Philip Booth is a longtime arts journalist and bass player based in Florida. Formerly the pop music critic for the Tampa Tribune, he has contributed to many national publications, recently including the Washington Post, Jazziz, and Relix. His byline also has appeared in DownBeat, Bass Player, Billboard, Variety, Spin, Rolling Stone, and several academic journals. Sharkskin, the second album from his long-running band, Acme Jazz Garage, has aired on radio stations across the U.S.
Philip Booth on social media
Would it be overpraising Tom Harrell to describe his long recording career as practically peerless? Album after album, sometimes year after year, the Midwest-bred trumpet … Read More “Tom Harrell: Oak Tree (HighNote)”
Bubbling, exotic sounds à la the beer-bottle percussion bookending Herbie Hancock’s 1973 version of “Watermelon Man”; banks of tightly clustered keyboards a bit reminiscent of … Read More “Marco Benevento: Benevento (Royal Potato Family)”
Call it the feelgood jazz-ish release of the year. Lifted, the first album from New Orleans horn man and singer Trombone Shorty in half a … Read More “Trombone Shorty: Lifted (Blue Note)”
Can instrumental music that’s uniformly relaxed and occasionally tinged with melancholy still create a sense of urgency and express joy? Those are the seemingly contradictory … Read More “Lynne Arriale Trio: The Lights Are Always On (Challenge)”
Call it a successful back-to-the-future gambit: Marquis Hill, the gifted Chicago trumpeter and composer whose career has played out at an accelerando since he won … Read More “Marquis Hill: New Gospel Revisited (Edition)”
The bass guitar and the symphony orchestra may strike some as strange bedfellows. But it’s not like they’ve never met before. Every now and again, … Read More “Victor Wooten Adds Concerto Composer to His Résumé”
New album, new Protocol: For the fifth release from his long-running project, journeyman drummer Simon Phillips, who’s fueled the music of everyone from jazz pianist … Read More “Simon Phillips: Protocol V (Phantom)”
Steven Bernstein has shone in settings including his avant-influenced Sex Mob, the score for Kansas City, and work for a long list of jazz, rock, … Read More “Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra Featuring Catherine Russell: Good Time Music (Community Music, Vol. 2) (Royal Potato Family)”
The title of the latest album from Louis Hayes is, of course, a sideways reference to the global plague that felled many of his generation … Read More “Louis Hayes: Crisis (Savant)”
For Chuck Owen, Grammy-nominated arranger, composer, and leader of the acclaimed Florida-based Jazz Surge ensemble, there was no single magic moment when he was thunderstruck … Read More “Chuck Owen and His Big Band Don’t Hide Their Ambitions”
There was an unmistakable feeling of conviviality in the air when Chick Corea reconvened his Akoustic Band in January 2018 for a concert at the … Read More “Chick Corea Akoustic Band: LIVE (Concord Jazz)”
Arturo O’Farrill scales down his instrumentation, although not his ambition, with the Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble, a dectet including his sons, trumpeter Adam O’Farrill and … Read More “Arturo O’Farrill / Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble: …Dreaming in Lions… (Blue Note)”
So Many Me makes an inspired title for Michael League’s first solo project, in part because it’s so on the nose: He’s responsible for every … Read More “Michael League: So Many Me (GroundUp)”
Heading a group without chordal instruments can be risky. Will the horn player or players provide the melodic leadership and improvisational verve necessary to keep … Read More “Joel Frahm: The Bright Side (Anzic)”
After nearly 20 albums as a leader, Alex Sipiagin takes what might be called a no-concept approach for his Posi-Tone debut. Backed by a sturdy … Read More “Alex Sipiagin: Upstream (Posi-Tone)”
There’s nothing like a regular residency to hone the playing of a big band and give such an ensemble—always a challenge just to keep gigging—a … Read More “Steven Feifke Big Band: Kinetic (Outside In)”
Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring has been an obsession for Harold Danko for more than a half-century, as the pianist relates in the liner … Read More “Harold Danko: Spring Garden (SteepleChase)”
There’s something refreshingly unhurried about how the program of music unfolds on Stories, the latest collection of original compositions and creative arrangements of others’ tunes … Read More “Roni Ben-Hur: Stories (Dot Time)”
With 25 albums to his credit as a leader since his mid-’80s debut, Brian Bromberg is nothing if not prolific. The veteran of countless sessions … Read More “Brian Bromberg Continues his Journey into the Eclectic”
Brazilian melodies frequently are imbued with a certain yearning. Jazz harmonica master Hendrik Meurkens might call it Sehnsucht in his native German. Or maybe it’s … Read More “Hendrik Meurkens: Manhattan Samba (Height Advantage)”
Standards trios, even those featuring revered players, aren’t exactly rare. But few offer the degree of creativity and intuitive interplay demonstrated by pianist Bill Cunliffe, … Read More “John Patitucci/Vinnie Colaiuta/Bill Cunliffe: Trio (Le Coq)”
Performing with others, for in-the-flesh listeners in real time, requires one to think like an architect, and like a psychologist too. That, at least, is … Read More “Lawrence Sieberth Creates His Own European Quartet”
“His music is always very, very joyful,” Kenny Barron says about fellow piano master Monty Alexander in the notes accompanying Love You Madly, documenting a … Read More “Monty Alexander: Love You Madly: Live at Bubba’s (Resonance)”
It’s probably no coincidence that Brandi Disterheft’s prowess as a bassist, on her fifth album as a leader, shines particularly bright on “The Pendulum at … Read More “Brandi Disterheft Trio with George Coleman: Surfboard (Justin Time)”
The rambunctious spirit of multi-instrumentalist and composer Rahsaan Roland Kirk is reflected in the Kirk interpretations and originals played by baritone saxophonist Claire Daly on … Read More “The Claire Daly Band: Rah! Rah! (Ride Symbol)”
Often restless, hyperintense and urgent, sometimes relaxed, always probing: The music on Max Bessesen’s debut album is nothing if not evocative. He offers sonic portraits … Read More “Max Bessesen: Trouble (Ropeadope)”
A New Yorker born in Munich, Leni Stern has been digging into West African rhythms and textures for years, studying in Mali and Senegal, performing … Read More “Leni Stern: 4 (Leni Stern)”
“Elegance in Action” would make an apropos alternate title for Love Letter, the final album released by saxophone great Jimmy Heath, who died at 93 … Read More “Jimmy Heath: Love Letter (Verve)”
Remember when Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, and Brian Blade, fast-rising talents relatively new to New York, played together for about 18 months in … Read More “Redman Mehldau McBride Blade: RoundAgain (Nonesuch)”
Last time Gary Smulyan led a trio on a set of contrafacts (the name for new melodies built on chord progressions of well-known compositions), the … Read More “Gary Smuylan: Our Contrafacts (SteepleChase)”
