New York
New York @ Night: February 2013
From the February 2013 issue of The New York City Jazz Record: — Having endured as a working band for nearly a decade and a half, The Bad Plus doesn’t lack for material. The first Sunday set at the Village Vanguard (Jan. 6) featured pieces from the trio’s latest Made Possible but also others stretching back to Give (2004) and
New York @ Night: January 2013
Happy New Year again! From the January 2013 issue of The New York City Jazz Record: — As a student of Lennie Tristano and a noted colleague of Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh, tenor saxophonist Ted Brown provides a living link to the Tristano school — an intriguing area in jazz history, somewhere in the interstices between bop and “cool.”
New York @ Night: December 2012
From the December 2012 issue of The New York City Jazz Record. — Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt’s quintet, arguably one of the strongest working bands in jazz, has held together long enough to record four albums: November, Men of Honor, The Talented Mr. Pelt and this year’s Soul. There were new faces onstage, however, when Pelt arrived for a special birthday
New York @ Night: August 2012
From the August 2012 issue of The New York City Jazz Record. — Just when you’re expecting an hour of solo electric guitar at Bar 4 (July 2), leave it to Mike Gamble to get behind a drum set. The multi-talented Gamble began on guitar, however, filling the small space with a rough solid-body tone that has earned him gigs with
New York @ Night: July 2012
From the July 2012 issue of The New York City Jazz Record. — You might not think there’s room in the universe for another Thelonious Monk tribute. But pianist Eric Reed’s two most recent Savant discs, The Dancing Monk and The Baddest Monk, aren’t retreads in any sense: they’re consistently fresh and insightful, not to mention flat-out swinging. Leading a
New York @ Night: May 2012
From the May 2012 issue of The New York City Jazz Record: — Pianist Craig Taborn has gigged with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Gerald Cleaver for a number of years, but it took the trio all this time finally to play New York. The late Saturday set at the Village Vanguard (April 7) moved from deep abstraction and stillness to
Jazz Blogathon: Upper West Side, NYC
The following post is one of many being featured in the Jazz Journalists Association’s 2012 Jazz Day Blogathon, with a focus on jazz in local communities. Sometimes I tell friends that a key benefit of living on Manhattan’s Upper West Side is the ease of subway travel. A couple of blocks to the 1-2-3 train and I can zip down to
New York @ Night: April 2012
From the April 2012 issue of The New York City Jazz Record: — Drawing on material from his superb new Palmetto disc An Attitude for Gratitude, drummer Matt Wilson fronted his Arts and Crafts quartet in an inspired late Saturday set at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola (March 3). Wilson is a funnyman in the finest Gillespie tradition, but watching him harness the