Owen Cordle
Owen’s Contributions
03/18/12 Albums
To My Surprise
Mike Longo Trio + 2
You get the feeling in listening to Mike Longo that the pianist is always in complete control of his performances: no errant phrases, no unintended rhythms or ill-timed placement of notes, no treading water in his choruses. His playing aligns with the swinging...
02/21/12 Albums
Keep the Faith
Roger Humphries
Pittsburgh drummer Roger Humphries is perhaps best known for his three-year stint with the Horace Silver Quintet in the mid-’60s, during which the group recorded the Blue Note albums Song for My Father , The Cape Verdean Blues and The Jody Grind . Appropriately...
02/16/12 Albums
Con Brio!
Ali Ryerson
Ali Ryerson’s flute playing, Pete Levin’s arrangements and noted sidemen combine to make this album artistically satisfying as well as commercially viable. The ensemble sound is contemporary, the recording quality reminiscent of CTI label productions of...
01/05/12 Albums
Wonderful!
Deep Blue Organ Trio
In my well-worn copy of the third edition of the All Music Guide to Jazz , Stevie Wonder is mentioned 42 times—more than Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Arlen or Cole Porter. It was inevitable that jazz musicians would discover Wonder. For the generation that came...
12/07/11 Albums
The Dawn of Light
Tineke Postma
Dutch alto and soprano saxophonist Tineke Postma’s playing is supple and nuanced, to the point where her tone can suggest Lee Konitz. Sometimes she flits airily from note to note and sometimes she fidgets with phrases and releases flurries of notes or tonal...
11/28/11 Albums
The Jazz Ballad Song Book
Randy Brecker with DR Big Band
This is a lush, cinematic affair with trumpet soloist Brecker backed by the 19-piece Danish Radio Big Band and the Danish National Chamber Orchestra, with Michael Bojesen conducting. The charts—by band members Gerard Presencer, Vincent Nilsson and Peter...
11/12/11 Albums
Hues of a Different Blue
Rufus Reid & Out Front
Out Front, bassist Rufus Reid’s trio with pianist Steve Allee and drummer Duduka Da Fonseca, is the backbone of this session, with various guests appearing on half the tracks. Among those guests are Brazilian guitarist and vocalist Toninho Horta, alto saxophonist...
10/08/11 Albums
Adventures in New Orleans Jazz, Part 1
Dr. Michael White
Here we find clarinetist Dr. Michael White blending traditional New Orleans jazz with, as he states in his liner notes, “influences and songs from diverse sources, like Africa, the Caribbean and popular music from the 1960s and ’70s.” Since Africa and the...
08/25/11 Albums
Jim Snidero Interface
As the composer of all the tunes on Interface , alto saxophonist Jim Snidero sees the album as a transition away from bebop and hard bop, he tells liner-note writer Ted Panken. There are certain “inside” ideas and certain “outside” ideas beyond straight...
08/22/11 Albums
Echo of Spring
Chuck Wilson
Alto saxophonist and clarinetist Chuck Wilson is a melody-based jazzman. You won’t hear a textbook approach to jazz—prescribed scales and patterns—dominating this album. Instead, there are swinging melodic variations and permutations galore. The company...
07/25/11 Albums
Invocations: Jazz Meets the Symphony 7
Lalo Schifrin
When Dizzy Gillespie hired Lalo Schifrin for his quintet in 1960, he set in motion for the Argentine pianist, composer and arranger a prolific international career that would cover jazz as well as classical music, film scores and, like Invocations , hybrids...
07/17/11 Albums
Son of Folk Songs for Jazzers
Frank Macchia
This record is an arranger’s dream. In addition to the usual jazz instruments, Macchia’s 14-piece group incorporates the full range of clarinets and flutes plus piccolo, English horn, melodica, baritone horn, bass trumpet, tuba and an array of mallet percussion...
07/14/11 Albums
Pinnacle
Freddie Hubbard
Believe it or not, there was once a time when you could hear live jazz of this caliber all across America seven nights a week. The year was 1980, and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard remained as fearsome and invincible as in his early Blue Note Records and Art...
07/13/11 Albums
The Time of the Sun
Tom Harrell
Tom Harrell’s quintet owes its premier status to the trumpeter-leader’s compelling writing, its ability to maintain a consistent lineup since its formation in 2006, and jazz values rooted in bebop and hard bop but tempered by rhythms introduced since the...
06/22/11 Albums
Don’t Follow the Crowd
Eric Alexander
Review of latest album from veteran tenor saxophonist
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