Harvey Siders
Harvey’s Contributions
11/30/10 Albums
Cathy's Song
Bob Lark & Friends
For his sixth album as leader, the current four being on Jazzed Media, Bob Lark has seriously spread his producer's wings and succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. Surrounding himself with A-list friends - such as altoist Phil Woods, pianist Jim McNeely...
09/03/10 Albums
What Did You Dream?
Dan Gailey Jazz Orchestra
For over two decades, Dan Gailey has directed the jazz program at the University of Kansas where he's Professor of Music. After enriching the books of many college bands, as well as professional bands, Dan has taken a giant leap out of the Kansas cornfields...
09/02/10 Albums
New Latin Quarter Presents Jazz & Blues Collection Vol.1
Various Artists
In 1960, the New Latin Quarter -- Japan's largest night club -- began booking leading American recording stars for its then newly re-built Tokyo venue. Long after the club closed, the discovery of 47 reel-to-reel tapes, comprising some 300 recorded live...
08/03/10 Albums
Cedar Chest: The Cedar Walton Songbook
Various Artists
"Technique + Taste" would accurately describe the strongest attributes of pianist Cedar Walton, but less is known about his composing talents, or as this new look backward calls it, his "Cedar Chest." Hard to believe, it apparently marks the first time Walton...
08/02/10 Albums
Lend Me Your Ears
John Lang
Pick a club in the Big Apple and chances are John Lang has played there. The busy New York bassist-arranger-composer and occasional singer has released -- with lots of help from his friends -- his second album: a compilation of nine originals for two quintets...
07/12/10 Albums
Clarity
Dave Anderson Quartet
In classical music, how you develop material is more important than its source. Simply put, "variations" always trump "themes." Example: any of Elgar's elaborately constructed Enigma Variations , as opposed to the original staid tune that gave birth to them...
07/08/10 Albums
Abacus
Frank Glover
In a recent interview, composer Frank Glover complained about "a giant gap between improvisation and contemporary classical composition...we don't even have the words to describe the music that falls in that gap." He seems to have forgotten the Third Stream...
07/07/10 Albums
A Handful of Stars
Adam Schroeder
It's so easy to get carried away with a debut; tempting to announce that so-and-so has "burst on the scene." Well color me "carried away:" I find it both easy and tempting to report that, as a leader, baritonist Adam Schroeder has dutifully exploded as horn...
06/28/10 Albums
Boomer Jazz
Marius Nordal
Solo piano is the ultimate challenge: you're all alone, excerpt for those 88 keys flashing their ivories. No other horn waiting to pick up the melodic slack, no additional rhythm guys keeping time. Yet solo piano is a mixed blessing. You assume full responsibility...
06/20/10 Albums
Kindred Spirits
The Jimmy Amadie Trio
No one ever promised life would be fair, but c'mon...Jimmy Amadie keeps getting knocked down after the bell has been sounded. Being an ex-boxer, and a pianist, Philadelphia-born Amadie knows full well he has the right to sing the blues. His career as a keyboardist...
06/12/10 Albums
Douglas on Blue Note
Various Artists
During the year or so that Alan Douglas was head honcho of United Artists' jazz division, he made a significant contribution to its recorded literature. In retrospect, it seems he came out with a new album every week. In reality, some of the tracks date...
06/11/10 Albums
Bright Future
Vince Norman/Joe McCarthy Big Band
Release number two for the Norman-McCarthy band, and the momentum from its debut album, Words Cannot Express , as well as ten of its key players being intact, lend continuity to this exciting D.C.-based organization. Since Washington seems to have an inexhaustible...
06/07/10 Albums
Live at the Jazz Showcase
Ted Hogarth and the Mulligan Mosaics Big Band
Back in the early Fifties, when Gerry Mulligan formed his famous quartet with Chet Baker, it was without a piano to provide that front line with the ultimate harmonic freedom. In 1960, when Mulligan expanded his composing and arranging palettes to embrace...
04/12/10 Albums
Ballet of the Bouncing Beagles
Phil Kelly & The Northwest Prevailing Winds
Phil Kelly -- crusader for canines, patriarch of puns, scholar of scoring -- has once again assembled an all-star collection of sidemen and soloists who can sight-read and improvise from some of the most complex charts in all Jazzdom. The mere fact that...
04/06/10 Albums
Two Legends of Jazz
Johnny Varro featuring Ken Peplowski
There are two qualities you can always expect from Arbors' stable of artists: they unfailingly display compatibility and camaraderie, particularly in the front line. Take this session recorded a couple of years ago featuring two highly compatible comrades...
03/29/10 Albums
This Time
Nelda Swiggett
Whenever a new genre manifests itself, the occasion is significant. In the person of Nelda Swiggett, we have what can be accurately labeled "Polite Jazz." There's no better way to describe her approach to the keyboard, or her vocalizing, or her writing...
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ReportAbout Harvey Siders
Boston-born, Bronx-bred, Berklee-baptized, Harvey Siders fronted his own trio and quartet in New England and the East Coast for ten years. The G.I. Bill allowed him to get his bachelor's degree in communication arts at Boston University, after which he worked as a newswriter/producer for KABC-TV, in Hollywood, 1965-1997, where he won two Emmys and was nominated for a third. At the same, he was West Coast editor of Down Beat, 965-1975, and a hyperactive free-lancer for the Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Saturday Review, Life Magazine, Coronet Magazine, Guitar Player, Different Drummer, Daily Variety, Hollywood Reporter, but struck out at Pravda. Retiring to the Seattle area, where he cannot see the air he breathes, he became classical and jazz columnist for the Tacoma Reporter, while free-lancing for the Tacoma News Tribune, and has been writing for JazzTimes for the past decade. Arthritis finished his piano-playing; if you have any writing gigs, please reach him at hipduo@comcast.net.