Saxophonist Doug Webb leads a superb quartet on Midnight, creating a late-night atmosphere with a hint of nostalgia on a range of classic tunes.
Webb's career stretches back for 30 years and includes work with some of the finest jazz musicians, including Bud Shanks, m: Horace Silver and m: Freddie Hubbard, as well as leading rock and pop acts including Rod Stewart. Midnight sees Webb joined by an equally talented rhythm section; the result is a true ensemble performance with every musician given the opportunity to stretch out and put their own individual stamp on the recording...
Improvising trios come and go. When a special session is documented, it focuses attention, clears the mind, and opens pathways to a happening. That is exactly what Matter and Memory accomplishes as an improvised session.
Recorded in 2007, this trio of saxophonist m: Paul Hartsaw, bassist Andrew Young, and percussionist Jerome Bryerton executes these eight impromptu pieces as if they have been preparing each track for years...
Pianist Anat Fort's ECM debut, A Long Story (2007) may have featured her "dream team"--and was all the better for it--but there's something to be said for the comfort and chemistry of longtime collaborators. Bassist m: Gary Wang and drummer Roland Schneider may not have the cachet of m: Ed Schuller or m: Paul Motian, but having worked with the Israeli expat since 2004, they clearly get what she's about, making And If a fine follow-up to A Long Story that, in many ways, is even more indicative of Fort's intrinsic strengths and undeniable charm...
Recorded in the same studio (Retrophonics) with the same producer (Dan Prothero) as all of JJ Grey and Mofro's previous works, Georgia Warhorse constitutes an overview of the band's whole career. The CD strikes an effective balance between the swampy blues of early albums like Lochloosa (Alligator, 2007) and the authentic R&B/soul music that filled the predecessor to this album Orange Blossoms (Alligator, 2008)...
Easy, effortless, breezy, and boundless: a few words to describe Gia Notte's approach to the standards. Shades, from beginning to end, displays an intention to recast standards in a different light. Not a bone-jarring different light, just one that is informative and thoughtfully conceived. Longtime m: Chet Baker ballad vehicle, "My Funny Valentine," is a case in point...
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