This Feb 2011 session was the last record that violinist Billy Bang did before finally succumbing to cancer, and if you permit, he definitely went out with a bang. He was usually associated with the avant garde, but each time…
Author: George W. Harris
A NEW ERA OF TRIOS? Tamir Miler Trio: Walk in Spirit
It seems that every where I turn, jazz trios of piano/bass/drums seem to be all over the place. Is it due to economics? Size of stages? Poorly made reeds? I’m not sure why, but this seems to be an era…
Howard Britz: The Feeling of Jazz
Here’s an interesting tale, bassist of over 30 years Howard Britz decided to learn the piano, and leads here an impressive trio on a mix of well written originals and swinging standards. He’s got an incessant feel of swing on…
SOMETHING GOOD FROM VENEZUELA! Jose Duque’s Reload: Fragility, Revisited
When the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez met with Barack Obama a few years ago, the world would have been better off if he had given our President a copy of this session by compatriot drummer Jose Duque than his…
Marco Santiago: Rudiments, Surrender
Here’s a guy that’s a throwback to the days of singer/songwriter/producers like Todd Rundgren and Roy Wood who did every part of a record to make it a true personal project. Hawaiian based Marco Santiago releases two impressive discs, the…
The Miami Saxophone Quartet: Four of a Kind: Live in Concert
Here’s a sax quartet that is quite ecumenical in its delivery. Made up of Gary Keller/ss, Gary Lindsay/as, Ed Calle/ts and Mike Brignola/bari, the Miami Sax Quartet mixes and matches originals with standards, and unaccompanied reeds with various supporting teams.…
Platz-Demos-Delvo-McLellan: Differential Equations
The team of Jeff Platz/g-elec, Kit Demos/b-elec, Fabio Delvo/as and John McLellan/dr join together for a truly collaborated effort of angular musical permutations that focus more on interaction and muscularity than mere melody.. Assertive and edgy pieces such as “Bell…
Chad Lefkowitz-Brown: Imagery Manifesto
Here’s an impressive debut by a NY-based tenorist who I hope comes to the Best Coast sometime soon. Chad Lefkowitz-Brown (from now on referred to as “L-B”)graduated from the Brubeck Fellowship Program, winning 15 Downbeat awards and has started paying…
Steve Gadd Band: Gadditude
One of the guys artists like Chick Corea, Bob James and Al DiMeola have made their first call drummer, Steve Gadd has also had an impressive career as a leader in his own right. Here, he leads a nifty quintet…
David Weiss: Endangered Species: The Music of Wayne Shorter
Trumpeter David Weiss has come up with an inspired idea-put together a tribute to Wayne Shorter’s compositional pen with a large ensemble that takes away some of the tangential distractions and emphasizes the rich complexities by making them fuller and…