Owen Cordle
Owen’s Contributions
May 2007 Albums
Rhapsody
Rich Perry & Harold Danko
Tenor saxophonist Perry and pianist Danko go back to the late 1970s together, when they were members of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra. They have recorded together often since then, and their rapport is evident again throughout this album of duets. Focusing...
May 2007 Albums
Man Out of Time
Reginald R. Robinson
This is the fourth album by ragtime pianist and composer Robinson, who received a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2004. Jazz historians generally agree that ragtime is not jazz per se but that its syncopation influenced early jazz. One does not have to argue...
May 2007 Albums
The Last Recording
Frank Rosolino
Frank Rosolino’s suicide is an unforgettably evil and tragic parallel to any discussion of his music. On Nov. 26, 1978 he shot his two young sons, killing one, and then shot himself. Nearly four months earlier, he had recorded three tunes with a Conn Multivider...
May 2007 Albums
A Portrait
Joe Temperley
Depending on your taste, Temperley may be the best living baritone saxophonist in jazz today. He has a rich, robust tone, an authoritative melodic style and he swings heartily. His tone and playing innately command respect. On this album, he pays tribute...
April 2007 Albums
Into the Wild
Greg Glassman
Glassman’s live-wire trumpet playing hums and crackles with dramatic expression. He grabs a rhythm and works it over and over to an ensemble climax with his quartet. His phrases burn, sizzle and smolder. He extracts the essence from a ballad. His playing...
March 2007 Albums
With Love
Charles Tolliver
Tolliver, heard on Blue Note sessions led by Jackie McLean, Horace Silver and Andrew Hill in the ’60s and on his and Stanley Cowell’s Strata-East label in the ’70s, makes his Blue Note debut as a leader on this blazing big-band album. Contributing arrangements...
March 2007 Albums
One More: The Summary—Music of Thad Jones, Vol. 2
Various Artists
This follow-up to Vol. 1 of Jones’ music employs Eddie Daniels, Richard Davis, Benny Golson, Hank Jones, James Moody, John Mosca, Jimmy Owens, Kenny Washington and Frank Wess. Producer Michael Patterson adapted Jones’ big-band charts for the small group...
January/February 2007 Albums
15 West
Dan Fogel
This album has the flavor of a jam session. Organist Fogel is the main sparkplug, although the other members of his quartet—tenor saxophonist Pete Chavez, guitarist O’Donel Levy and drummer Webb Thomas—are plenty fiery, too. Fogel has a big chordal style...
January/February 2007 Albums
Turn Up the Heath
Jimmy Heath Big Band
Big-band albums by Jimmy Heath are rare. In his 60-year career there have been only a few. This album, recorded at sessions in 2004 and 2006, is his masterpiece as an arranger. You can hear the influence of his bebop roots—he played in Dizzy Gillespie’s...
December 2006 Albums
Double Exposure
Cecil Brooks III with Gene Ludwig
In the liner notes for this duo album recorded in 2000, drummer Brooks tells writer Bill Milkowski, “Every drummer can’t play with an organ …because you have the organ player playing bass lines with his left hand but he’s soloing with the right hand, so...
December 2006 Albums
In Her Eyes
Bob Lark-Phil Woods Quintet
Trumpeter and flugelhorn player Lark, Chair of the Jazz Studies Department at DePaul, teams up with Woods and the Woods Quintet rhythm section (pianist Jim McNeely, bassist Steve Gilmore and drummer Bill Goodwin) on this disc. Lark is a superb bebop player...
December 2006 Albums
You Taught My Heart to Sing
Houston Person with Bill Charlap
In another era, this album might have been labeled “mood music.” It consists of tenor saxophonist Person and pianist Charlap in a set of mostly romantic standards. Person is restrained throughout, even when the tempo moves beyond a ballad pace, and Charlap...
October 2006 Albums
Relax
Buck Hill
Hill is the proverbial local legend with a day job for 40 years and a reputation as a jazzman who could hang with the greats. Now retired from the Post Office, the Washington, D.C., tenor saxophonist performs here in the company of organist John Ozment...
October 2006 Albums
Goin' to Town: Live at the Green Mill
Deep Blue Organ Trio
Recorded live at the Green Mill in Chicago, this album is notable for the way this veteran trio builds each performance to a soulful, audience-reaching climax. There are no tricks here, just solid, old-school grooves, hearts in the right place and focused...
October 2006 Albums
The Subway Ballet
Randy Sandke and the Metatonal Big Band
The name “Metatonal” in the title simply refers to chords that lie beyond the scope of traditional harmony and conventional chord symbols (about which Sandke has written a book). Best known as a swing trumpeter (he worked with Benny Goodman’s final band...
September 2006 Albums
The Sacred Music of Louie Bellson and the Jazz Ballet
Louie Bellson
With the impulse among Baptists (at least, the Southern wing I know) to water down the music for worship services these days, it’s bracing to hear a revival of some good old orchestral and choral fire and brimstone (not leaving out the love component, of...
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