Eighty-Eights
March 2009 By Thomas Conrad
Plays the Music of Irving Berlin (Except One)
Arbors Records
This album sounds utterly effortless—like these guys went into the studio and hit the switch and just let it flow. They are pianist John Bunch (swinging his ass off at 86), guitarist Frank Vignola, bassist John Webber, and, on six tunes, flautist Frank Wess...
March 2009 By Thomas Conrad
Silent Strength
Chantale Gagné
Chantale Gagné is a young pianist from Quebec with the sound judgment to bring in Peter Washington and Lewis Nash as the rhythm section on her debut recording. Washington’s time is like Big Ben’s, and Nash’s energy is a crisp tailwind. They make Gagné’s...
March 2009 By Thomas Conrad
The End of a Summer
ECM Records
Like all the most important record producers, Manfred Eicher of ECM is a major talent scout. His latest discovery is the German pianist Julia Hülsmann. It is easy to hear what drew Eicher to Hülsmann and her trio. She is an artist inclined toward the darker...
March 2009 By Thomas Conrad
Delaware River Suite
No Blooze
Inventions is a different piano trio: Bill Mays on piano, Marvin Stamm on trumpet and flugelhorn, and Alisa Horn on cello. Delaware River Suite is a different album: a seven-part musical and spoken-word pastorale about a river. Mays wrote the music and the...
March 2009 By Thomas Conrad
Live at Caramoor
Adventure
A studio recording cannot capture the tone of an occasion like a live recording. The tone of this occasion sounds ecstatic. There is a category of consumer that needs to own this record: audiophile piano addicts. Live at Caramoor is an immersion in the aural...
March 2009 By Thomas Conrad
Some Other Time
Sunnyside
Pianists in their debut recordings rarely sound as poised and centered and fully formed as Greg Reitan. He waited until he was 35 to make Some Other Time, and he is a thoroughly schooled musician with an extensive résumé as a composer for film and television...
March 2009 By Thomas Conrad
For Andrew
Konnex Records
Remember the line from Butch Cassidy and the Sun-dance Kid: “Who are those guys?” How can a piano trio be this cool and not be famous? But, of course, this is jazz: You can play all over the world for 30 years and appear on 58 CDs, like Michael Jefry Stevens...
March 2009 By Thomas Conrad
Conversations
Sea Breeze
The most striking feature of this duo recording is its intimacy. Conversations not only puts you in the same room with Michael Tracy’s saxophones and Harry Pickens’ piano—it puts you about five feet away. You hear every nuance of Tracy’s pronunciation on...
March 2009 By Thomas Conrad
Michael Wolff’s ‘Joe’s Strut’
A risk-taking chameleon wins some, loses some
March 2009 By Thomas Conrad
You Can’t Buy Swing
Yamin
Eli Yamin is a high-energy straightahead piano player who is also an educator, consultant, DJ, and overall proselytizer for jazz. The first five tracks of this album could be a party record. They are all about having a hard-swinging good time. The sixth...
