js

John
Forum Admin Group · Site admin
Registered more than 2 years ago · Last visit 3 hours ago

Favorite Jazz Artists

All Reviews/Ratings

943 reviews/ratings
LOUIS ARMSTRONG - The Louis Armstrong Story, Volume I: Louis Armstrong And His Hot Five Classic (1920s) Jazz | review permalink
MILES DAVIS - Agharta Fusion | review permalink
EARTH WIND & FIRE - Gratitude RnB | review permalink
HERBIE HANCOCK - Speak Like a Child Post Bop | review permalink
FRANK ZAPPA - One Size Fits All (as Frank Zappa And The Mothers Of Invention) Jazz Related Rock | review permalink
HERBIE HANCOCK - Crossings Fusion | review permalink
PARLIAMENT - Mothership Connection Funk | review permalink
HERBIE HANCOCK - Thrust Funk Jazz | review permalink
SUN RA - Angels and Demons at Play Progressive Big Band | review permalink
SUN RA - Sun Ra And His Astro Infinity Arkestra : Atlantis Avant-Garde Jazz | review permalink
SANTANA - Santana Latin Rock/Soul | review permalink
FUNKADELIC - America Eats Its Young Funk | review permalink
MILES DAVIS - Live At The Fillmore East Fusion | review permalink
HERBIE HANCOCK - V.S.O.P. Post Bop | review permalink
MILES DAVIS - Get Up With It Fusion | review permalink
JIMI HENDRIX - Electric Ladyland (Jimi Hendrix Experience) Jazz Related Rock
MILES DAVIS - Miles Davis Quintet : Miles Smiles Post Bop | review permalink
MILES DAVIS - Nefertiti Post Bop | review permalink
JOHN COLTRANE - Giant Steps Hard Bop

See all reviews/ratings

Jazz Genre Nb. Rated Avg. rating
1 Fusion 121 3.65
2 Avant-Garde Jazz 74 3.91
3 Post Bop 63 4.06
4 Hard Bop 62 3.81
5 Soul Jazz 50 3.42
6 World Fusion 43 3.60
7 RnB 42 3.61
8 Big Band 42 3.81
9 Eclectic Fusion 41 3.72
10 Jazz Related Rock 33 3.74
11 Progressive Big Band 30 4.02
12 Funk Jazz 30 3.55
13 Nu Jazz 29 3.47
14 Bop 28 4.04
15 Pop/Art Song/Folk 25 2.76
16 Funk 24 3.83
17 Third Stream 24 3.90
18 Jazz Related Electronica/Hip-Hop 19 3.42
19 Exotica 18 3.42
20 Latin Jazz 17 3.74
21 Post-Fusion Contemporary 14 3.46
22 Jazz Related Soundtracks 13 3.85
23 Cool Jazz 13 3.69
24 Dub/Ska/Reggae 13 4.04
25 Vocal Jazz 12 3.54
26 Blues 11 3.82
27 21st Century Modern 11 4.23
28 Jazz Related Improv/Composition 10 3.40
29 Swing 8 4.00
30 Latin Rock/Soul 6 3.75
31 African Fusion 6 3.92
32 Acid Jazz 4 3.50
33 Classic (1920s) Jazz 3 4.33
34 Dixieland 1 3.50
35 Afro-Cuban Jazz 1 4.50
36 Bossa Nova 1 3.50
37 Jazz Education 1 3.50

Latest Albums Reviews

ZACHARY BARTHOLOMEW Balancing Act

Album · 2024 · Post Bop
Cover art Buy this album from MMA partners
Zachary Bartholomew has been active in jazz, both as a professor at Florida Memorial University, and as an on call session pianist for artists such as Dave Holland, Dave Liebman, Ira Sullivan and many more. “Balancing Act” is his first album as leader and it features ten of his original compositions. The music on here is modern post bop served up with complex compositions and arrangements that also leave ample room for solos. Although the CD credits might make you think this is a quintet, its actually closer to a piano trio, with saxophonist David Fernandez appearing on roughly over half the tracks, and trumpeter Benny Benack appearing on a couple. Zachary plays with a pronounced lyrical right hand in a tradition coming from Paul Bley, to Keith Jarrett and Brad Mehldau. The Mehldau comparison is furthered by Zachary’s leaning towards art pop meets modern classical passages that fall somewhere in between Philip Glass and Tony Banks.

Album opener, “Crazy Socks” is neo-bebop and contains one of Bartholomew’s more bluesy solos. This is followed by “Sunny Days Driven By’ with its grand sweeping piano passages that recall the Philip Glass meets Tony Banks sound mentioned earlier. “The Long and Winding Road” has nothing to do with the McCartney opus of the same name, but instead, the title implies a long compositional process that ends up with a driving syncopated ostinato that may remind some of Craig Taborn. Speaking of Paul McCartney, album closer, “Midnight Nefarity”, contrasts a section of hyper driving riffs with a descending art pop chord sequence that would have sounded right at home on the album, “Abbey Road”. “Hobo’s Lullaby” has a fast driving five beat rhythm, based on an Afro-Cuban bell pattern, that seeks to mimic a train roaring down the tracks. “Bring the Noise” has nothing to do with the Public Enemy track of the same name, but also uses Afro-Cuban rhythms matched with a hip-hop groove. In trying to avoid a tedious grocery list of every track, lets just say the rest are in that modern style that joins an eclectic approach to post bop with modern compositional arrangements.

JIMBO ROSS Jazz Passion & Satin Latin

Album · 2024 · Hard Bop
Cover art Buy this album from MMA partners
Although Jimbo Ross has spent the last couple decades establishing himself as a top blues playing violist, he didn’t start out that way. Jimbo was originally a jazz guy who appeared on the famous Don Ellis recording, “Live at Montreux”, as well as many other jazz recordings over the years. After spending much of the 2000s playing blues, RnB and Zydeco, Jimbo has finally come full circle and returned to his jazz roots with his latest offering, “Jazz Passion and Satin Latin”. Notice that Jimbo plays the viola, not the more common violin or even ‘fiddle’. Viola players are rare in the jazz world, with LeRoy Jenkins and Jimbo being two of the few that are well known. Ross has added an extra treble string to his viola so that he can reach high violin notes as well as the viola’s usual deeper range.

The music on “Jazz Passion and Satin Latin” is a mix of bluesy hard bop, Latin jazz, some beautifully melodic contemporary tunes and a few ballads. The ensemble that Ross has gathered here does not go for flashy technique or gratuitous displays of practice room high speed scales. No, instead the solos are soulful and melodic and quite often steeped in the blues. You can tell Jimbo and his gang have been playing a lot of blues and RnB because their approach to jazz is not way different, which is kind of refreshing in a way. This is great outdoorsy party music, perfect for a backyard barbeque or visit to a favorite swimming spot. In the famous words of Lou Reed, ‘they play good times music’.

Although most of the songs on here are lesser known standards, one original by guitarist Joe Gaeta, “Don the Working Man”, has a gorgeous melody and nice chord changes. Hopefully we will hear more Gaeta originals on the next outing. Another nice melody comes with, “The Night has a Thousand Eyes”, a tenor sax version of this one was a big radio hit back in the late 70s, but it has since kind of disappeared, its nice Ross has brought this tune back. You get some up tempo bebop with “The Breeze & I” and “Indian Summer” and some energetic Latin jazz with “Delilah” and “Know it All”. Bluesy hard bop comes your way via Wes Montgomery’s “Jingles” and Gerry Mulligan’s “East Lag”.

MILES DAVIS Miles Davis All-Stars, Volume 2 (aka Miles Davis Blows)

Album · 1955 · Hard Bop
Cover art Buy this album from MMA partners
Back in the mid 50s when Miles recorded “Miles Davis All Stars Vol 2”, the little ten inch LPs were still the norm and didn’t contain much more music than today’s Eps, therefore you get just two songs, Monk’s “Bemsha Swing” on one side, and the well known standard, “The Man I Love” on the other. This music was recorded during a famous session at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio on Christmas Eve 1954 that provided a lot of music for various albums and re-issues over the coming years. It’s an all-star group that Miles has assembled here, but most importantly is Thelonious Monk on piano. Miles and Monk, despite their admiration for each other’s skills, had a difficult relationship and this was famously captured on the opening part of “The Man I Love” in which they have a brief terse exchange followed by Miles telling Rudy to leave this exchange on the record.

Enough of the soap opera, how is the music, quite good actually and very interesting given Monk and Miles very different directions at this point. “Bemsha” opens up sounding very much like the Monk composition that it is, but when Miles enters with a flowing solo it takes a totally different direction. At this point in his career, Miles had left behind his bop roots and was developing the ‘cool’ style that would serve him well until about the mid-60s when things started getting heated again. The real star on both tracks though is Monk. His ability to bend and reshape phrases and rhythms is absolutely uncanny. Some 70 years later, there is still no one that can pull off what he could, his solos are attention grabbing and infinitely fascinating.

“The Man I Love” works well for everyone, but it does sound like vibraphonist Milt Jackson was a little agitated with Monk interrupting his opening as Milt plays a very busy and intense solo that pushes relentlessly at the beat. Percy Heath and Kenny Clarke do a fine job filling out the rhythm section, but they are both mixed a little low. You probably won’t find this little album at a reasonable price anymore, but these tracks show up on various comps, including “Miles Davis and The Modern Jazz Giants”. These two tunes are well worth checking out, first for Monk’s brilliant solos and secondly for Miles introducing a whole new approach to playing jazz.

MATT BOOTH Sun Prints

Album · 2024 · Fusion
Cover art Buy this album from MMA partners
“Sun Prints” is the fourth album as a leader for bassist Matt Booth, and although he is usually know for his avant-garde fusion work, for this album he toned things down a bit, but not too much, as there are still a lot of interesting twists and turns to be found here. Joining Matt are Steve Lands on trumpet, Sam Taylor on tenor sax, Oscar Rossignoli on keyboards and Peter Varnado on drums. These musicians are typical of the post ‘new young lions’ generation, very comfortable with post bop as well as fusion and the avant-garde. There aren’t a lot of obvious influences to site her except Sam seems to favor Michael Brecker on the tenor. Matt wrote all the tunes himself and aimed for a unified ensemble sound rather than just a vehicle for his bass playing. In fact, he quite humbly holds himself to just two bass solos on here while giving the lion’s share of the solos to the horns.

Album opener, “In Tongues”, features an energetic DrumnBass rhythm and closes out with the horns furiously soloing at the same time. Likewise, the Wayne Shorter inspired waltz time of “For Your Consideration” works up quite a sweat for something in three time. “Ice Bear” cools things off with an almost trip-hop styled medium groove with floating atmospheric Fender Rhodes. Elsewhere on the album the band goes traditional post bop on “Old News” and brings in pedal steel guitarist Brian Seeger for the atmospheric “Interlude”. The steel guitar is a nice touch when it blends with the band, but sometimes it sounds like Brian is in another studio somewhere down the hallway.

Miles fans will dig “Optimal Chunks”, on which Steve purposefully channels Miles’ fusion work complete with echo effects and lots of dissonant electronics. But wait, there’s more, including a couple ballads and a Radiohead inspired number with more fast paced DnB drumming and frantic horn solos. The repeating hypnotic piano line in this one definitely recalls the Radio boys. The album closes out with a 12 tone composition as Matt still keeps that ‘outside’ element alive in his compositions.

GABOR SZABO Nightflight

Album · 1976 · Pop/Art Song/Folk
Cover art Buy this album from MMA partners
Although Gabor Szabo was one of the first jazz artists in the mid 60s to play what we now call ‘fusion’, his name has just about disappeared into obscurity, which is a real shame. Gabor was a top notch guitarist and innovator combining different elements in his music and joining with Chico Hamilton to make some of the very first jazz fusion albums. Unfortunately, Gabor had long running problems with drugs and alcohol, which is why his life ended at a fairly young age, and also possibly why he is not honored and remembered as much as he should be. His life just ended too soon for him to make a lasting impression on the jazz world. Although he made many excellent albums in the 60s and early 70s, by the time 1976 rolled around, he was being pressured by the disco fad to come up with something more commercial, which led to this very well made, but also very commercial album, “Night Flight”.

In 1976, fellow jazz guitarist George Benson came out with his hugely successful album, “Breezin”. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Gabor‘s “Night Flight” soon followed. Obviously Gabor and the people around him thought they might have a chance to come up with a similar success following the Benson formula of orchestrated art pop with a touch of disco and plenty of tasty guitar solos to go around. Those CTI/Don Sebesky arranged lush orchestrated pop jazz records of the time were probably an influence as well. “Night Flight” is not a cheap hastily arranged album at all. A lot of work went into the arrangements, orchestrations and production of this album. It really has a nice full sound, but the music is fairly commercial and not what the average Gabor fan is looking for.

There is one killer track on here, the very funky “Baby Rattle Snake”. This would be a great cut for that DJ looking for something that no one else has. The rest of the album is okay, but not particularly remember-able. On the plus side, all through the album Szabo lays down an endless stream of guitar solos with a mix of bop swing and RnB rhythmic punch.

Latest Forum Topic Posts

  • Posted 2 days ago in KKK celebrates Trump's victory in 2016
    Its up to you people, do we really want the KKK to celebrate again in 2024?
  • Posted 2 days ago in What are You Listening II
    Frank Ocean    "Thinking Bout You"    Live[TUBE]aWUWC21_HE8[/TUBE] js2024-11-01 17:41:38
  • Posted 15 days ago in Question about collaborator status
    As for band additions, first priority goes to bands that labels send us, next comes new artists that we see in current jazz publications and third comes from the 'suggest bands' list on the forum.If there is an artist that you would be willing to add all the albums for, let us know who it is and we will add the artist and you can add all the albums. 

Shouts

Please login to post a shout
Warthur wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Hey dude,

You've banned me from the forums but I can still access the review submission system and site interactions.

If that is intentional then fair enough but if not I thought it'd only be honest to give you a heads up.

Warthur wrote:
more than 2 years ago
js - please clear some space in your PM inbox, I'm trying to send you something.

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Puttin' On the Ritz Classic (1920s) Jazz
THE NEW WONDERS
Buy this album from MMA partners
異響同塵~Different echoes in the same dust~ Jazz Related Improv/Composition
TOSHI TSUCHITORI 土取利行
Buy this album from MMA partners
Brötzmann / Nilssen-Love : Butterfly Mushroom Avant-Garde Jazz
PETER BRÖTZMANN
Buy this album from MMA partners
Kranetude Avant-Garde Jazz
KATHARINA ERNST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Trance Map (Evan Parker - Matthew Wright) : Horizons Held Close Jazz Related Improv/Composition
EVAN PARKER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

Wet Weather Wet
THE WRONG OBJECT
js· 15 hours ago
Michael Kiwanuka - Lowdown (parts i and ii)
MICHAEL KIWANUKA
js· 15 hours ago
Notbad
PEELA
js· 1 day ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us