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Marcello Carelli: First Impressions

by Jack Bowers
There is no sophomore slump on First Impressions, which is the second recording by the splendid young drummer Marcello Carelli's quartet/trio. It is one on which he not only anchors the rhythm section but also wrote nine of the studio date's ten bright and engaging tunes. If a musician can be appraised by the company he keeps, Carelli's status there is sky-high, as the quartet consists of award-winning tenor saxophonist Bob Mintzer and pianist Russell Ferrante (who ...
Continue ReadingYellowjackets: Fasten Up

by Pierre Giroux
Since their auspicious debut in 1981, the Yellowjackets have stood as both standard bearers and restless innovators of the jazz fusion movement. The group is anchored by founding pianist and keyboardist Russell Ferrante, long-time collaborators drummer Will Kennedy and saxophonist Bob Mintzer and, the most recent addition (for nearly a decade), bassist Dane Alderson. With their release Fasten Up, they once again demonstsrate that their creative engine runs on both memory and momentum. The album opens with a ...
Continue ReadingWDR Big Band: Bluegrass

by Jack Bowers
Violinist Darol Anger literally had a dream, one in which he was performing his bluegrass music not with the David Grisman Quintet or another small group but in front of a full-fledged big band--and in Germany, of all places. Even though it was a dream he thought would never come true, it was so vivid and tantalizing that Anger shared it with his longtime friend and musical colleague, mandolinist Mike Marshall, who agreed that it was rather far-fetched but nonetheless ...
Continue ReadingDave Stryker: Groove Street

by Richard J Salvucci
This is a throwback recording, but in a very good way. Time was someone could get in a car on a weekend morning, roll the window down, turn the FM up and drive to a happy place. It really did not matter much where: the music got you there because it was just that kind of straight ahead, in your face, bliss is it to be young sort of thing. In a big city such as Philadelphia a jazz station ...
Continue ReadingThe Dave Stryker Trio with Bob Mintzer: Groove Street

by Pierre Giroux
The Dave Stryker Trio with tenor saxophonist Bob Mintzer is a captivating musical escapade. This collaboration not only showcases the talents of the two principals but also the two accompanying players, organist Jared Gold and drummer McClenty Hunter. Right from the initial notes of the opening track Groove Street," a Dave Stryker original, the band sets itself up for success with Gold's classic organ shuffle as the launching pad. Stryker's guitar sizzles and Mintzer weaves a ...
Continue ReadingThe Dave Stryker Trio: Groove Street

by Jack Bowers
Guitarist Dave Stryker's latest album, Groove Street, is in fact The Dave Stryker Trio with Bob Mintzer," a combination that is a sure bet to enhance its merit and heighten its import--a sentiment that is equally true when applied to any album on which the acclaimed tenor saxophonist sits in. Stryker and Mintzer are longtime friends who somehow never recorded together, although Mintzer furnished the arrangements for Blue Soul, Stryker's splendid album with Germany's WDR Big Band. ...
Continue ReadingDewa Budjana: Joged Kahyangan

by John Kelman
Dewa Budjana may not be a household name outside of his native country, Indonesia, but with MoonJune Records picking up this exciting guitarist and composer, all that could be about to change. He's already garnered some serious attention with his first recording for the label, Dawai in Paradise, released earlier this year (2013), but at home, he's nothing short of a pop star. Lead guitarist and songwriter for the multi-platinum, million-selling Indonesian pop/rock group Gigi, the fifty year-old Budjana has ...
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