Michael J. West
Michael J.’s Contributions
September 2008 • Albums
Harriet Tubman
Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra
Comparison of Harriet Tubman to that other triumph-over-slavery jazz oratorio, Wynton Marsalis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Blood on the Fields, is inevitable. Straightahead bassist/composer/conductor Marcus Shelby shares Marsalis’ penchants for elaborate orchestrations...
September 2008 • Albums
Breeze
Eliot Zigmund Quartet
Drummer Eliot Zigmund is the leader on Breeze, but you’d never know it. Zigmund has the most compositions, and is a prominent and masterful swinger, yet each contributor (saxophonist Mike Lee, pianist Gary Versace and bassist Phil Palombi) is so crucial...
August 2008 • Artist Profiles
Grant Stewart: Young Old Soul
Until about three years ago, Grant Stewart was usually the youngest musician on the bandstand. “I’ve always been drawn to older musicians,” the 36-year-old tenor saxophonist muses. “My first music teacher, Pete Schofield, put me in his big band; there I...
June 2008 • Albums
Just Like This
Keefe Jackson’s Project Project
From the moment it begins, Just Like This—a free-jazz session by Chicago saxophonist/clarinetist Keefe Jackson and his 12-piece Project Project—is inspired music. Its opener, “Dragon Fly,” begins with sparse, atonal counterpoint between trombonists Nick...
June 2008 • Albums
Taking the Soul for a Walk
Dafnis Prieto Sextet
Never has the line between traditional Latin-jazz and 21st-century postbop been so wonderfully blurred as on Taking the Soul for a Walk. Drummer-composer Dafnis Prieto outlines the dance rhythms of his native Cuba, but his sextet adds complexity that evokes...
May 2008 • Albums
Lights and Shadows
Bobby Few
Listening to Bobby Few play piano is like reading Ulysses: You can detect warm, familiar stories, but you have to make sense of the tendrils of abstraction covering them. Lights and Shadows, however, pares down some of the density in Few’s work, revealing...
May 2008 • Albums
On the Shore
Mark O’Leary
With On the Shore, Mark O’Leary demonstrates that even beautiful music can bore the hell out of you. The Irish guitarist and his quartet—percussionist Alex Cline, trumpeters John Fumo and Jeff Kaiser—create an atmospheric soundscape that conjures images...
May 2008 • Albums
Live at JazzBaltica
Trio Da Paz & Joe Locke
A more virtuosic crew than Brazil’s Trio da Paz (guitarist Romero Lubambo, bassist Nilson Matta, drummer Duduka Da Fonseca) defies possibility—unless, of course, vibraphonist Joe Locke joins them. That foursome lets loose on Live at JazzBaltica, a gorgeous...
May 2008 • Albums
Vu-Tet
Cuong Vu
At first, trumpeter-composer Cuong Vu’s Vu-Tet (featuring saxophonist Chris Speed, electric bassist Stomu Takeishi and drummer Ted Poor) is just confusing. The first track, “Intro,” is all tranquil atmospheres. The second, “Accelerated Thoughts,” is noisy...
April 2008 • Albums
Sweet Earth Flower: A Tribute to Marion Brown
His Name Is Alive
Fifteen years after Marion Brown’s last recording, an obscure rock band from Detroit finally recognizes his majestic music. His Name Is Alive grasps that the free-jazz altoist is most importantly a tunesmith; the marvels crafted on Sweet Earth Flower–a mixture...
March 2008 • Albums
Angola Project
Howard Wiley
Inspired by field recordings of inmates at Louisiana’s Angola Prison, Howard Wiley’s Angola Project recreates their rustic folk sound. Yet the tenor saxophonist’s craftsmanship is also on display, generating a tension that defines the album as much as the...
March 2008 • Albums
Dance of the Soothsayer’s Tongue: Dennis Gonzalez NY Quartet at Tonic
Dennis Gonzalez NY Quartet
Dance of the Soothsayer’s Tongue features the much-discussed 34-minute recording of trumpeter Dennis Gonzalez’s quartet at Tonic, during the 2003 Festival of New Trumpet Music. In addition, Gonzalez and percussionist Michael “T.A.” Thompson have added a...
January/February 2008 • Albums
Little Things Run the World
Ben Allison & Man Size Safe
Little Things Run the World, the nifty new CD from bassist Ben Allison and his band Man Size Safe, offers an Americana that’s hard to put a finger on. Sometimes they mine a multiethnic, Southwestern vein; other times it’s the folk of the Heartland. But the...
December 2007 • Albums
Live at the Jazz Gallery
Jason Lindner Big Band
There’s nothing earth-shattering on Live at the Jazz Gallery, either from keyboardist Jason Lindner or his 12-piece postbop band. That’s important to remember, because this double-disc generates the kind of euphoria that’s usually reserved for something...
December 2007 • Albums
New Constellations: Live in Vienna
Josh Roseman
Concept albums can be risky. They demand to be judged by their structure; if that structure fails, the album suffers, regardless of its other aspects. That’s the case with trombonist Josh Roseman’s New Constellations: Live in Vienna, a collection of compelling...
November 2007 • Albums
Dreams and False Alarms
Andy Milne
A curveball from Andy Milne, onetime keyboardist for Steve Coleman’s M-Base Collective and leader of the similarly funk/fusion-charged Dapp Theory, sounds like most people’s straight shots: acoustic piano music with a melodic foundation and a consistent...
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ReportAbout Michael J. West
Michael J. West has loved jazz since he was a teenager in North Carolina, but it wasn't until moving to the big city--Washington, D.C.--after college that he became a devoted fanatic. In addition to JazzTimes, he covers jazz for the Washington City Paper, and contributes to The Onion (D.C. Edition), the Village Voice, and Jazz.com. His work has also appeared in the Monterey County Weekly and the East Bay Express. West lives in D.C., near the "jazz district" of U Street, with his wife and two cats--one of whom is named for Thelonious Monk.
Michael J. West joined the JazzTimes community on Jun 13, 2008