Category: Ringer of the Week

Usually, if something is “new” or original, it actually means cacophonic. Here is an album that is creative, original and wonderfully melodic. John Stowell plays nylon string and fretless baritone guitars along with trombonist Dave Glenn. OK, a bit unorthodox,…

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One of jazz’s best kept secrets is the venerable bassist Henry “The Skipper” Franklin. He’s got history in his fingers, and everything he does is essential listening. This latest release has him teamed with a jazz/strings combo of Erik Jekabson/tp-fh,…

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Back when I was first getting into jazz in the 1970s, I’d take in a band here and there, and inevitably, the leader would introduce the members. Sooner or later, someone in the band would be identified as “a member…

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Yeah, I know…”is this one of those ‘jazz meets classical projects’ where neither types of fans are satisfied?” “Au, Contrare!” If you didn’t know that the ten songs on this album were composed by the pianist Frederic Chopin, you ‘d…

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Guys like keyboardist/composer Micah Graves drive me crazy. Here’s a great album, full of energy and excitement, yet there’s no web site in which to tell you where to get it, if they go on  tour. Who’s this guy’s  manager?…

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Peggy Duquesnel’s idea of this album is so simple and yet so brilliant that it instantly becomes timeless in its enjoyment. What the pianist/composer does is take Christian hymns and melds them with well known classical themes. Sometimes with a…

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This album from a 1967 gig in Vienna is a ringer, as it features Dave Brubeck’s classic quartet of Paul Desmond/as, Eugene Wright/b and Joe Morello/dr without its famed alto saxist (with reason given in the liner notes). So, what…

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There are certain musicians that are the embodiment of not only their instruments, but their style; trumpeter Freddie Hubbard is such an artists. For most of his career, he was the Cock of the Walk on the trumpet, with every…

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If singer Giacomo Gates knew any more about hip, he could be a chiropractor. His latest album (from a highly recommended catalogue) reveals another perspective of the man of the world-turned jazz vocalist. Teaming up with Tim Ray/p, John Lockwood/b…

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Things don’t get any bluesier than back porch picking, strumming and singing by Son House (1902-88), who recorded this album back in 1964, and is finally reissued again. He had a visceral, gut level approach to his singing, while his…

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