Chris May

London

Freelance Writer at Freelance

Contributor at All About Jazz

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Articles

Josephine Davies: Satori: Weatherwards

Oct 30, 2024 | allaboutjazz.com | Chris May

Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Josephine Davies: Satori: Weatherwards Crissy Lee's Jazz Orchestra, a fifteen piece all-woman band who made one album, the self-produced ...With Body And Soul.
Tadd Dameron: Fontainebleau & Magic Touch Revisited

Oct 26, 2024 | allaboutjazz.com | Chris May

Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Tadd Dameron: Fontainebleau & Magic Touch Revisited Dexter Gordon called Dameron the "romantic" of modern jazzmeaning he was near peerless in evoking the love between two people (not Romantic in the sense of, say, Beethoven, as some have supposed). In 2024, Dameron is best remembered for the contributions his compositions made to other people's careers. For instance...
Roy Hargrove's Crisol: Grande-Terre

Oct 20, 2024 | allaboutjazz.com | Chris May

Home »Jazz Articles » Album Review » Roy Hargrove's Crisol: Grande-Terre But Hargrove never abandoned jazz, the foundation stone of his style. Instead he regarded other genres as part of a rainbow of expression. "The spirit and energy that musicians are putting into it is the same," he told the San Jose Mercury News in 2003. "It's just a different way of speaking, a different dialect. I've been around all kinds of musicians, and if a cat can play, a cat can play.
Sidsel Endresen, Jan Bang, Erik Honoré: Punkt Live Remixes Vol.2

Oct 11, 2024 | allaboutjazz.com | Chris May

Home »Jazz Articles » Album Review » Sidsel Endresen, Jan Bang, Erik Honoré: Punkt Live Remixes Vol.2 Punkt Live Remixes Vol. 2, which also covers Punkt pop-ups elsewhere in Europe. Sadly, Dave suffered a fatal heart attack in August 2024. He is missed by all who knew him. Punkt was launched in Kristiansand, Norway in 2005 by singer Sidsel Endresen and electronicists Jan Bang and Erik Honore. It continues to be staged each autumn.
Flock: Flock II album review @ All About Jazz

Oct 10, 2024 | allaboutjazz.com | Chris May

Home »Jazz Articles » Album Review » Flock: Flock II Tamar Osborn, drummers and percussionists Bex Burch and Sarathy Korwar, and keyboard players Danalogue the Conqueror and Al Macsween. Separately and collaboratively, they have since the late 2010s given us landmark genre-crossing albums in bands including Emanative, The Comet Is Coming, Vula Viel, Collocutor, Dele Sosimi's Afrobeat Orchestra, Upaj Collective and Kefaya.
Neil Cowley Trio: Entity

Oct 8, 2024 | allaboutjazz.com | Chris May

Home »Jazz Articles » Album Review » Neil Cowley Trio: Entity Neil Cowley put his trio on hold in 2017 to go solo. Entity marks the return of the group, which is completed by bassist Rex Horan and drummer Evan Jenkins. This is their eighth album since 2006, and the fourth with Horan in the lineup (Jenkins has been present from the start).
Dann Zinn: Two Roads

Oct 5, 2024 | allaboutjazz.com | Chris May

Home »Jazz Articles » Album Review » Dann Zinn: Two Roads Oded Tzur. The two players are far from interchangeable: each has their distinct sound and each has their distinct style. But both bring intimacy and solace to the soul, and both beam out a vibe of positivity. Tzur and Dann Zinn have come from various places to arrive at adjacent spots. Tzur's style is steeped in years of study of Indian classical raga.
Aaron Parks: Little Big III

Oct 4, 2024 | allaboutjazz.com | Chris May

Home »Jazz Articles » Album Review » Aaron Parks: Little Big III Terence Blanchard, Aaron Parks emerged as a fully-fledged bandleader with his album Invisible Cinema on Blue Note in 2008. On it, Parks fronted a quartet completed by guitarist Mike Moreno, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Eric Harland. The group's bag was the capacious one known as post-genre, but the music was indisputably jazz for all that.
Marysia Osu: Harps, Beats & Dreams

Oct 3, 2024 | allaboutjazz.com | Chris May

Home »Jazz Articles » Album Review » Marysia Osu: Harps, Beats & Dreams Dorothy Ashby, lived beyond her premature passing in 1986. Since then, most American jazz harpists have stuck pretty closely to the neo-classical glissandos and block chords-based style established by Alice Coltrane. New York's Brandee Younger is among the few who have shown a more than passing interest in Ashby's work and its emphasis on horn-like single-notes runs.
Gira album review @ All About Jazz

Sep 26, 2024 | allaboutjazz.com | Chris May

Home »Jazz Articles » Album Review » MOMO.: Gira Gira is one of those exhilarating beyond-category albums which London produces uniquely well, if the gentle reader will excuse a little partisanship. It is part música popular brasileira (MPB) and part jazz, but never entirely one or the other, swinging between the two as the fancy takes it.