When you think of the most important and significant of the composers of tunes that have become standards, as well as jazz standards, you usually first think of Gershwin, Kern, Mercer, Porter, Rogers & Hart and Rogers and Hammerstein. Johnny…
Month: September 2020
BLACK(MAN)-MAGIC WOMAN…Cindy Blackman Santana: Give The Drummer Some
This latest release by Cindy Blackman Santana continues to show her growth and progression as an artists. The lady that started her career with the likes of Wallace Roney and Jackie McLean displays a Bitches Brew-styled album cover this time,…
JAZZ FROM HEAVEN…Tony Adamo: Angel Bop
Bay area vocalist Tony Adamo tells another jazz story in swinging Steinbeck fashion, this time from a heavenly viewpoint. Adamo sings out the role of an bebopping angel “in the heavens of my walk here on earth…digging on the new…
THE APOTHEOSIS OF SMALL GROUP SWING…Eddie Heywood: The Eddie Heywood Collection 1940-59
Virtually unknown these days, pianist Eddie Heywood (1915-89) led a group of small bands in the 40s up through the 50s, and during the Swing Era put out some of the most sublime sounds you’ll ever encounter, as this two…
Miles Davis: Hi-Hat All Stars Recorded Live at the Hi Hat, Boston 1955
If your only knowledge of Miles Davis is his plugged in work such as Bitches Brew, or his modal work classic Kind of Blue, you might be surprised to learn that he was at one time a proto-bopper, having learned…
JD Allen: Toys: Die Dreaming
It seems that with each subsequent album, tenor saxist JD Allen is focusing on turning his horn into a musical fog machine a la Ben Webster. Fewer notes and more mist reaches its height here with Allen in a trio…
Nate Wooley: Seven Storey Mountain VI
Nate Wooley is on his sixth volume of his song cycle, with this recent incarnation a 45 minute single opus piece with the trumpet player bringing in a disparate group including Rhodes players Emily Manzo/Isabelle O’Connor, guitarists Ava Mendoza/Julien Desprez,…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****Kenny Washington: What’s The Hurry
With such a dearth of male singers that sound fresh, lyrical and yet holding onto the tradition, Kenny Washington is like a vocal oasis. The tenor shines brightly on recent release, and he creates an art gallery of musical portraits…
MONK IN HIGH SCHOOL…Thelonious Monk: Palo Alto
If nothing else, 16 year old high school student Danny Scher had Chutzpah. How many teenagers would have the guts to even try to sign up Thelonious Monk for a gig at a local school, but somehow this guy pulled…
TENOR TIME…Gregory Dudzienski Quartet: Beautiful Moments
As soon as you put on this impressive album by Gregory Dudienski, you’re going to ask yourself, “OK, who is he reminding me of?”, but you don’t have to go to far, as the first song’s title gives it all…