John Hilderbrand
-
Grammy Nominees from A Jazz POV
.
The nominees for the 50th Grammy Awards was announced yesterday. As always, it’s interesting to see whom the Recording Academy has deemed worthy of music’s highest award. This year, I’m happy to see a few younger musicians being recognized in jazz (though you can expect bigger name artists to go home with the award). Let’s…
-
Review: Alan Pasqua – The Anti Social Club
.
A veteran keyboardist who’s played with Tony Williams in his Lifetime band, Alan Pasqua has released a seven track jewel of a fusion masterpiece that harkens back to Miles (i.e., In A Silent Way), the Headhunters, and Weather Report. In fact, every time I listen to The Anti Social Club, I keep hearing more influences….
-
Boney James – Christmas Present
.
Boney James is now two for two for excellent holiday recordings. Almost a decade ago, I reviewed the saxman’s first seasonal CD, Boney’s Funky Christmas, and was impressed. I love the Christmas season and have a larger-than-average number of related discs. The fact that this is one of them that I put on first each…
-
Review: Mark Hollingsworth – Chasing the Sun
.
For the last week I’ve been trying to find the right words to describe veteran studio saxophonist Mark Hollingsworth’s latest release, Chasing the Sun. I keep going back and re-listening to these well composed, excellently performed, but totally dissimilar 13 tracks. How best to describe what’s on Chasing the Sun; Brecker Brother-ish, Steely Dan like,…
-
Review: MSM Schmidt – Transit
.
The next time someone asks me to define contemporary jazz, I have the answer: Transit from MSM Schmidt. The project is an ideal fusion of jazz and rock. It has excellent compositions that allow its stellar cast of musicians to let loose and improvise. It’s a plugged-in, fired-up affair that will reinvigorate a sagging spirit….