Browse some recent OA2 Reviews.
Nelda Swiggett - This Time
by Adam Greenberg, All Music Guide
For her first trio recording, pianist Nelda Swiggett goes all out, using her own compositions as a base for cerebral explorations on the keys. Over an extraordinarily steady backing from Chris Symer's bass (and to a slightly less audible degree Byron Vannoy's drums), Swiggett alternately develops sparse themes into stocky grooves and tinkles little blues hybrids into Bill Evans-style balladry (as in the excellent "Heart of the Moment"). On... read more
Daria - Strawberry Fields Forever
by Bruce Crowther, Jazz Mostly
With this album, Daria takes up a demanding challenge, because in common with many latterday composers of pop songs, John Lennon and Paul McCartney did not customarily follow the 32-bar AABA pattern for popular songs that has supplied so much material to the jazz repertoire. One result of this is that with only scattered exceptions the songs of the Beatles, for the most part composed by Lennon and McCartney, have not been widely used by jazz... read more
Markus Rutz - Blueprints - Figure Two: New Designs
by George W Harris, Jazz Weekly
Markus Rutz displays the benefits of a warm horn in a mix of settings with Brice Winston on tenor/soprano sax, pianist Adrian Rutz, guitarist Matt Gold, Marcos Valera on bass and switching between drummers Xavier Breaker or Marcus Garcia, replacing them with percussionist Heitor Garcia or going without the trap set completely.
Of the latter, Rutz and Ruiz are golden on a sublime "East to West", the horns glide with Valera through "Looking... read more
Jihee Heo - Are You Ready?
by George W Harris, Jazz Weekly
Pianist and erstwhile vocalist Jihee Heo leads a trio of originals with bassist Marty Kenney and drummer Rodney Green on this album that mixes many a style. She gives a spoken intro to the post bopping title track, and allows Saidu Ezike a chance to rap through Green's backbeat of the R&Bish Trust". Her touch is highlighted on her lovely solo track "Letter To A Little Girl" and is rich for the elegiac "Dark and L ight", relaxing with Kenney on... read more
Gordon Lee with the Mel Brown Septet - Tuesday Night
by Geoge Fendel, Jazz Society of Oregon
Where there was once bristling, beautiful hard bop, there is now Tylenol, toys and towels; what was once a favorite jazz hang called the Hobbit, is now a Walgreen's. But many remember those nights on SE 39th & Holgate. Among the stars on that stage were Mel Brown, Thara Memory, Warren Rand, Michael York, Tim Gilson and Gordon Lee. Well, most of the names have changed, and the venue is now Jimmy Mak's on Tuesday nights. Gordon Lee is a deep and... read more
Gail Pettis - Here in the Moment
by Peggy Oliver, The Urban Music Scene
When a jazz singer revisits a standard that has been tackled time and again, it is quite the task to express their musical personality without having to alter the integrity of the original. The experienced jazz vocalist should set the tone for his or her self and their accompanists to create a colorful musical canvas for their audiences. As one who has successfully transformed standards into new gems during her short recording career, Gail... read more
Rich Pellegrin - Three-Part Odyssey
by Kyle O'Brien, Jazz Society of Oregon
Seattle is a place where jazz can be treated as an experiment, and pianist/composer Pellegrin, who is getting his Ph.D. at the University of Washington, takes a studious approach to his music. This is dense jazz from note one. The opener, "Nothing Comes to Mind," is an atonal but rhythmic exploration, with trumpeter R. Scott Morning and saxophonist Neil Welch sharing an obtuse melody before Pellegrin takes over on the solo, which gets hot and... read more
Stephen Martin - High Plains
by Tom Haugen, Take Effect
The saxophone extraordinaire Stephen Martin returns with his sophomore album as leader, and he's got Peter Schlamb (vibraphone, piano), Ben Leifer (basses) and David Hawkins (drums) along with him for the loose but also very focused 8 tracks of timeless jazz sounds.
"Horizons" opens the listen with a dreamy blur of quick keys, soulful brass and precise drumming, and "The Void" continues the creativity with firm piano, lively bass plucking... read more
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