Drummer and composer Reggie Quinerly first got my attention with his soulful album from 2018, Words of Love that had him supporting some rich vocalists. This time around, he teams up with a hip post bop team of Kenny Dorham-inspired…
Month: May 2021
PIANO ALONE…Satoko Fujii: Hazuki, Gregg Karukas: Serenata
88 ivories and infinite ideas… Piano legend Satoko Fujii gives 8 solo readings of originals, all sounding spontaneous and organic. Each piece sounds like an impressionistic water color, even using harplike strings on “Hoffen” and “Invisible” to add space and…
ARE “EFFECTS” THE NEW STANDARD? Andrew Van Tassel: Shape Shifter, Greg Smith: Cluster 001
It seems that the trend these days for musicians is to not only play an instrument, but to ad “electronic effects”, or some synonym of the sort, to one’s recordings. Is it a viable idea, or just a trend? Listen…
ROCKERS…Fake Dudes: Magnet Animals, Rev Peyton’s Big Damn Band: Dance Songs For Hard Times
Rock is the new black… Two rocking guitars by Todd Clouser and Eyal Maoz form a quartet with Shanir Ezra Bumenkran/b and Jorge Servin/dr for ten tunes that have Clouser singing like a mix of Lou Reed talking, rap and…
Matt Panayides: Field Theory
Post bop and cool toned guitarist Matt Panayides forms a flowing team with tenor saxist Rich Perry, bassist Robert Sabin, drummer Mark Ferber and Matt Vashlishan on the elusive wind synthesizer. Sometimes, it’s hard to tell where the guitar ends…
THE WHITE BILLIE HOLIDAY? Peggy Lee: Something Wonderful-Sings the Great American Songbook, Things Are Swingin’-Her Greatest Songs
It never fails… Countless times I have played the “Blindfold Test” for friends by putting on a song by Peggy Lee in her early years, and invariably the listener will guess something like, “Definitely black, probably Billie Holiday”. They’re always…
Joe Traina: Tip of the Hat
Clarinetist Joe Traina drinks deep from the well of Benny Goodman on this collection of standards and beyond with a mix and match team of Scott Wendholt/tp, John Allred/tb, Dan Willis/ts, Memo Acevedo/perc, Pete McGuinness/voc and a core of Mike…
Shakin’ Woods: The Blues Proper Sessions Vol 2
Founding member Paul Dudley along with Rich Russman/g, George Belton/b and Austin Day/key-g gets rootsy on the four song ep. The shadow of Paul Green is cast long, with the team digging deep on the stark “The Chain” from his…
THIS IS A HARD BOP TENOR SAX 101…Joe Henderson: The Complete Joe Henderson Blue Note Studio Sessions
First, there has to be a disclaimer about this recent release that captures how jazz was supposed to sound like in the 1960s- The title might imply that this limited edition set by Mosaic Records is EVERYTHING tenor sax titan…
Dexter Allen : Keep Movin’ On
The swamp is cleaned by Dexter Allen, who plays bass, guitar, keyboards, sings, and may even sweep the studio along with drummers Christopher Minter or Joey Robinson, with a one-off with some guests. Allen growls like a lion as he…