Browse some recent OA2 Reviews.
Dan Gailey Jazz Orchestra - What Did You Dream?
by Jack Bowers, All About Jazz.com
Dan Gailey has been known for years as a superb composer / arranger / saxophonist / educator but never before as leader of his own orchestra, an oversight he deftly corrects on What Did You Dream? All the music on this congenial studio date is Gailey's, and it is contemporary without being opaque, melodically and harmonically impressive without extravagance, sophisticated without losing sight of the imperative to swing.
Gailey's hand-picked... read more
Electric Squeezebox Orchestra - The Falling Dream
by George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly
The Electric Squeezebox Orchestra is a California based band, and on this album has trumpeter Erik Jekabson and baris saxist Charlie Gurke supplying most of the material. The charts are clever and modern, with chirping horns and guitar teaming with floating flutes on "Gualala" or charging with John Santos' Latin percussion on the extroverted "Jungle Rumble" with vibrant solos by by Darren Johnston/tp and, Marcus Stephens/ts . Gurke's "The... read more
Tim Shaghoian - Gentle Beacons
by George W Harris, Jazz Weekly
Tenor saxist Tim Shaghoian creates fluffy forms with his horn leading the way on his originals plus a standard with Chris Janzen/g, Kevin Person/p, Richard Lloyd Giddens/b and Antonio Montanez/dr. The team works well as a unit, doing some clever stop-starts on "Old Haven in the Waves" with sax and drums getting intricate on "Flying Hat" and the two weaving in and out during "Unrest". Person and Giddens do some pretty work on"Neukolln" while on... read more
Florian Hoefner - Falling Up
by Daniele Camerlengo, Suono (Italy)
What a pleasure to listen to this young training; already now you can feel the strong and intimate bond that unites these musicians who, despite coming from different places and backgrounds, seem to have always lived in their music. A rare find and unique, their interplay follows and draws Pindaresque emotional rooms: passion, pain, joy and suffused meditative moments. Florian H�fner, their guide, accompanies us through his pianism, following... read more
Florian Hoefner - Songs Without Words
by Dave Sumner, Bird Is The Worm Jazz Blog
Of the hundreds of albums I�ve listened to in 2012, Florian Hoefner�s Songs Without Words possibly excels best at offering lovely melodies made memorable. These are not simple tunes, but they are simply presented.
There is a congeniality to this album akin to pop music, and the melodies are infectious as hell, but they are anything but sweetness and light. In fact, in the middle of all this pop music buoyancy, the melodies have a note of... read more
Svetlana and the Delancey Five - Night at the Speakeasy
by Chris Spector, Midwest Review
Guy Eckstine might not be able to put his feet up on the desk at 825 8th anymore but he still has all the verve his daddy left on his DNA in tact. Surrounding a New York treat that convenes on Monday nights with a crew of players that would be household names if there was still a real record business investing jazz, this genre twisting trip to the '30s speak easy in the back of your mind is simply classic, jazzbo thrush all the way. A most... read more
Jimmy Bennington - Midnight Choir
by Bud Kopman, All About Jazz
There is little information included about the music on Midnight Choir to prepare you for the listening experience (though there is a bio of Jimmy Bennington), and the disc starts right off quite abstractly. The first two tracks are attributed to Seth Paynter (sax) and are of a sparse, non-rhythmic, free kind that is more expressionist than anything else. "The Mind" is made of sax/bass duets, bass solos, drum solos, vocalisms, and the trio... read more
Charlie Porter - Immigration Nation
by Editor, JAZZIZ
CRITIC'S CHOICES Trumpeter and composer Charlie Porter released an impressive self-titled 2018 debut recording that featured tracks ranging progressively from solo to sextet settings, then reversed back the other way. The Juilliard grad waxes conceptual on his sophomore recording, Immigration Nation (OA2), as well, this time tackling the immigrant experience. A descendent of Lebanese, Greek, Italian and English immigrants to the United... read more
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