Considered Kenny Dorham’s finest recording of his all-too-short career, this re-reissue has been newly remastered and presumably now includes all of the takes from these nonet and sextet sessions of 1955. Considering the time period, this date remains way ahead of the Latin-tinged and hard bop music that would…
During the spring and summer of 1956, trumpeter Kenny Dorham recorded two studio albums with his Jazz Prophets, a small hard bop band involving tenor saxophonist J.R. Monterose and a rhythm section of pianist Dick Katz, bassist Sam Jones and drummer Arthur Edgehill. On May 31 of that year,…
Joe Lovano heads a lineup with pianist Michel Petrucciani, bassist Dave Holland, and late drummer Ed Blackwell. It’s hard-edged, explosive playing all around, with Blackwell laying down his patented bombs while Petrucciani and Holland converge behind Lovano’s dynamic solos. ~ Ron Wynn
Although the title of this CD makes it sound as if tenor-saxophonist Joe Lovano was performing veteran jazz classics on this date, all but one of the ten songs played by his quintet are actually Lovano originals. With strong assistance provided by guitarist John Abercrombie, pianist Ken Werner, bassist…
Joe Lovano has been sufficiently forward-looking to have earned the right to look backward on his 22nd album for Blue Note Records, marking his 20th anniversary with the label. Bird Songs presents songs associated with, written for, and, primarily, written by Bird, Charlie “Yardbird” Parker. Lovano employs his group…
Jazz is essentially an African-American folk art, elements not lost on Joe Lovano as he presents this all-original program of progressive music. His updated quintet Us Five is one of his freshest units in some time, with bassist Esperanza Spalding, the criminally underrated pianist James Weidman, and two stir-the-pot…
Exorcizing the ghost of a failed relationship via the time-honored tradition of the breakup album, Norah Jones luxuriates in beautiful misery on Little Broken Hearts. Liberated by the separation but not quite ready to let it go, Jones achieves a curious subdued tension here, dressing unadorned confessionals in softly…
With The Fall, Norah Jones completes the transition away from her smooth cabaret beginnings and toward a mellowly arty, modern singer/songwriter. Jones began this shift on 2007’s Not Too Late, an album that gently rejected her tendencies for lulling, tasteful crooning, but The Fall is a stronger, more cohesive…
Recoils from fame usually aren’t as subdued as Norah Jones’ third album, Not Too Late, but such understatement is customary for this gentlest of singer/songwriters. Not Too Late may not be as barbed or alienating as either In Utero or Kid A — it’s not an ornery intensification of…
It may be far too obvious to even mention that Norah Jones’ follow-up to her 18-million-unit-selling, eight-Grammy-winning, genre-bending, super-smash album Come Away With Me has perhaps a bit too much to live up to. But that’s probably the biggest conundrum for Jones: having to follow up the phenomenal success…