Saxophone player Kenny Shanker and his new album, Beautiful Things, act as quite the polar opposite to the Swiss and Russian jazz that has dominated my review schedule over the last few weeks. These international […]
The final studio recording from Japanese pianist Masabumi Kikuchi, Hanamichi, is the second in a series of piano recordings I’ve received over the last couple of weeks that combine adventurous playing with stunning sound quality. […]
If Denise Mangiardi‘s Brown Book comes off as far more ambitious than the average release from a jazz singer, that’s because Mangiardi is far more than just a singer. She’s a composer, arranger and musician, […]
Talk about extremes–yesterday it was Filter, and today it’s the Flying Horse Big Band. I was just thinking that the big band jazz releases have been slowing down lately, but if you can say one […]
Jeff Williams and his new album Bloom makes me rethink all of those reviews where I discuss the idea of the drummer-as-leader in jazz, and how that individual coaxes performances from the others on stage […]
If music is the universal language of mankind, then jazz is especially cogent since so many musicians from so many other countries are mesmerized by it–enough to devote their lives to this American art form. […]
Jazz and humor usually don’t go hand in hand, even though the stereotype of a jazz club is one where everyone is laughing and enjoying themselves and having a great time. The Nick Sanders Trio […]
Just a few days after writing my first book review ever–for Brian Jabas Smith’s moving Tucson Salvage–here comes the second: Joris Teepe‘s In the Spirit of Rashied Ali. Well, this isn’t exactly a book as […]
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