If you’re a big band fan, you’re in for a treat on this session by composer, conductor and trombone player John Yao. As heleads a pistol packing big band through ten flavorfully swinging charts. He must have grown up watching…
Category: Ringer of the Week
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****FLORIAN ROSS QUINTET: Lines & Crosscurrents
Florian Ross uses his skills at composing, arranging and playing the piano and synthesizer while he leads a team through one of the most clever, original and enjoyable albums in memory. He brings together Niels Klien/cl-ts, Markus Segschneider//g-pedal, David Helm/b…
****ROTW****A 10 YEAR OLD REMEMBRANCE…Dee Dee Bridgewater & Irvin Mayfield: Dee Dee’s Feathers
Yes, it’s been ten years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. Like the defiant city itself is Dee Dee Bridgewater, who smiles throughout this tribute to the Crescent City along with Irvin Mayfield & The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. All…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****Joe Alterman: Georgia Sunset
This album is subtitled “The exciting, swinging piano music of…” and with a gauntlet thrown down like that, pianist Joe Alterman has some work ahead of him. He more than lives up to the brand, as he tems up with…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK***Bill Evans: The Complete Fantasy Recordings
One of the great things about legendary pianist Bill Evans is that it’s easy to break down his career in terms of record labels. He “made his name” on Riverside, became a household name on Verve and then ended his…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****Mark Weinstein: In Jerusalem
Multi-flutest Mark Weinstein has made out an impressive career by creating a large catalogue of Latin and Brazilian music. This time around, he moves to a different neighborhood by taking on the Great Jewish Songbook, a collecton of traditional Hasidic melodies…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****Lauren Henderson: A La Madrugada
This one is going to catch you by surprise. As far as I can tell, this is the second album by Lauren Henderson, and it makes me want to find the first one. It’s a honey! She has a Latin…
YESTERDAYS AVANT GARDE IS TODAY’S UP TO DATE…George Russell: Complete 1956-1960 Smalltet & Orchestra Recordings, George Russell: Sextet & Septet Complete 1960-1962 Decca & Riverside Album Collection
While he did play the piano, George Russell is best known as a free thinking composer and arranger who changed the direction of jazz by using various “unorthodox” chordal patterns in his songs, setting the stage for the modal revolution…
THIS IS A HARD BOP TENOR 101…JR Monterose: Live In Albany 1979
Back in the 70s, almost every jazz artist was “going electric” one way or another. Jazz/rock fusion was at its zenith, and even diehards like Stan Getz succumbed to electric keyboards to “stay with the times.” Tenor saxist JR Monterose…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****BRAVI RAGAZZI…Newpoli: Nun te Vuta’
Here’s a wonderful disc that captures the passion of the Mediterranean. Newpoli consists of Angela Rossi-Carmen Marsico/voc, Roberto Cassan/acc, Bjorn Wennas/g, Fabio Pirozzolo/perc, Daniel Meyers/perc, Karen Burciaga/vio and Sean Farias/b delivering tradision al folk sounds from southern Italy with excitement…