Pianist and composer Mariah Parker puts together a flowing and pastoral team that shows inspiration from the group Oregon, fitting, since soprano saxist Paul McCandless is situated well in this ensemble as well. Along with Matthew Montfort/g, Gary Brown/b, Mark…
Author: George W. Harris
Andy Ezrin: I Was There
If you’re known by the company you keep, pianist/composer Andy Ezrin should be better known. This album has him with the pick of the litter mixing and matching from solo settings to quintets with Donny McCaslin/ss-ts, Randy Brecker/tp, John Patitucci/b…
The Way Back Whens: Live at the Yardbird Suite
Why play the same old hot jazz tunes from 100 years ago when you can fire up your own? That’s the idea behind the album by The Way Back Whens, featuring Dan Davis/cl-sax, Keith Rempel/sousaphone-b, Audrey Ochoa/tb, Eric Weiden/tp, Brett…
Ken Peplowski: Unheard Bird
It’s quite oxymoronic to advertise “Unheard Bird”, as even on this album Ken Peplowski and his semi-big band are playing tunes that have been heard many times before. However, the idea of the string section teamed with Terell Stafford/tp, Glenn…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****PREACH IT!!…Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Live In France
Just to let you know…. Every Sunday morning when I get dressed for church, I put on some Sister Rosetta Tharpe, just to get me in that “feelin’” as they say. One of the pioneers of black gospels of the…
Noah Becker: Mode For Noah
Alto saxist brings a Phil Woods inspired alto sax into a clever setting in using Rhodes keyboardist Brent Jarvis to bring in rich hues alongside Kosma Busheikin/b and Graham Villette/dr for some originals. The album has a vintage CTI feel,…
Mina Cho’s Grace Beat Quartet: Beat Mirage
Pianist Mina Cho mixes modern jazz with traditional Korean tones with a team of Yeongjin Kim/dr, Max Ridley/b and bringing in Insoo Kim for some folk instruments such as the janggu, jing, aoie-buk and kkwaenggwari. The exotic instrumentation is an…
Neal Caine Trio: Skip To My Lou
Bassist Neal Caine leads a trio with Andrew Fisher/p-key and Henry Connerway III/dr through a mix of originals and jazz covers. His own work has a soulful/funk flavor as on the title pieces and the festive “St Paul Sandwich-Interlude”, with…
Annie Chen: Guardians
Annie Chen bridges musical continents, singing on her compositions with a mix of Eastern and Western sounds with Marius Duboule/g, Fung Chern Hwei/vi-va, Mathew Muntz/b, Alex LoRe/as-fl-bcl, Vitor Goncalves/p-acc and Satoshi Takeishi/dr-perc. Her bold and confident voice, high pitched, brings…
Ed Johnson & Novo Tempo: For Every Living Thing
Singing and bringing in a variety of guitars, Ed Johnson creates an album of breezy bossas with the Novo Tempo of Jennifer Scott/voc-key, Kristen Strom/wwinds-voc, John Worley/tp-fh, Jeff Cressman/tb, Scott Sorkin/g, Rene Worst/b, Mark Ivester-Jason Lewis/perc and various guests. Worley’s…