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Owen Cordle

Owen’s Contributions

01/05/12    Albums

Wonderful!
Deep Blue Organ Trio

In my well-worn copy of the third edition of the All Music Guide to Jazz , Stevie Wonder is mentioned 42 times—more than Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Arlen or Cole Porter. It was inevitable that jazz musicians would discover Wonder. For the generation that came...

12/07/11    Albums

The Dawn of Light
Tineke Postma

Dutch alto and soprano saxophonist Tineke Postma’s playing is supple and nuanced, to the point where her tone can suggest Lee Konitz. Sometimes she flits airily from note to note and sometimes she fidgets with phrases and releases flurries of notes or tonal...

11/28/11    Albums

The Jazz Ballad Song Book
Randy Brecker with DR Big Band

This is a lush, cinematic affair with trumpet soloist Brecker backed by the 19-piece Danish Radio Big Band and the Danish National Chamber Orchestra, with Michael Bojesen conducting. The charts—by band members Gerard Presencer, Vincent Nilsson and Peter...

11/21/11    Albums

40
Joey DeFrancesco

Owen Cordle reviews organ master Joey DeFrancesco's '40'

11/12/11    Albums

Hues of a Different Blue
Rufus Reid & Out Front

Out Front, bassist Rufus Reid’s trio with pianist Steve Allee and drummer Duduka Da Fonseca, is the backbone of this session, with various guests appearing on half the tracks. Among those guests are Brazilian guitarist and vocalist Toninho Horta, alto saxophonist...

10/08/11    Albums

Adventures in New Orleans Jazz, Part 1
Dr. Michael White

Here we find clarinetist Dr. Michael White blending traditional New Orleans jazz with, as he states in his liner notes, “influences and songs from diverse sources, like Africa, the Caribbean and popular music from the 1960s and ’70s.” Since Africa and the...

08/25/11    Albums

Jim Snidero Interface

As the composer of all the tunes on Interface , alto saxophonist Jim Snidero sees the album as a transition away from bebop and hard bop, he tells liner-note writer Ted Panken. There are certain “inside” ideas and certain “outside” ideas beyond straight...

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...