Owen Cordle
Owen’s Contributions
08/22/11 Albums
Echo of Spring
Chuck Wilson
Alto saxophonist and clarinetist Chuck Wilson is a melody-based jazzman. You won’t hear a textbook approach to jazz—prescribed scales and patterns—dominating this album. Instead, there are swinging melodic variations and permutations galore. The company...
07/25/11 Albums
Invocations: Jazz Meets the Symphony 7
Lalo Schifrin
When Dizzy Gillespie hired Lalo Schifrin for his quintet in 1960, he set in motion for the Argentine pianist, composer and arranger a prolific international career that would cover jazz as well as classical music, film scores and, like Invocations , hybrids...
07/17/11 Albums
Son of Folk Songs for Jazzers
Frank Macchia
This record is an arranger’s dream. In addition to the usual jazz instruments, Macchia’s 14-piece group incorporates the full range of clarinets and flutes plus piccolo, English horn, melodica, baritone horn, bass trumpet, tuba and an array of mallet percussion...
07/14/11 Albums
Pinnacle
Freddie Hubbard
Believe it or not, there was once a time when you could hear live jazz of this caliber all across America seven nights a week. The year was 1980, and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard remained as fearsome and invincible as in his early Blue Note Records and Art...
07/13/11 Albums
The Time of the Sun
Tom Harrell
Tom Harrell’s quintet owes its premier status to the trumpeter-leader’s compelling writing, its ability to maintain a consistent lineup since its formation in 2006, and jazz values rooted in bebop and hard bop but tempered by rhythms introduced since the...
06/22/11 Albums
Don’t Follow the Crowd
Eric Alexander
Review of latest album from veteran tenor saxophonist
May 2011 Albums
Cast the First Stone
The Cookers
This band takes its name from The Night of the Cookers , the 1965 Blue Note live set recorded by trumpeters Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan. On this second release, Blue Note values prevail: hard-driving rhythms; soulful solos; exuberant ensemble work; a...
April 2011 Albums
Convergence
Jerry Bergonzi
This is a continuation of Simply Put and Three for All , Jerry Bergonzi’s previous two Savant albums. Convergence contains the same personnel (bassist Dave Santoro and drummer Andrea Michelutti, with pianist Bruce Barth listed on two tracks) and the same...
March 2010 Albums
Endurance
Heath Brothers
This album finds the Heath Brothers quartet in excellent form despite the absence of bassist Percy Heath. It’s the group’s first album since Percy’s death in 2005, and David Wong is a hard-swinging, well-rounded replacement. Tenor and soprano saxophonist...
January/February 2010 Albums
Azure Te
Reuben Wilson
Longtime jazz fans can remember organist Reuben Wilson as a soul-jazz trendsetter in the 1960s and early ’70s, when he recorded five albums for Blue Note. The late-’80s generation would discover him via samples from these incorporated into acid-jazz and...
November 2009 Albums
Detroit
Gerald Wilson Orchestra
This album documents Gerald Wilson’s six-part suite commissioned to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Detroit International Jazz Festival. It is completed by a couple of stand-alone tracks. Like most of Wilson’s big-band writing, there are long stretches...
November 2008 Albums
Certified Organic
Pete Levin
Pete Levin is best known to jazz fans as the synthesizer player in Gil Evans’ band for 15 years beginning in the early ’70s. (He initially played French horn in the group.) He also played keyboards for eight years in the Jimmy Giuffre 4. In addition, his...
October 2008 Albums
Monday Night Live at the Village Vanguard
The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra
The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra recorded this two-CD set during an eight-night stand, celebrating 42 years of Monday night gigs at the storied club. It’s dedicated to Dennis Irwin, their longtime bassist, who died of cancer a month later. (He does not appear...
September 2008 Albums
Soul House
Christian Winther
This is Danish tenor saxophonist Christian Winther’s third SteepleChase album, a quintet date with trumpeter Marcus Printup, pianist Richard Doron Johnson, bassist Carlos Henriquez and drummer Ali Jackson. The music, all originals except Thelonious Monk’s...
August 2008 Albums
Invisible Cities
Pete Malinverni
This album isn’t travel poster art. No self-respecting jazz musician would be so obvious. There must be irony, a deeper, sometimes darker or sometimes obliquely brighter perspective. This is the feeling you get from pianist and composer Pete Malinverni’s...
August 2008 Albums
The Way I Play
Bobby Broom
If you want a jazz definition of “stretching out,” listen to this live album, in which we find Bobby Broom’s longtime trio elongating and compressing familiar melodies and the beat in exploratory fashion. Without trying to pin jazz down, it’s tempting to...
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