jazz2love

Album:  Jazz Passion & Satin Latin Artist:  Jimbo Ross Label:  Bodacious Records Website:  Bodaciousrecords.com/about-jimbo-ross Facebook.com/jimboross Jazz Passion & Satin Latin , the latest edition to violist Jimbo Ross's catalog takes audiences back to his jazz roots with selections from the Great American Songbook, jazz standards, and a few original compositions.  Partaking on this adventure with Ross are guitarist Joe Gaeta, pianist Stuart Elster, bassist Peter Marshall, and drummer Ron Wagner. The band recorded the 13 tracks at the Sonic Boom Room studio using minimal overdubbing and no track-stacking over a four-day period.  The press release supplies, "Ross plays a modified copy of a classic viola, reproduced on a 3-D printer, and dually upgraded with a 5th string to extend the upper range of the instrument, and an electronic pickup to allow it to be heard alongside the other instruments." Ross's viola is well pronounced on each track while ...

Album:  Rezurrektion Artist:  Wayne Alpern Label: Henri Elkan Music Website:  www.waynealpern.com Reimagining compositions is a talent of arranger, composer and leader Wayne Alpern that has garnered him worldwide notoriety.  His 2023 offering Rezurrektion features a string quartet, the Sirius Quartet, that integrates jazz idioms into a classical repertoire.  The recording reconfigures 5 compositions of Mozart followed by a mash-up of works by Jonathan Larson and Edvard Grieg.  Another track is a reinterpretation of Duke Ellington's classic piece "Black Beauty" before closing with a reworking of George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess." The outcome is a lavish and bountiful feast that showcases Alpern's visionary inclination.  His penchant to meticulously knead chord patterns makes each note call to the listeners attention with effortless persuasion.  Listeners are naturally drawn to the music, hanging onto each phrase, each transition, each crescendo, ...

Album:  Transitions Artist:  Yaron Gershovsky Label:  Dorron Music Website:  www.yaronmusic.com Transitions , the 2022 release from keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader Yaron Gershovsky is an assortment of original music and cover tunes, stylistically moving between traditional straight ahead jazz and contemporary jazz, classic pop, Latin soul, and samba in the recording.  The album is comprised of a variety of combinations from solo piano to trios, quartets, and jazz vocals featuring Aubrey Johnson's engaging vocalese.  Gershovsky's endeavor is alight with melodious configurations and elevating phrasing that is pleasing to the aural senses. Gershovsky's original work "Awakening" shows his keys communicating briskly and freely with bassist Will Lee and drummer Clint de Ganon,  whipping up a jovial mood that turns reflective, driven by Gershovsky's ruminating keys in "I’ll Be Seeing You," penned by Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal.  Gershovsk...