Guitarist and composer Dennis Winge subtitles this 2 disc trio outing with August Bish/b and Kevin Cheli/dr “Odd Meters and Other Types of Fun”, showing his hand of playing in and with different time signatures. Sort of like a rock…
Month: March 2021
Gabriel Alegria Afro-Peruvian Sextet: Social Distancing
Leader and trumpet/flugelhorn player Gabriel Alegria puts a positive attitude toward the draconian COVID lockdown with a ten song suite on this encouraging release. His core band of Laura Andrea Leguia, Hugo Alcazar, Freddy Lobaton, Yuri Juarez and Mario Cuba…
John McLean & Charles Barkatz: Shadow Man
Blue-eyed soul singers John McLean and Charles Barkatz lead a team of Derek O’ Brien/g, Nick Connelly/key-B3, Chris Maresh /b, John Chipman/dr and guess The Texas Horns on some funky foot stomping blues. The team sounds like a gritty take…
THE NEW SINGING TRADITION…Alex Bird and the Jazz Mavericks: Whisky Kisses
Some lazy journalists and singing fans are trying to say that Canadian vocalist Alex Bird is a rival to fellow Canuck Michael Buble’. Well, after listening to his smoking debut, that critique is like saying that Kamasi Washington is a…
THE CORNERSTONE OF SOUTHERN BLUES ROCK…The Allman Brothers: Down In Texas ‘71
Any recording of the “real” Allman Brothers band of Duane & Gregg Allman with Dickey Betts, Berry Oakley, Jaimoe and Butch Trucks is worth searching after, and this recent release of a 1971 gig in Austin Texas is a real…
GENIUS IN ACTION…Allan Holdsworth: Leverkusen ‘97
There has been a series of posthumous releases of the fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth the past year since his death, and all I can say after listening/watching this cd/dvd of him in a trio setting from 1997 with (the late)…
Rebecca Dumaine and the Dave Miller Trio: Someday, Someday
Vocalist Rebecca Dumaine has a bright and trumpet-brassy tone to her voice, and she uses it well with clean enunciations of standards with the adroit Dave Miller Trio. She asserts her self, popping out of the cake on a fun…
George Haslam & Friends: Loveland
Recorded in concert about a decade back at the Rybanarugy in Prague, leader George Haslam plays the beefy baritone sax and the exotic taragoto with his flexible team of Stefano Pastor on electric violin and kalimba, keyboardist Jan Faix, bassist…
Monty Alexander: Love You Madly-Live At Bubba’s
Jamaican pianist Monty Alexander is captured leading a classy team of Paul Berner/b, Duffy Jackson/dr and Robert Thomas Jr./perc on this issuing of a 1982 gig in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Put in perspective, this gig has during Alexander’s days with…
RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA: A HERO’S TRIO OF SOUTH ASIAN BIRD CALLS
AS A SECOND GENERATION GREEK, I UNDERSTAND RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA’S CULTURAL SITUATION. AS THOMAS SOWELL WRITES IN HIS CLASSIC BOOK ETHNIC AMERICA, IT TAKES ABOUT FOUR GENERATIONS FOR A GROUP OF PEOPLE FROM ANOTHER CULTURE OR COUNTRY TO COMPLETELY ASSIMILATE INTO…