Michael J. West
Michael J.’s Contributions
11/08/11 Albums
Alma Adentro
Miguel Zenón
Michael J. West reviews Miguel Zenón’s new CD, 'Alma Adentro.'
11/01/11 Albums
Warren Wolf
Warren Wolf
Warren Wolf loves melody, and he likes it spit-and-polish. It’s evident in the song choices for the Baltimorean vibraphonist’s debut. Whether originals or covers, the straight-ahead tunes are all well developed, occasionally even through-composed; no stretched...
10/21/11 Albums
Freedom
Orrin Evans
Freedom contains a curious patchwork of styles—none of them, ironically, free. Pianist Orrin Evans and his trio (Dwayne Burno on bass, Byron Landham or Anwar Marshall on drums), plus tenor saxophonist Larry McKenna on two songs, tackle various aspects of...
08/14/11 Albums
What’s It All About
Pat Metheny
How else could Pat Metheny follow the over-the-top grandeur of Orchestrion ? What’s It All About is a solo album, the guitarist performing ’60s and early ’70s pop staples—a couple of them jazz crossovers—mostly on baritone guitar. It’s a quiet, beautiful...
07/14/11 Concerts
Copenhagen Jazz Festival 2011
Although some American superstars were featured the highlights were—surprise!—the homegrown Danish acts.
06/20/11 Features
Matana Roberts: Gypsy Woman
Saxophonist Matana Roberts preaches the avant-garde gospel far and wide
06/18/11 Albums
Latin Bird
T.K. Blue
On Latinbird , which is exactly what it says it is, alto saxophonist T.K. Blue gets the recipe right. He picks some great Charlie Parker tunes (plus two originals and “’Round Midnight”), gives them skillful Latin arrangements of all varieties, and assembles...
06/05/11 Albums
Outer Reaches
Ralph Peterson's Unity Project
Outer Reaches is drummer Ralph Peterson’s tribute to organist Larry Young and trumpeter Woody Shaw. Not surprisingly, its 12 tracks include two-thirds of their 1965 New Thing classic, Unity . The quartet (Peterson, trumpeter Josh Evans, saxophonist Jovan...
May 2011 Albums
Alone at the Vanguard
Fred Hersch
Michael J. West reviews new album from pianist, a live solo set from his week-long residency at the Village Vanguard in December 2010
May 2011 Albums
Sotho Blue
Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya
Considering that South African pianist/composer Abdullah Ibrahim founded his Ekaya ensemble as an anti-apartheid vehicle, Sotho Blue —a straight-ahead re-examination of Ibrahim’s older pieces in a post-apartheid context—is long overdue. Twenty years after...
May 2011 Albums
Live
Tony Malaby's Tamarindo
Live has no business being so dull. The Tamarindo quartet comprises four bottomless wells of talent (tenor/soprano saxophonist Tony Malaby, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, bassist William Parker and drummer Nasheet Waits), joining here in a free session at the...
March 2011 Albums
For All We Know
Eddie Henderson
Casual listening might dismiss For All We Know as background music. It has the swing and lyrical-but-airy atmosphere of the jazz quartet at your local Sunday Brunch special, and trumpeter-leader Eddie Henderson and guitarist John Scofield, while creative...
March 2011 Albums
Enesco Re-Imagined
Lucian Ban & John Hebert
Enesco Re-Imagined is visionary third-stream music. That’s undercounting the streams, actually; the album is a compound of musical compounds. Romanian composer Georges Enesco, whose work is here re-orchestrated by pianist Lucian Ban and bassist John Hébert...
March 2011 Albums
Conversations
Jim Hall & Joey Baron
Conversations is a trifle. Legendary guitarist Jim Hall and brilliant drummer Joey Baron create a low-key, experimental affair, more concerned with subtlety and texture than melody or harmony. It’s not only the ensemble and ambitions that are small-scale...
March 2011 Albums
Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Marcus Shelby Orchestra
Soul of the Movement , despite the monumental figure it pays homage to, is the least ambitious of bassist-composer Marcus Shelby’s three explorations of African-American history. Where Port Chicago was a tragedy of literary proportion, and Harriet Tubman...
January/February 2011 Albums
Have You Ever Been…?
Turtle Island Quartet
You can’t say the Turtle Island Quartet lacks ambition. In 68 minutes, Have You Ever Been…? offers both explorations of Jimi Hendrix tunes and an extended, four-movement original by TIQ founder David Balakrishnan. If anything, it’s more ambition than one...
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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. His work has also appeared in the Village Voice, TBD, Jazz.com, 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 daughter.
Michael J. West joined the JazzTimes community on Jun 13, 2008