Old timer Johnnie Bassett had been juke jointing since Clinton was monogamous, just before he left for his eternal judgment and reward not too long ago. Here, on his last earthly recording, the Detroit landmark teams up with a cooking rhythm…
Category: Reviews
Matt Garrison: Blood Songs
New York based saxophonist Matt Garrison has a nice beefy sound on this collection of post bop original, sans one standard. He leads a hard hitting team of Greg Gisbert/tp, Michael Dease/tb, Roy Assaf/p, Dezron Douglas/b, Ulysses Owens Jr/dr through…
THE LATEST FROM THE VENERABLE SAVOY LABEL: Floratone: Floratone II, Don Byron: New Gospel Quintet- Love, Peace and Soul
There are few labels that truly stick to the heartfelt attitude of jazz, both its roots and future. The latest two releases on the Savoy label take you to the hallowed halls of where jazz began, the church, as well…
Ralph Peterson: The Duality Perspective
The Duality Perspective by drummer Ralph Peterson is supposed to show the Yin and Yang of life by having two types of bands, a quartet (or “Fo’tet,” as it’s termed here) and a sextet. I’ve never understood the whole two…
BJU MOODS-Jeremy Siskind: Finger-Songwriter, Isaac Darche: Boom-Bap!tism
BJU Records is a small outfit that puts out some excellent material. These two latest releases show their ability to have ears for the adventurous as well as the tried and true. Pianist Jeremy Siskind has put together an…
Michael Sahl & Eric Salzman: Civilization and its Discontents
This modern “opera” consists of two “movements” of sounds, genres and attitudes that come across like a bad day at the local Renaissance Faire. If your idea of a good time is scatological rhymes, 70s cliché’s (“If it feels good…
Marc Rossi Group: Mantra Revealed
Here’s a great mix of musical genres provided by composer/keyboardist/leader Marc Rossi. Mixing sounds and rhythms from Central Asia with American jazz, Rossi leads a core team of Lance Van Lenten/sax, Bill Urmson/b and Mauricio Zottarelli/dr though a collection…
Brad Mehldau Trio: Where Do You Start?
This is Brad Meldau’s second release this year with his trio with Larry Grenadier/b and Jeff Ballard/dr. His previous one, Ode, emphasized the group’s interplay on original compositions, while this bookend is comprised of covers of music that truly covers…
Mark Winkler: Sweet Spot**
**When we changed formats, this disc inadvertantly got ignored. So, in view of the fact that Winkler is putting out a new release soon, we’ve put this one up so you can appreciate the trajectory of this guy’s talents. If there’s a snazzier singer/songwriter…
Denise Donatelli@Vitello’s 10.13.12
When I lived in Italy, I was always fascinated by the fact that all of the pasta dishes that I ate consisted of relatively simple fare: a basic tomato sauce, some basil, a dash of pepper and salt, and that…