JAZZBO NOTES HIGHLY RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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I’ve got to admit, I’ve been sleeping on Terence Blanchard. I had the impression that he was a traditionalist in the Wynton Marsalis mode. Guess not.
Flow Part 1, starts out with a tasty groove, courtesy of Derrick Hodge on acoustic bass and drummer Kendrick Scott. Blanchard’s head plays around the […]

WORTH A LISTEN
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Pianist Makoto Ozone can be a problematic musician. On the one hand, he has an unquestioned wealth of musician scholarship and his technique is hard to fault. On the other hand, he can fall prey to cuteness at times. On the other hand, sometimes his ambition exceeds his grasp.
The last time I […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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Outbreak may have drummer Dennis Chambers’ name above the title, but this is really producer/keyboardist/arranger/composer Jim Beard’s date, and that’s just fine. Of course, Beard has designed the album to showcase Chambers’ awesome drum playing, and that’s one of the major pleasures of Outbreak, but only one among many.
Beard has recruited […]

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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My guess is that Black Market is one of Joe Zawinul’s favorite Weather Report dates. Why? Well, it’s a major Third World groove machine which, judging by the interviews Zawinul has given over the years, seems to be his main priority. Another thing that Zawinul should be justifiably proud of: his […]

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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During the Brecker Brothers’ first incarnation, the band was all about merging jazz with funk and R&B. With The Return Of The Brecker Brothers, the brothers widened their net to include African pop forms and Brazilian music. If you want to hear what the Brecker Brothers might have sounded like if […]

WORTH A LISTEN
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In some ways, Bump is reminiscent of many other John Scofield dates. This was far from the first time he explored New Orleans funk, and it would not be the last.
The difference here is that, despite a fairly large cast of musicians (bassists Tony Scherr, Chris Wood, and David Livolsi; drummers Eric […]

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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On Freddie Hubbard’s previous date, Red Clay, he played a little bait and switch on the listeners. The first and last tunes were funk, but everything in between was advanced post bop, kind of like getting a dog to eat a pill by inserting it into a piece of steak. On […]

JAZZBO NOTES RECOMMENDED RECORDING
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The original Head On recording was one of those third-stream efforts that were intermittently attempted throughout the sixties and early seventies by the likes of Joe Zawinul and Miles Davis. The composer Bobby Hutcherson is working with here is the classically trained pianist Todd Cochran, who joins vibist Hutcherson, along with […]

CLASSICS THAT I HATE
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After a brief two-album flirtation with Brazilian jazz, Return To Forever shifted to it’s most popular incarnation, a kind of swaggering but lightweight combination of funk, arena rock cliches, Chick Corea’s cheesy Latinisms, and a touch of jazz. That didn’t turn out to be such a bad thing ultimately, as it […]

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING
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In some ways, the music in The Eleventh House is surprisingly simple, especially harmonically.
Most of The Funky Waltz is one chord, with a melody which is pentatonic. Low-Tee-Tah, despite the ornamental flourishes of Larry Coryell, essentially revolves around a dominant 7th augmented 4th chord. Similarly, Yin is based on a […]