Forrest Dylan Bryant
Forrest Dylan’s Contributions
June 2008 Undertones
Crooked Cha
Papa Mambo
Hailing from Winnipeg, Canada, Papa Mambo is an intrepid ensemble that mixes up Latin styles old and new. On their second CD, percussionist/bandleader Rodrigo Muñoz keeps the band grounded and grooving as they meander from traditional South American rhythms...
June 2008 Undertones
Hush Now
Oli Rockeberger
This 31-minute solo outing by singer-songwriter Rock-berger is intensely personal, a collection of simply-stated songs dealing with themes of love, inner strength and finding an anchor in difficult times. Against jazzy electric piano lines that are both...
June 2008 Undertones
Ah-Knee-Ball
Anibal Rojas
Chilean multi-instrumentalist Anibal Rojas plays tenor saxophone with directness and soul. But he doesn’t stop there, as he breaks out an array of Andean flutes, ocarina, keyboards and even EWI alongside an ever-changing group of sidemen. On this dreamy...
June 2008 Undertones
Expresslane
James Silberstein
With a delicate tone and quicksilver attack, guitarist James Silberstein balances bop and bossa on his second disc as a leader. The session is stacked with guest artists, but bassist Harvie S provides the fulcrum, handling all the arrangements and contributing...
May 2008 Undertones
Shades of Brown
Ted Brown
Ted Brown, an accomplished but rarely recorded octogenarian saxophonist, has a lightly swinging sound inspired largely by Lester Young. Here, Brown plays a dozen standards in a trio setting so intimate that the “clop” of his sax pads becomes a key part of...
May 2008 Undertones
Berlin Bright
Greg Burk Quartet
American pianist Greg Burk teams up with three Berlin-based musicians for a vigorous, multifaceted set that filters blues and bop-based jazz forms through a postmodern lens. Sharing the compositional load equally across nine original tunes, Burk matches...
May 2008 Undertones
Mother Nebula
Ila Cantor
With an attractively quirky attitude and a freewheeling blend of jazz and rock elements, guitarist Ila Cantor’s quartet keeps the listener guessing. Careening through an all-original program of chunky sci-fi anthems, squealing high-speed collisions and delicately...
May 2008 Undertones
Blackout Conception
John Chin
Alternating between trio and quartet formats, pianist John Chin sticks to medium tempos and a ballad feel on this CD, painting gentle scenes in bold, vivid colors. He has a firm touch at the keyboard, but occasionally spices his straightforward declarations...
May 2008 Undertones
Shade
Richard Cole
Saxophonist Richard Cole’s third disc as a leader takes a patchwork approach, varying hard-edged bop romps with sunny standards and cool contemporary fusion. The personnel is equally varied, as over a dozen of Seattle’s better jazz players drift in and out...
May 2008 Undertones
Bahia Band
Mike Ellis
When a CD opens with a 13-minute, spaced-out, soul-reggae version of the bop classic “Bags’ Groove,” you know you’re going somewhere out of the ordinary. The extended Afro-Brazilian jams that follow live up to that expectation and then some, as soprano saxophonist...
May 2008 Undertones
Just Us
E’nj Trombone Duo
For their third album together, the trombone tag-team of Jim Pugh and Eijiro Nakagawa bounces ideas back and forth in a lively game of musical tennis. Pugh’s bright, liquid runs counterbalance Nakagawa’s earthier sound, with the refined pianist Andy Ezrin...
May 2008 Undertones
Letter From America
Paul Hemmings Trio With John Tchicai
This collaboration between guitarist Hemmings and avant-garde saxophonist Tchicai is a curious amalgam, contrasting amorphous freejazz with the pounding beat of surf rock, or mixing whispered dialogues with intense tugs-of-war and happy little grooves. The...
May 2008 Undertones
What’s in the Box?
Larry Koonse
A true labor of love, this quietly charming disc by guitarist Koonse rescues several rarely heard tunes from the pen of his mentor, cool-jazz innovator Jimmy Wyble. With delicately balanced counterpoint and sweet-tempered improvisations, Koonse sets up casually...
May 2008 Undertones
Ted Kooshian’s Standard Orbit Quartet
Ted Kooshian
Taking a merry spin through pop culture, pianist Ted Kooshian jazzes classic TV and cartoon themes as well as popular tunes by Led Zeppelin, the Police and Peter Gabriel. This sounds like a novelty gimmick—really, there’s only so much one can do with title...
May 2008 Undertones
Lost and Found
Motel
Bassist Matt Grason is not the first artist to bring jazz and hip-hop together, but few have managed to achieve such a seamless union as Grason’s brilliant Motel project. Combining tight modern jazz with the vocal talents of Washington, D.C.’s most creative...
May 2008 Undertones
Nordic Disruption
NYNDK
Everybody has a lot to say in this bustling trans-Atlantic conversation, the second disc by New York/Norwegian/Danish collective NYNDK. As the lead compositional voices, pianist Soren Moller provides striding postbop grooves with warmly lyrical cores, while...
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ReportAbout Forrest Dylan Bryant
Forrest Dylan Bryant is a writer/webmaster/broadcaster living in the San Francisco Bay Area. An active member of the Jazz Journalists Association, Forrest was elected to the JJA’s board of directors in 2005. For JT, Forrest wrote the Undertones CD-review column from 2007-2008. Forrest maintains his own website, The Jazz Observer, at jazzobserver.com and hosts a weekly radio program, “No Cover, No Minimum,” on Stanford University's KZSU-FM.