: On The Sunny Side
Co-directed by Joey Devassy and Gary Henderson, the 16 member Interplay Jazz Orchestra is features swinging originals and some cleverly arranged standards on this album that will give a smile to big band fans. The team does a Latin sizzler…