Attention fans of vocal jazz! This review is for YOU! What Jackie Paris is to male singers, Beverly Kinney is to females. She had an incredibly individual voice all her own, recorded some incredibly moving music, never quite got to…
Category: Reviews
Ablaye Cissoko/Volker Goetze: Amanke Dionti
About 4 years ago jazz trumpeter Volker Goetze got together with Senegalese kora player (sort of like a West African sitar) Ablaye Cissoko to put together an intriguing duet recording of African tunes. The mix of continents worked amazingly well,…
Bobby Wellins Quartet: Birds of Brazil
I don’t have the slightest idea where Hep Jazz Records finds these obscure musicians from the UK. Just when you think you know of every jazz artist, Hep Jazz owner Alastair Robertson throws some release by a ringer that gets…
BIG BAND FLAVORS! Bob Mintzer Big Band: For The Moment, Ryan Truesdell: Presents Centennial: Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans
It’s a rare thing these days to hear modern big band music. Here are a couple ones worth seeking out that sound fresh, vibrant and modern. Saxophonist Bob Mintzer has carved out a remarkably flexible career, working with the…
Johnnie Bassett: I Can Make That Happen
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…
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…