Reviews
05/25/12 Albums By Sharonne Cohen
Going Nowhere
Ropeadope
This hard-hitting self-produced album by pianist Dred Scott’s trio, released alongside an experimental solo recording entitled Prepared Piano , features seven original tracks penned by the leader and an adventurous take on Miles Davis and Victor Feldman’s...
05/25/12 Albums By Christopher Loudon
Together
Bry-Mar
The first studio union of longtime pals Betty Bryant and Mark Christian Miller is the sort of charmingly unassuming album that is often overshadowed by splashier efforts. Bryant, now 82, has been a staple of the L.A. supper-club circuit for decades. All...
05/24/12 Albums By Mike Joyce
Fractals
Jazzand Productions
The late composer Jerome Kern had a hand in making guitarist Rick Stone’s Fractals a postbop treat. First, there’s the album’s title track, a vibrant, angular reconfiguring of “All the Things You Are” that swings despite its abstract designs. Then there’s...
05/24/12 Albums By Bill Milkowski
Live in Basel
Hate Laugh
Alto saxophonist-composer Pete Robbins forged a tight partnership while touring Europe with Irish electric bassist Simon Jermyn, Canadian drummer Kevin Brow and Danish guitarist Mikkel Ploug. Their highly interactive chemistry is documented on this live...
05/23/12 Concerts By Bill Milkowski
Gil Evans Centennial Celebration, Highline Ballroom, NYC, May 21, 2012
Family, friends and former bandmates honor late jazz great on centennial
05/23/12 Concerts By Karen Brundage-Johnson
Sonny Fortune Quartet: LIve in Atlantic City
Celebrating Sonny’s 73rd Birthday
05/23/12 Albums By Mike Joyce
The L.A. Sessions
Miles High
If vibraphonist Mark Sherman sounds thoroughly relaxed yet engaged on this quartet offering, consider the company he’s keeping: guitarist John Chiodini, drummer Charles Ruggiero and keyboardist Bill Cunliffe, this time around on Hammond B3 organ. Of course...
05/22/12 Albums By Christopher Loudon
The Concert Sinatra
Concord Records
In late 1960, with the launch of his Reprise label, Frank Sinatra began the most prolific period of his entire recording career. By the time he got to The Concert Sinatra in early ’63, he’d delivered eight Reprise albums (and had already sold up shop to...
05/22/12 Albums By Christopher Loudon
Silent Movie
Anzic
In New York, New York , director Martin Scorsese’s ambitiously flawed homage to Manhattan’s postwar music scene, saxman Jimmy Doyle (Robert De Niro) explains to vocalist Francine Evans (Liza Minnelli) that a “major chord” is when everything in your life...
05/22/12 Albums By Bill Milkowski
WIth the Cedar Walton Trio
Savant
Veteran tenor saxophonist Piero Odorici, an in-demand player on the European jazz scene, makes an impressive showing on his Stateside debut. Accompanied by Cedar Walton and the pianist’s regular working rhythm tandem of bassist David Williams and drummer...