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Kenny Barron / Dave Holland Trio featuring Johnathan Blake: Without Deception
by Mike Jurkovic
No matter the many miles and quantum number of life's triumphs and travails that have visited them since their last encounter, Kenny Barron and Dave Holland walk into a studio and instantly pick up whence they last met. But these two old cronies are not just killing time shooting the proverbial you-know-what. They have set out to interpret and shape time on their own terms, and not vice versa, two intrinsic elements of creation that still make their ...
Continue ReadingJohnathan Blake: Trion
by Angelo Leonardi
L'edizione di questo splendido saxophone trio con Chris Potter, Linda May Han Oh e Johnathan Blake (due ore di musica riprese il 21 e 22 gennaio 2018 alla Jazz Gallery di New York) la dobbiamo al fotografo Jimmy Katz, fondatore con la moglie Dena dell'etichetta discografica no-profit Giant Step Arts. L'organico nasce dall'esperienza nel 2015 di Potter e Blake con un altro pianoless trio comprendente il contrabbassista Larry Grenadier. Nei due anni successivi Chris Potter ha continuato ...
Continue ReadingEric Alexander: Leap of Faith
by Friedrich Kunzmann
Acclaimed saxophonist Eric Alexander needs no special introduction. His pioneering work in the jazz world has been an inspiration to many of his peers since the early 90s. On this special chordless endeavour—featuring the chops of Doug Weiss on bass and drummer Jonathan Blake whose own recording in a very similar chordless constellation was likewise recently documented on the Giant Steps Arts label to high critical praise—Alexander makes a giant leap into somewhat uncharted territory for him and is rewarded ...
Continue ReadingEric Alexander: Leap of Faith
by Jack Bowers
Renowned tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander's Leap of Faith stems in part from the decision (hesitantly made) to perform in a trio setting without piano—hardly an uncommon arrangement these days but one that Alexander, a shining light on the New York music scene for more than two decades, has rarely explored, either in live gigs or on more than forty-plus albums as leader of his own groups. Also, Leap of Faith was recorded live (no safety net) at New York City's ...
Continue ReadingJohnathan Blake: Trion
by Friedrich Kunzmann
The names making up this trio really don't need further explanation, seeing how they belong to some of the leading jazz musicians in their respective fields: for Trion , drummer and composer Johnathan Blake relies on the adventurousness of the highly acclaimed bass virtuoso Linda May Han Oh and saxophonist Chris Potter, who together form a chordless entity. The democratic fashion in which the three interact with each other here was initially supposed to be captured by naming the group ...
Continue ReadingJohnathan Blake: Trion
by Karl Ackermann
A journeyman drummer with over fifty album credits, Johnathan Blake has long associations with Tom Harrell and Kenny Barron and has appeared with Oliver Lake, Roy Hargrove, Alex Sipiagin, Donny McCaslin, Avishai Cohen, Omer Avital and many other well-known artists. His previous outings as leader were The Eleventh Hour (Sunnyside, 2012) and Gone, But Not Forgotten (Criss Cross Jazz, 2014). Blake's chordless trio with tenor saxophonist Chris Potter and bassist Linda May Han Oh presents Trion, a work of considerable ...
Continue ReadingJohnathan Blake: Trion
by Dan McClenaghan
Johnathan Blake, an in-demand drummer who has contributed to recordings by trumpeter Tom Harrell and guitarist Russell Malone, presents an ambitious two-CD set, Trion, a chordless trio affair with a pair of fellow first-callers, saxophonist Chris Potter and bassist Linda May Han Oh. The ground was broken for this particular format by saxophonist Sonny Rollins' A Night At The Village Vanguard (Blue Note, 1958), a freewheeling exploration of jazz standards and Great American Songbook tunes.Where A Night At ...
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