Celebrating the Christmas and Chanukah season with the release of his timely album Holiday Soiree’, local mainstreamer George Kahn brought his swinging Jazz & Blues Review to The Grape and got the room into the festive spirit that would have…
Author: George W. Harris
Jason Yeager and Jason Anick: Sanctuary
Pianist Jason Yeager teams with violinist Jason Anick to create a graceful collection of pieces with Jason Palmer/tp, Billy Buss/tp, Edmar Colon/ts, Naseem/cel, Greg Loughman/b and Mike Connors/dr. There’s an easy bounce of the strings on “Nearness of Now”, with…
Ollee Owens: Nowhere To Hide
Ollee Owens brings a swampy growl to a collection of originals and covers with a team of Will McFarland-Phil Hugly-Chris Rodriguez/g, Tommy Sims-Craig Young/b, Bobby Blazier/dr, DeMarco Johnson-Gabe Klein/key and guest horns and vocals. The songs have a Memphis STAX…
Jim Witzel Quartet: Breaking Through Gently
Warm toned guitarist Jim Witzel leads a quartet of Phil Aaron/p, Dan Feiszli/b and Jason Lewis/dr through a mix of mostly originals. A duet read with Aaron on Paul Simon’s “Old Friends” actually begs for more of the same, as…
Joe Webb: Hamstrings & Hurricanes
Pianist Joe Webb forms a trio with Will Sach/b and Sam Jensson/dr for this 13 song collection of short and sweet originals. Ideas fly around like quick suggestions, such as a rumbling solo for “Some Jesson” for a quick minute,…
The Joymakers: Where The Bluebonnets Grow
Pre-swing hotcha jazz is delivered by the team of Colin Hancock/ct-bs-as-tb-voc, David JEllema/cl-cmsax-ct-voc, Lauryn Gould/as-ts-ss-voc, Dylan Blackhorn/acc-p, Wesien Borghesi/bj, Shane Dickens/p, Ryan Gould/b and Ryan Neubauer/dr through a collection of classics. TJellema’s C melody sax puffs well on “Wolverine Blues”…
THE THRILL IS STILL THERE…BB King: In France
This album of BB King at the Nancy Jazz Pulsations Festival from October 7, 1977 is a treasure in that it captures the blues giant at a time when he was quite under-recorded on his own. During this period, he…
Rich Halley 4: Dusk and Dawn
Tenor saxist Rich Halley forms a freebop team with Michael Vlatkovich/tb, Clyde Reed/b and Carson Halley/dr for some herky jerky originals. Hints of Charles Mingus are felt throughout, with sowm fun pre-swingish festivities on the traditional “Retrogade” while the horns…
Peter Somuah: Highlife
Ghanian bred trumpeter Peter Somuah mixes cultures and sounds on this album joined with Jesse Schilderink/ts, Antonde Bruin/key, Jens Meijer/dr, Danny Rombout/perc, Marijn van de Ven/b, Lamisi Akuka/voc, Thomas Botchway/perc, Pat Thomas-GyeduBlay Ambolley/voc and Bright Osei Baffour/g. After a spoken…
Mark Masters Ensemble featuring Tim Hagans: Sui Generis
Composer Mark Masters brings together some of LA’s finest in Tim Hagans/tp, Nicole McCabe/as, Jerry Pinter/ts-ss, Dave Woodley/tb, John Dickson/frhn, Jeff Colella/p, Chris COlangelo/b and Kendall Kay/dr for a collection of originals that harken back to Miles’ Birth of the…