Michael Ullman
This collector is happy to have Luis Russell: At the Swing Cats Ball with all its faults.
The last time Kenny Barron recorded solo was in 1981. That, besides the quality of the music, is a reason to treasure this album.
The smallish Friend Recital Hall was an ideal setting for pianist Laszlo Gardony to impose his engaging personality, as well as his musical versatility and power.
The music comes out of an extended personal crisis; the compositions found here are a testament to a musician regaining his voice.
The advantage to listening to the recorded Unstuck in Time: The Kurt Vonnegut Suite is that on disc pianist Jason Yeager writes beautifully for septet: the textures he evokes in his arrangements are curiously varied and invariably moving.
Vince Guaraldi isn’t the heaviest of jazz pianists: he played at a time when McCoy Tyner and Bill Evans were omnipresent. But his tunes, his gently humanist approach to music, meant that he reached listeners that others couldn’t or didn’t.
Given Keith Jarrett’s current disability, this new ECM recording is an unexpected gift to his fans.
The sound of both musicians is indelible: trumpeter Enrico Rava is warm and rounded; pianist Fred Hersch, often icy, is fetching and detailed.
Four! is one of Hampton Hawes’ most satisfying sessions, for the variety of the repertoire and the quality of the performances.
Trombonist Steve Davis says he never strays very far from the blues, and he proves it with this fine album.
Classical Music Commentary: Boston’s Lost Opportunity — How the BSO Board Chose Charles Munch over Leonard Bernstein