Ron Aprea Sextet: Remembering Blakey – A Tribute To Art Blakey
Most, if not all, homages to a personage would have at least one aspect of the one being honored. In the case of a...
Clare Fischer Big Band: Pacific Jazz
It might not be expedient to suggest that Clare Fischer is responsible defining what Big Bands should sound like. Duke Ellington did that. Nor...
Berta Moreno: Little Steps
Berta Moreno’s dream of coming to America, which she mentions in her impassioned notes that accompany the disc entitled Little Steps, have come true...
Francesco Cataldo: Giulia
The pairing of a piano and a guitar – though not so rare in popular music of any style – makes for unusual and...
The Louis Romanos Quartet´ Jazz Delight
With “Songo 7”, the first song of this album, you realize the tremendous talent Mr. Romanos and his band have for playing with heart...
Ray Vega: Chapter Two
This disc ought to come with a connoisseur’s advisory: Be prepared to be amazed. As much as that sounds like something trite, it is,...
Guelph Jazz Festival @ “19” & Going Strong
The Guelph Jazz Festival is always a treat, always offering up a taste of fresh innovative music. On this occasion the festival looked back...
Alexis Cuadrado – A Lorca Soundscape
The mighty task of transposing the great Federico García Lorca from the landscape of poetry to the soundscape of music—despite the inherent musicality of his work—is a daunting one.
Brampton Global Jazz & Blues Fest Report – Part II
Brampton, a city north west of Toronto played host to its second annual jazz and blues festival this past August 9th through to the...
Oscar Perez: Prepare A Place For Me
Oscar Perez is a perfectly attired pianist, whose own life story makes this achievement all the more striking. But looking at a photograph is...
Peter Appleyard and the Jazz Giants – The Lost 1974 Sessions
In his introduction to Peter Appleyard and the Jazz Giants: The Lost 1974 Sessions Appleyard said something that...
Music for Peter Gunn: Harmonie Ensemble New York and Steven Richman
As I jazz lover it will always be a pleasure and a privilege to write about Henry Mancini´s music, the ingenious composer and arranger...
Adam O’Farrill’s Stranger Days: El Maquech
Perhaps the best raison d’être – albeit in a wonderfully twisted sort of way – is that it is “tethered to nothing”. This is...
John Basile: Penny Lane
This is a vivid, provocative Beatles album from John Basile, a New Yorker who has a pianist’s approach to the guitar. Let there be...
Felipe Salles Interconnections Ensemble: The New Immigrant Experience
During the course of your mission as a music critic you might come across numerous recordings that are really good – even great. But...
Lina Allemano Four – Live at the Tranzac
The beauty of Lina Allemano’s trumpet playing lies in its bottomless depth and glimmering sonority. On her album, Live at the Tranzac, featuring music...
Ark Ovrutski: 44:33
Two years after he released Sounds of Brasil (Self Published, 2010) bassist Ark Ovrutski has graced music with a fine new album, 44:33. Numbers...
Aimée Allen: Matter of Time
This is a slow burner of a disc. Honestly, I was not won at first hearing, Romero Lubambo notwithstanding. But listening is believing...
Stacey Kent: The Changing Lights
There are few vocalists who can sing with such fragrant lyricism as Stacey Kent. The fact that she can sing in several languages—and make...
Felipe Salles: Ugandan Suite
Few practicing musicians in the Jazz idiom have perfected the composition of a suite in the manner that the great Duke Ellington did in...