JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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It is not always necessary to innovate. There is a place for straight ahead renderings of existing styles, especially if they are played with energy and taste. That’s where Payton’s Place fits in.
As it’s title would suggest, Zigaboogaloo is a straight up boogaloo tune that wouldn’t have been out of place […]

WORTH A LISTEN
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On Question And Answer, Pat Metheny proved beyond a doubt that, technically speaking, he was as an adept a guitarist as anybody. Listen to his effortlessly flowing lines on Miles Davis’ Solar for evidence. Gone are the fudged notes of yesteryear — Metheny is as accurate as an atomic clock. He’s also […]

WORTH A LISTEN
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What is it about getting old that turns fire-breathing young tenor players into Sonny Rollins?
Steve Grossman started out in a Coltrane bag, and spent much of the 70s applying this style to Latin and funk flavored fusion. But now, he’s playing mainstream jazz in that jolly, avuncular fashion that Rollins made […]

JAZZBO NOTE RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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Let me start by stating the obvious: Screaming Headless Torsos is not for everyone. It’s a combination of flaming lead guitar, funk, metal, rap, and yodeling. Yes, yodeling.
I’m not going to lie to you. Dean Bowman, the nut who’s on vocals, can be downright irritating. I would have been happier if […]

JAZZBO NOTES HIGHLY RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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I suppose it was inevitable. Richie Beirach has been utilizing ideas from classical music in jazz his whole career. It was only a matter of time until he got around to improvising on classical music compositions.
As Beirach points out in the liner notes, that isn’t as […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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I’m going to make a sweeping generalization. Jim McNeely is the best big band composer and orchestra working today. I first became aware of Jim McNeely’s big band writing on the phenomenal East Coast Blow Out, which featured the WDR big band, with John Scofield as the principal soloist. On that […]

JAZZBO NOTES HIGHLY RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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Mosaic Select: Dave Liebman & Richie Beirach is a tough box set to review. It features three distinct periods and styles of music, and not all of them are equally pleasurable to listen to. First, there’s Lookout Farm, Liebman’s first band. Then there’s Quest, the 80s group that evolved out […]

WORTH A LISTEN
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Randy Weston has said that arranger Melba Liston is his musical soul mate, and he has a point. Her bottom-heavy arrangements lumber along like an inebriated bear, which fits with Randy Weston’s Monk in Africa style. The only problem for me is that Randy Weston, if he is playing with a small […]

DON’T BOTHER
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Regular readers of this site are probably well aware of my admiration for both Dave Liebman and Gil Goldstein. Dave Liebman has been one of the most important post-Coltrane saxophonists since the mid-70s. Gil Goldstein has distinguished himself mostly as an arranger, especially in his work with Michael Brecker (Wide Angles) and the SF […]

WORTH A LISTEN
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As regular readers of this website know, I am a serious fan of bassist Eberhard Weber, especially his releases with the Colors band, such as The Colours of Chloe, Yellow Fields, and Little Movements. So, it doesn’t take much for me to pounce on an Eberhard Weber release.
Even so, it took me […]