Articles by DanMichael Reyes
Ambrose Akinmusire: Painting Saviors
by DanMichael Reyes
Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire (pronounced ah-kin-MOO-sir-ee) is as imaginative as the sonic soundscapes he creates and as informative as the titles that he bestows on his songs. Ambrose Akinmusire's allure stems from the complexity of his albums; a complexity that requires the listener to fully participate and engage with the artist and ask questions as to who the characters are, what events are taking place, and the emotions that the composer is trying to convey. This type of intricacy is the ...
read moreGerard D'Angelo: Who's Kidding Who?
by DanMichael Reyes
The old adage about those who can do and those who can't teach doesn't fit nicely into any music tradition. If this fallacy were to hold true, then it would be best for music history books to write off Joseph Haydn for taking on pupils--Beethoven being one of the more famous ones. That old idiom penned by George Bernard Shaw doesn't hold up for traditional Western music, it doesn't hold up for other musical traditions where practitioners are required to ...
read moreMark Sherman: Truth Of Who I Am
by DanMichael Reyes
Vibraphonist Mark Sherman likes using the term consummate to describe musicians and colleagues that he's played with. While it would be difficult to speak to every notable musician that Sherman's played for and ask about their opinion about Juilliard graduate and professor, it is safe to assume that they would also describe Sherman as a consummate musician. Mark Sherman has enjoyed a career as a leader with over a dozen albums under his name. While Sherman's albums as ...
read moreTakuya Kuroda: Rising Son
by DanMichael Reyes
Awards aren't handed down to individuals that proclaim how tough it is to live in New York. Likewise, it's not news to write that the life of the modern day jazz musician is difficult. If we follow the past two sentences we might come to the conclusion that the life of a New York jazz musician is not a bunch of wine and roses. While prodigies that venture off on world tours before they are legally able to purchase alcoholic ...
read moreEyal Lovett: Eyal Lovett: Let Go
by DanMichael Reyes
Israeli-born, Berlin-based pianist and composer Eyal Lovett has played the part of the consummate student up to this point. Lovett has studied with some of jazz's greatest luminaries like Hal Galper, Sam Yahel, George Cables, Ari Hoenig, and Jane Ira Bloom to name a few. As a performer he has shared the stage with the likes of Peter Bernstein, Kenneth Dahl Knudsen, Michal Cohen, Anat Cohen and many more. While playing sideman and student under great names is a right ...
read moreFabian Almazan: Espejos
by DanMichael Reyes
Intent is one of those intangible qualities that make a jazz musician. While traits like technical facility, memory, harmonic and rhythmic sophistication play a huge part in the career and development of the aspiring jazz artist, intention is the X-factor that can make a performance special. In an art form that demands spontaneity and thrives within improvisation, hearing what you're going to play before you play it--in some cases hearing it as you play--is crucial in order to get your ...
read moreBrian Carpenter: In Between The Cracks
by DanMichael Reyes
To write that Brian Carpenter has had an interesting career would be an incomplete statement since he holds so many. By day Carpenter is an engineer, but there's also his radio shows, his acting career, a film he's working on about Albert Ayler, his band Brian Carpenter and the Confessions where he sings and composes, and more befitting for our purposes, there are his two groups, Beat Circus and The Ghost Train Orchestra. A quick glance into Beat ...
read moreEtienne Charles and Creole Soul at SubCulture
by DanMichael Reyes
Etienne Charles and Creole Soul SubCulture New York, NY November 8, 2013 Fresh from his three-week residency at Doha's Jazz At Lincoln Center, Etienne Charles along with his band, Creole Soul, took to NYC's SubCulture on a chilly autumn evening. Charles and the band played to a packed audience at the beautiful NoHo venue and to special guests including Newport Jazz Festival founder George Wein and songwriter William Salter--best known for penning the Grover ...
read moreLeron Thomas: Zen-Mode Humor
by DanMichael Reyes
The chances of four people conducting a Google search on Leron Thomas that result in all four of them to make the same conclusion about the trumpeter is low. While certain facts--like his time at High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (PVA) in Houston and The New School in New York--will remain true, arguments might arise about the genre he plays and what his role as an artist is. A listen to “Silly Ass," the first track on ...
read moreEtienne Charles: Trumpet's First Chantwell
by DanMichael Reyes
Trinidadian-born trumpeter Etienne Charles has made it a point to share the culture of his native homeland with the world through music, whether it is writing songs on cuatro or steel pan, incorporating Kweyol chants on the opening track to his latest album Creole Soul (Culture Shock, 2013), or playing with an undeniable Caribbean bounce that caused the audience of Dizzy's Club Coca Cola to form a conga line through the venue during his album release show for Kaiso (Culture ...
read more
Giveaway
Days remaining: 3
