Michael Ullman

Jazz Review: At MIT, Jazz Musician Don Byron Does Gospel Right

October 30, 2012
Posted in , ,

Jazz musician Don Byron is nothing if not eclectic, but his own playing is always penetrating, challenging, energizing, and his compositions vehicles for both intense exploration and tenderness.

Read More

Fuse Jazz Review: Chick Corea and Gary Burton Set Off A Fiery “Hot House”

October 23, 2012
Posted in , ,

Chick Corea and Gary Burton were celebrating their recent disc, “Hot House,” which they said was meant to recall the sixties, when the two were starting their careers. But the sixties were never quite like this.

Read More

Jazz Review: Eliane Elias/ Marc Johnson – “Swept Away” at Sculler’s

October 7, 2012
Posted in , ,

Intimacy has been the key note of bossa nova performance ever since the initial murmurings of Joao and Astrud Gilberto, and singer Eliane Elias can whisper with the best of them.

Read More

Jazz Performance/CD Review: The Ralph Peterson Fo-tet

September 19, 2012
Posted in , ,

Ralph Peterson is interested in furthering a complex, post-bop legacy. His music can be hard to count: it’s also rip-roaring fun.

Read More

Classical Music CD Review: A Shure Thing

September 1, 2012
Posted in , ,

Fans of classical piano should find this collection of performances by something of an institution around Boston a rare delight.

Read More

Jazz CD Review: A Worthy “Elvin Jones Project”

August 17, 2012
Posted in , ,

Bassist Michael Feinberg has done many things right in his richly varied tribute to the great percussionist Elvin Jones.

Read More

Fuse Jazz CD Review: “Ten Freedom Summers” — Unconventional Swing

August 3, 2012
Posted in ,

Wadada Leo Smith’s album contains avant-garde music with a human face, intimate and appealing and beautifully played by a band of virtuosos.

Read More

Book Review: A Documentary Biography of Irving Berlin

July 18, 2012
Posted in , ,

Irving Berlin fans will be pleased to see such items as the complete Jerome Kern letter, (written in 1925!) in which Kern writes: “Irving Berlin has no place in American music. HE IS AMERICAN MUSIC.”

Read More

Recent Posts