By: James Read, UKVibe.org ‘Cimarrón’ the third album from Afro Dominican jazz pianist, composer and arranger Josean Jacobo provides an expansive canvas for the artist to lay down the varied hues of his palette. The Dominican Republic may be a comparatively small nation but thanks to its location and history many musical traditions coexist and … Read More
By: Brian Morton, Jazz Journal The personnel reads like a firm of arbitrage lawyers. Lieb does the arrangements and the honours in introducing the concept – repertory performance of radical music possibly needs some kind of justification – but it was saxophonist Jeff Coffin who thought up the project and booked the top-flight Nashville band … Read More
Jackson Sinnenberg, JazzTimes Pianist and educator Ellen Rowe strolls into “Ain’t I a Woman,” the first track on her new record Momentum: Portraits of Women in Motion, with a rolling Pentecostal piano line. It’s like hearing the first puffs of a steam engine beginning to roar, the wheels slowly shaking off their torpor. Soon Rowe and … Read More
Anthony Dean-Harris, Nextbop Vocalist Vivian Sessoms is preparing to release the second part of her debut album, Life, a project that started out as a jazz album and found new threads of genres to fit in along the way. What results from the Chris Parks co-produced album is a different sort of covers album that finds … Read More
A Night of Jazz, Blues and Folk at the Coolidge: Grace Kelly, Livingston Taylor and James Montgomery Anchor Second Fred Taylor Scholarship Fund Benefit Concert, Produced by Pazz Productions in Brookline, MA on June 19th at Coolidge Corner Theater Pazz Productions and the Fred Taylor Scholarship Fund is pleased to present an Evening of Jazz, … Read More
Bill Milkowski, Paste Magazine Brandee Younger, Soul Awakening (brandeeyounger.com) Photo by Erin O’Brien The classically trained harpist and fearless improviser follows in the footsteps of jazz harpist pioneers Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane on her beautifully crafted fourth release as a leader while showing some decidedly modernist twists along the way. The stirring opener, “Soulris,” composed by … Read More
Dave Rogers, WTJU Ben Winkelman Trio – Balance (OA2): Pianist/composer Ben Winkelman offers his fifth release and it is quite fine. He states the he was been “developing a concept for piano trio that seeks an elusive balance between composition and improvisation, structure and spontaneity, ideas and emotions….looking for ways to feature the three instruments, not only as … Read More
by Matt Micucci, Jazziz Genre-defying harpist Brandee Younger’s fourth album, Soul Awakening, is a collection of eight unearthed gems surfacing years after they were originally recorded, that blend freewheeling improvisation and spiritual jazz with classical and experimental music. Produced by acclaimed bassist Dezron Douglas and featuring such first-rate musicians as saxophonists Ravi Coltrane and Antoine Roney, … Read More
Dee Dee McNeil, Musical Memoirs ANDY MILNE & DAPP THEORY – “THE SEASONS OF BEING”Sunnyside Records Andy Milne, piano/composer;/poet; Aaron Kruziki, soprano saxophone/clarinet/bass clarinet/douduk; John Moon, spoken word vocals; Christopher Tordini, acoustic & electric bass; Kenny Grohowski, drums; FEATURED GUESTS: Ben Monder, guitar; Ralph Alessi, trumpet; La Tanya Hall, vocals/spoken word; Michael Attias, alto & … Read More
Stephanie Jones, Jazz Speaks Sense Memory: Emma Frank Speaks Photo by Shervin Lainez, courtesy of the artist. The ability to be vulnerable in performance is a vital trait for singer-composer Emma Frank. With the release of her third album Ocean Av (Susan Records, 2018), Frank draws listeners in to the depth of her intention. Within each song, … Read More
