Mighty Clarinets
January/February 2005 By David Franklin
Easy to Remember
Nagel-Heyer
Ken Peplowski is yet another clarinetist with some stylistic kinship to the swing era, but on tenor he can sound like a cousin to Zoot Sims. On his Easy to Remember (Nagel-Heyer), Peplowski surrounds himself with mainstream modern colleagues who would fit...
January/February 2005 By David Franklin
The Three of Us
SMSJazz
After being away from playing for nearly 40 years, the 69-year-old West Coast clarinetist Mort Weiss is back, and he’s on a tear. The Three of Us (SMSJazz), his third album since his return, features Weiss with the superb seven-string guitarist Ron Escheté...
January/February 2005 By David Franklin
Cookin' the Books
If Mort Weiss at 69 is extraordinary, Buddy DeFranco at 81 is amazing. On Cookin’ the Books (Arbors) he doesn’t just play as well as somebody decades younger, he truly plays better than most. Known in the 1940s as “the Charlie Parker of the clarinet” for...
January/February 2005 By David Franklin
Modern Madness or Tribal Truth?
Lop Lop
Modern Madness or Tribal Truth? (Loplop), by the Dutch group M.O.T., features a fascinating amalgam of African rhythms, straightahead and free jazz as well as various exotic influences that rivet the attention and stimulate the senses throughout. With a...
January/February 2005 By David Franklin
Urban Expressions
Wenha
Detroit clarinetist/saxophonist Wendell Harrison set out to reach a wider audience with Urban Expressions (WenHa), and perhaps this set of electro-pop interspersed with his jazz improvisations will do it for him but it is not likely to appeal to the hardcore...
January/February 2005 By David Franklin
Crossing the Line
Summit
Eddie Daniels is one of the finest clarinetists in jazz, and Larry Combs, as principal clarinetist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, holds down one of the world’s top classical clarinet positions. Together, they have produced a splendid recording of music...
January/February 2005 By David Franklin
Concerts
Dreyfus Records
One would never suspect after hearing Concerts (Dreyfus) that Michel Portal was a pioneer of free jazz in France. Because these 14 tracks, extracted from three European duo concerts with accordionist Richard Galliano between May 1999 and July 2003, are mostly...
