Vancouver-based label Cellar Music Group specializes in hard bop and post bop a la labels the past like Prestige and Blue Note. Here are a couple albums that pass the Time Machine test. Tenor saxist Grant Stewart leads a team…
Month: August 2022
The Honolulu Jazz Quartet: Straight Ahead
Celebrating 20 years together the Honolulu Jazz Quartet, consisting of John Kolivas/b, Tim Tsukiyama/sax, Dan Del Negro/p and Noel Okimoto/dr put together a mix of originals and jazz/boomer standards in fresh frameworks. Tsuiyama’s soprano on the opening “Scarborough Fair” teams…
Matthew Muneses: Noli Me Tangere
Tenor/alto saxist and composer Matthew mixes music and poetry on this passionate album of folk and jazz with a core team of Stu Mindeman/p, Clark Sommers/b and Dana Hall/dr along with guests Miguel Zenon/as and Zubin Edaji/tp. The music is…
David Binney: Tomorrow’s Journey
One of the most important of today’s left of center alto saxists is David Binney, with each release filled with energy and creativity. Here, he mixes and matches with a team of Luca Mendoza-Paul Cornish/key, Ethan Moffitt-Logan Kane/b, Benjamin Ring/dr,…
A STORY AS OLD AS SIN…Mahogany Fog: Faust
I don’t know how much darker you can delve than a collection of electronica and reeds by the team of Graham Epp, Jesse Warkentin, Scott Ellenberger, Andy Rudolph and Dan Moroz as they give a sonic journey of Faust selling…
CROONER DEPARTMENT…Erich Cawalla: The Great American Songbook
Erich Cawalla plays a melodic alto sax while also singing and scatting through a collection of songs dedicated to great vocalists of inspiration. He’s backed up mostly by a swinging big band, and sometimes with strings, with guest Randy Brecker…
Clint Bahr: Puzzle Box
While not quite a one man band, Clint Bahr plays a wide variety of instruments, including but not limited 12/8/4 string basses, tambura, acoustic guitars, Chapman Stick, E-Bow and even bringing in voice and mellotron as he mixes and matches…
ROOTS…David Owen: Oh Suzana Blues, The Harpoonist & The Axe Murder: Live At The King Eddy
Everyone looks good in basic blues… Singing with a campfire-styled voice, strumming and picking his guitar and blowing a mean harmonica, David Owen gives some rural originals in casual pack porch settings in solo to quartet settings. He picks and…
John Patitucci and The Le Coq Records All Stars@Catalina’s 08.23.22
Like the vintage days of Blue Note Records, fairly new label Le Coq Records has gathered together a coterie musicians that mix and match on each other’s projects. The depth of their bench was in evidence Tuesday night at Catalina’s,…
MILES’ MAJOR INFLUENCE…Ahmad Jamal’s Three Strings: The Complete OKEH, PARROT and EPIC Sessions 1951-1955
If there is one musician that had an impact on Miles Davis’ sparse and unique sound, it has to be pianist Ahmad Jamal, who is not only still with us, but still releasing fantastic albums of his still unique sound.…