Vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson was one of the last jazz artists to be recording for the Blue Note label (along with Horace Silver) before it finally collapsed. Some of the vibist’s later Blue Note albums are forgettable but this LP with Manny Boyd (doubling on tenor and soprano), keyboardist Larry…
Although vocalist Rachelle Ferrell is a bizarre singer whose idiosyncratic style is often at odds with her mainstream material, fans of the singer will certainly find much to enjoy on Live at Montreux. The CD collects various performances Ferrell gave at the Swiss music festival from 1991 to 1997….
Rachelle Ferrell made her name performing R&B, but this strictly acoustic jazz CD is her earliest recording. Her voice is quite soulful, making her later shift to R&B less of a surprise in hindsight, but Ferrell seems quite unsure of how to use her wide range, and her improvisations…
Making sweet music together almost constantly since meeting at a Philadelphia junior high school in the mid-’70s, the principals in Pieces (keyboardist James K. Lloyd, bassist Cedric Napoleon, and drummer Curtis Harmon) were way ahead of their time. From the get-go, they mixed jazz and R&B long before there…
This is one of Pieces of a Dream’s better efforts. Saxophonist Ron Kerber looks toward Grover Washington, Jr., (on soprano) and David Sanborn (during his alto spots) for inspiration and the keyboardists recall Ramsey Lewis but, even with the inclusion of a few throwaway rhythm tracks and some…
Every so often, a trumpeter comes along who redraws the instrument’s role within jazz: Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Brown, Chet Baker, Wynton Marsalis, Freddie Hubbard, etc. Ambrose Akinmusire has the potential to join that crowd. He’s not quite there yet, but When the Heart Emerges Glistening,…
Guitar giants John Scofield and Pat Metheny teamed up for the first time on records for this CD. The collaboration does take awhile to get going and it is not until the fourth cut, the bluish “Everybody’s Party,” that the sparks begin to fly; fortunately the momentum does not…
Dianne Reeves has been one of the top singers in jazz ever since the late ’80s. A logical successor to Dinah Washington and Carmen McRae (although even she can not reach the impossible heights of Ella and Sarah Vaughan), Reeves is a superior interpreter of lyrics and a skilled scat singer. She was a talented vocalist with an attractive…
The ever-restless Dianne Reeves tries to do something unconventional with an utterly conventional idea — a tribute album to Sarah Vaughan — and ends up overdoing the whole thing, though it’s not really her fault. While the virtuosic Reeves often cannot resist reaching down into her chest register for…