Ah! How nice to hear a tenor saxist not under the shadow of John Coltrane. Dan Wilensky has a nice rich and thick sound, and uses it well on this modern hard bop disc with Mark Soskin/p, Dean Johnson/b, Tony…
Author: George W. Harris
The Michael Treni Big Band: Boy’s Night Out
If you like your big band charts clean, fresh and tasty, here’s a band after your own heart. Michael Treni does the conducting, arranging, ‘bone playing and some of the composing on this cooking disc with an 18 piece big…
Ivo Perelman/Joe Morris/Gerald Cleaver: Family Ties
I knew that I was in trouble with this disc when the first song, the title track, opened with Perelman soloing with simply the mouthpiece of his saxophone. Oh, boy. After that the material with Morris/b and Cleaver/dr has the…
Kathy Kosins: The Ladies Of Cool
Subtitled “A love letter to O’Connor, O’Day, Christy, London” this charming disc has vocalist Kathy Kosins delivers a tribute to the “vo-cool” babes of the 50s and 60s by doing keeping the attitude, but necessarily the signature songs alive. She…
Alfredo Rodriguez: Sounds of Space
This Cuban-born pianist is the latest discovery of Quincy Jones, and he’s bursting all over with great ideas and performance. I caught him last year with his trio, and left the show anxious for something tangible from him. Here it…
Marshall Gilkes: Sound Stories
Trombonist Marshall Gilkes delivers an impressively strong post-bop session here with like minded mates Donny McCaslin/ts, Adam Birnbaum/p, Yasushi Nakamura/b and Eric Doob/dr. The compositions, all penned by the leader, are well crafted, with almost half of them containing two…
The Gipsy Kings@Nokia Theatre 08.18.12
No attitude. No on stage charisma. No light shows. No bimbo dancers. They don’t even sing in English!!! Yet, year after year, the Gipsy Kings ( just like on this 2 hour show at the comfortably air conditioned Nokia Center)…
Sara Gazarek@Vitello’s 08.19.12
It’s easy to see why singer Sara Gazarek chose the title of her latest release to be Blossom and Bee. Yes, it’s also the name of a famous song, and the disc is a tribute to vocalist Blossom Dearie. But,…
****ROTW****Chris Brubeck’s Triple Play: Live At Arthur Zankel Music Center
Ok, if you really must know, the ENTIRE title of this disc, AFTER what I’ve already written, includes (take a deep breath)“with Joel Brown and Peter Madcat Ruth and Special Guests Dave Brubeck and Frank Brown.” What you’ve got here…
SOUL! Etta James: Live At Montreux 1975-1993, Gregory Generet: (re)generet-ion
Not every female singer sounds like Norah Jones, and not every male singer is a clone of Michael Buble’. Here are a pair of vocalists, one gone, one new, that show how it’s done. OK, will both of you…