Abel Mireles Animo Sunnyside This is the debut as a leader for saxophonist and composer Abel Mireles, born and raised on the Southern border in the infamous Juarez -Tijuana region. For once, his story brings some ‘brightness” to this locale that we otherwise rather automatically label with crime, drugs, gangs, cartels, and the like. Mireles […]
Joe McCarthy’s New York Afro-Bop Alliance Big Band The Pan American Nutcracker Suite By Jim Hynes We associate Tchaikovsky’s ballet, The Nutcracker, with the Holiday season so this may seem a bit early. Yet the score is timeless. Drummer/leader Joe McCarthy’s 18-piece New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band (NYABA) is not the first large […]
Richard Baratta Music in Film: The Sequel Savant What does the collaborative team of drummer Richard Baratta and pianist/arranger Bill O’Connell do for an encore, having won a Grammy nomination for their 2020 studio debut, Music in Film: The Reel Deal? They try again for the bigger prize wit a follow-up that contains as much […]
Mike Clark, Leon Lee Dorsey, and Mike LeDonne Blues on Top Jazz Avenue 1 The title, Blues on Top, could just as easily read “Blues on Tap.” This trio tackles true classics – Oliver Nelson’s “Stolen Moments,” Ann Ronell’s “Willow Weep for Me,” Ellington’s “C Jam Blues,” and Dizzy’s “Birk’s Works,” among others. This is […]
The Baylor Project The Evening: Live at APPARATUS Be a Light/Motown Gospel Fresh off a stunning performance, clearly one of the highlights of the 2022 Newport Jazz Festival, we finally have a live recording from the 4-time Grammy-nominated The Baylor Project that gives listeners a sense of how easily the group builds instant rapport with […]
Ana Nelson Bridges Self-released Bridges is the first full-length debut, following 2017’s EP Wanderlust, for talented alto saxophonist and clarinetist Ana Nelson from Indiana who points to such formidable mentors as Walter Smith III, Greg Ward, and Gary Bartz, among several others. Originally trained in classical music, the album title is Nelson’s way of expressing […]
The Jon Cowherd Trio Pride and Joy TRIO Vol. 2 Le Coq As you’ve likely noticed by now, Le Coq Records, only in its second full year, is attracting some of the most prestigious names in jazz, like this top shelf trio of Jon Cowherd, John Patitucci, and Brian Blade. TRIO Vol. 2: Pride and […]
Ethan Philion Meditations on Mingus Sunnyside The music of Charles Mingus has been prominent in this centennial year and it’s refreshing to hear the many interpretations including this one, Meditations on Mingus, from Chicago bassist Ethan Philion who assembled a tentet for his arrangements of Mingus composition, many of them iconic. Mingus music is not […]
Al Foster Reflections Smoke Sessions The recently turned octogenarian drummer Al Foster does not have many who can claim to have played with as many icons as he has. Only Ron Carter, Roy Haynes, and Jack DeJohnette come to mind. There are likely others but consider that at various points in his career, Foster was […]
Marc Mommaas The Impressionist Sunnyside Okay, saxophonist/composer Marc Mommaas is a new name to these pages so here is a brief introduction. Mommaas was born in Tegelen, Netherlands in 1969 but has made NYC his home since 1997. His father, Henk Mommaas, was a well-known painter/artist in the Netherlands and developed his career in Amsterdam. […]
Neil Swainson Fire in the West Cellar Music Group Chances are that you will recognize some of the members of this quintet more so than the leader, the British Columbian bassist and composer Neil Swainson, who is releasing only his second album, 35 years after his acclaimed debut, 49th Parallel, released in 1987. Like that […]
Quentin Baxter Quintet Art Moves Jazz Charlton Singleton Crossroads BME Baxter Music Enterprises Art Moves Jazz and Crossroads are tandem releases on the same label by two friends, bandmates, and fellow members of South Carolina’s Gullah cultural community. They are two-fifths of the Grammy-winning (Good Time, 2017 Best Regional Roots Album) Gullah community ensemble Ranky […]
Enrico Pieranunzi Quintet The Extra Something Live at the Village Vanguard Camjazz Is it possible to record over eight albums and still remain under the radar? If you are unaware of pianist and composer Enrico Pieranunzi, that’s perfectly forgivable as the Italian piano master has developed most of his career in Europe. The Extra Something […]
Geoffrey Keezer & Friends Playdate Markeez This is the 23rd album as a leader for acclaimed pianist, composer, and arranger Geoffrey Keezer, who lighthearted calls this session, Playdate. While the term connotes arranging a date for a group of kids to congregate and play, Keezer and his bandmates do anything but approach this far-ranging recording […]
Andy Adamson Quintet A Coincidence of Cats Andros The whimsical title threw this writer at first. Maybe pianist and composer Andy Adamson was referencing “cats” as in musicians. Probably not, but it doesn’t matter as the music is rhythmically complex, harmonic, precise, engaging, and just about anything but whimsical. Adamson and his quintet hail from […]
Brian Lynch and Sphere of Influence Songbook Vol. 2 Dance The Way U Want To Hollistic MusicWorks Multi-GRAMMY® Award-winning trumpeter Brian Lynch returns with the second volume of his acclaimed Songbook Series: Brian Lynch And Spheres Of Influence – Songbook Vol. 2: Dance The Way U Want To. Lynch’s concept in the Series is to reclaim original compositions that he […]
Hanka G Universal Ancestry Culture Bridge As stated here previously, discovering a new artist often takes different forms whether by recommendation of friends, a glimpse at a video, or by viewing the accompanying musicians supporting the leader. The latter is the case for New York-based Slovak vocalist Hanka G (Gregusova), who with Universal Ancestry is […]
Barry Coates, Jimmy Haslip, & Jerry Kalaf New Dreams Outside in Music New Dreams is a trio of kindred spirits exploring the cerebral, the explorative, and the ethereal as they highlight the collaborative compositions of Coates and Haslip, and in some cases, all three members. The most familiar name to most would be bassist Jimmy Haslip, […]
Art Hirahara Verdant Valley Posi-Tone Pianist/composer/ and bandleader Art Hirahara delivers his eighth album as leader on the Posi-tone label, this time with a tight quartet rendering mostly originals with a Wayne Shorter cover and a tune each composed by bandmates, the core Posi-Tone rhythm tandem of bassist Boris Kozlov and in-demand drummer Rudy Royston. […]
Chucho Valdes & Paquito D’Rivera Reunion Sextet I Missed You Too! Sunnyside This is a reunion over 40 years in the making, uniting two of the most iconic Cuban jazz musicians of our times. Saxophonist/clarinetist Paquito D-Rivera has established a decorated legacy of his own since moving to New York in 1980. Among so many […]
Caleb Wheeler Curtis Heatmap Imani You have to give a quick nod or fist bump to saxophonist/composer Caleb Wheeler Curtis. Heatmap is a pretty cool (ah, oh well) title. While Immanuel Wilkins has drawn more ink in the last few years, it’s fair to say that Curtis is also one of more interesting alto saxophonists […]
Sheila Jordan Live at Mezzrow (with Alan Broadbent and Harvie S) Smalls Live Living Masters Series – Cellar Music This release marks good news on two fronts. We get the marvel, 93-year-old NEA Jazz Master, vocalist Sheila Jordan, and we have the debut of The Smalls Live Living Masters Series, which Jordan is inaugurating. Round […]
Steve Cardenas/Ben Allison/Ted Nash Healing Power –The Music of Carla Bley Sunnyside Renowned jazz composer and pianist Carla Bley is one of the most covered composers in jazz over the past six decades. Bley’s groups and those of her life partner, bassist and composer Steve Swallow, have featured such iconic names as Gary Burton, Paul […]
Michael Dease Best Next Thing Posi-Tone Trombonist and composer Michael Dease takes a broader approach to Best Next Thing than he did on 2021’s excellent soul-jazz/hard bop Give It All You’ve Got. While that set honored the sound of the classic Blue Note (often the notion of early Blue Note and Posi-Tone go hand in […]
Eyal Vilner Big Band The Jam! Self-released Multi-instrumentalist Eyal Vilner follows up his 2019 swing dancing effort, Swing Out where the band recorded live with swing dancers in the studio with The Jam! continuing to celebrate the renaissance of swing dancing and serve as one of its leading voices on the modern-day big band scene. Born in Tel […]
Dana Fitzsimmons with Bill Graham and Brandon Boone Fault Lines Self-released Jazz trio albums come in many shapes, colors, and configurations with this one, Fault Lines, in the standard piano-bass-drums lineup, anything but standard in its delivery of the music which, for lack of a better term, is free jazz. Drummer and leader Dana Fitzsimmons […]
Julius Rodriguez Let Sound Tell All Verve We almost got caught not paying attention. Much has been said of the so-called new vanguard of jazz whether that means cross-genre types such as Derrick Hodge, Kamasi Washington, Terrace Martin and their godfather of sorts, Robert Glasper, yet 23-year-old New York-based keyboards player and drummer Julius Rodriguez […]
Todd Marcus Jazz Orchestra In the Valley Stricker Street Recently we’ve seen projects blending the music of Africa and the Middle East. Bandleader and bass clarinetist Todd Marcus takes a slightly different tact in blending Arab (specifically Egyptian music with American jazz on this stimulating project featuring a nonet. Marcus’ dad is an Egyptian and […]
Evan Drybread Tiger Tail Self-released Evan Drybread is a freelance saxophonist from Indianapolis, Indiana and performs with the finest musicians in the Midwest. Although performing mostly in Central Indiana, Evan has performed around the globe including time as a show band musician for Royal Caribbean International. Drybread’s debut album Tiger Tail highlights his tenor and soprano sax […]
Clemens Grassmann Grass Machine Self-released Drummer and composer Clemens Grassmann is obviously elated to record this album, Grass Machine, as he says in this quote, “‘We left the drums the way Billy Hart had set them up,’ they told me as I entered the drum booth,” recalls Grassmann. “I had never felt such a sensation, […]
Vadim Neselovskyi Odesa: A Musical Walk Through a Legendary City Sunnyside The images of Ukraine that we see today are of war-torn cities while press reports and video clips praise the resilience of its people. Pianist and composer Vadim Neselovskyi gives us an artful, insightful musical tour of one the countries most famous cities, Odesa, […]
John Lee The Artist Cellar Music Group Okay, this writer confesses to a bias toward Cory Weeds’ Cellar Music Group. (see Grant Stewart Quartet) They just continue to issue great recordings as exemplified here by the debut as a leader for 28-year-old bassist and multi-instrumentalist John Lee from Vancouver. The Artist is a straight-ahead, swinging […]
Brian Landrus Red List: Music Dedicated to the Preservation of Our Endangered Species Palmetto Brian Landrus works the low end but has a high-minded mission. The poll winner on baritone saxophone and bass clarinet delivers his eleventh album as a leader with a fervent cause – Red List: Music Dedicated to the Preservation of Our […]
Grant Stewart Quartet with Bruce Harris The Lighting of the Lamps Cellar Music Aside from the alluring title, which in terms of words alone, not music, recalls Jim Hendrix’s “Burning of the Midnight Lamp,” we have a straight-ahead, inspired session led by Toronto-born, NYC-based tenorist Grant Stewart and his usual contingent plus rising NYC-based trumpeter […]
Caili O’Doherty Quarantine Dream Posi-Tone Here’s a fresh name for most of us and a different band than the usual Posi-Tone rhythm section. Caili O’Doherty is a pianist originally from Portland, OR but based in NYC for over the last decade. She is an award-winning performer as well as an educator, holding a Bachelor of […]
Billy Mohler Anatomy Contagious Music The leader, bassist Billy Mohler has worked as a sideman, producer, and songwriter for Dolly Parton. Macy Gray. Lady Gaga, Mavis Staples, Nile Rogers and others. The tenor saxophonist Chris Speed recently joined the revamped Bad Plus. The trumpeter Shane Endsley and drummer Nate Wood play in the Grammy-nominated jazz=-funk […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with MiMo Montreal-born and New York-based music artist Mimo reps Harlem and the 514 on the daily. Trained as a musician, actor and dancer, her work revolves around the tremendous powers of the body. Juggling her love for performing arts, Mimo evolved through choir singing, violin classes, […]
Will Bernard Pond Life Dreck to Disk So, as we learned from Grammy-nominated guitarist Will Bernard’s 2021 trio recording Ancient Grains, basically a soul-jazz outing on Posi-Tone covered on these pages, Bernard is a very versatile cat. Here is the opening to the previous review, just to set us up. Bernard, a Berkeley CA native […]
Alan Pasqua, Peter Erskine, Derek Oles Live in Italy Fuzzy Music If you’re not up on the whereabouts of former Weather Report drummer Peter Erskine, he continues to play both in fusion and acoustic formats. On this date, recorded live in Camogli, Italy in November 2021, Erskine shies away from titling the effort under his […]
Martin Bejerano CubanAmerican FR Miami-born pianist and composer Martin Bejerano straddles the lines between post-bop jazz and Latin music. With humility he claims not be a great Latin player, summing up his latest effort, #CubanAmerican, by saying, “It’s not Cuban music and not American music. It’s Cuban American music.” Take his humility lightly. He is […]
John Minnock Simplicity Dot Time Singer and song interpreter John Minnock returns with Simplicity, reprising his artistic partnership with saxophonist-composer and NEA Jazz Master Dave Liebman and following Minnock’s acclaimed 2020 release Herring Cove, which we covered on these pages. Minnock continues to evolve his sound, but fans of Kurt Elling and Mark Winkler will find that Minnock has a […]
Jonathan Barber & Vision Ahead Poetic Vision Ahead Music Jonathan Barber & Vision Ahead are releasing their third album, Poetic, as this group of five musicians that have played together for over a decade, many of whom are band leaders themselves, forge a dynamic, fresh sound. Maintaining the original lineup, the cast features acclaimed drummer Jonathan Barber at […]
Oded Tzur Isabela ECM Israeli-born and raised New York City based saxophonist, composer, bandleader and educator Oded Tzur issues his fourth album and second for the ECM label with Isabela, his follow-up to Here Be Dragons. Tzur’s sound on the saxophone is unlike anyone else. That’s because he marries Indian Classical music with jazz and developed a […]
Hendrik Meurkens and the WDR Big Band Samba Jazz Odyssey Zoho Pairing the smallest instrument, a harmonica as the featured lead with a 17-piece big band is paradoxical to begin with. Throw in the notion that the harmonicist, the practically iconic Henrik Meurkens delivers his Latin jazz compositions, a genre that rarely features the instrument, […]
Joey Alexander Origin Mack Avenue Rising jazz pianist, the Indonesian, Joey Alexander has already achieved three GRAMMY® nominations, performed from the Obama White House to the Grand Ole Opry to most recently, the floor of the United Nations and the child prodigy is still three years shy of legal drinking age. Origin, his debut for […]
Erik Friedlander A Queen’s Firefly Skiptone If the instrumental configuration of cello, piano, bass, and drums doesn’t wow you from the outset, you will feel quite differently after hearing this inventive, often exhilarating music led by cellist Erik Friedlander and his quartet named The Throw comprised of elite Downtown players who are all bandleaders– Uri […]
Peter Manning Robinson Celestial Candy Owl Walk So, you haven’t heard anything new in music lately? Welcome to a totally unique sound from multiple award-winning composer and pianist Peter Manning Robinson. In fact, we’ll have to expand his job title once we mention that he is the inventor of The Refractor Piano™ a new way […]
CeCe Gable Next Year’s Song Self-released When a jazz vocalist gets an endorsement from Sheila Jordan and when that same singer gathers a first-rate group of accompanists, all bandleaders themselves, you know that the recording is bound to be special. Such is the case for CeCe Gable, a late bloomer with a youthful sounding voice, […]
San Gabriel 7 w/ Sinne Eeg Under the Stars JRL-SGS We covered the progressive California-based funk band San Gabriel 7 for their 2020 release, Red Dress, with vocalist Femi Knight. Now, the band returns with the preeminent vocalist of Scandinavia, Sinne Eeg, in an album of her songs with, as before, mostly the instrumental arrangements […]
Mike Holober & Balancing Act Don’t Let Go Sunnyside Initially you may think that this chamber music project, Don’t Let Go, is a quiet, pensive, mostly classical music listening experience by judging the first few notes that you hear. If you’re familiar with GRAMMY nominated pianist and composer Mike Holober and his several big band […]