Kim Nazarian: Some Morning

Self-produced
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Some Morning

In spite of her years of experience on the musical stage, this is vocalist Kim Nazarian’s first album, and it’s a technical tour de force. More than 25 musicians, vocalists, engineers, mixers, masters and producers participated. 

Nazarian got her start as one of the founding members of the famed New York Voices. She’s the overall vocalist here, and is joined on some by Peter Eldridge — a former New York voices member — and her son, Ian Ashby. Various instrumentalists appear on one or more tracks, and it’s quite the family affair: pianists Mark Shilansky and Mark Soskin; bassists Dwayne Dolphin and Leo Traversa; trumpeters Sean Jones and Steve Hawk; trombonist Jay Ashby (Nazarian’s husband); reedists Paquito D'Rivera, Greg Nazarian (her father), Anna Nelson, Jesse McCandless and Alexa Still; guitarists John Pizzarelli, Marty Ashby (her brother in-law) and Jiro Yoshida; drummers Roger Humphries and Jamey Haddad; vibist Gary Burton; and harpist Caitlin Mehrtens.

Nor are we done. Production utilized half a dozen recording studios and many mixers, masters and engineers. That’s where the technology comes in; most of the tracks were recorded with various combos, but several featured a virtual “big band.” The instrumental horns/sections were overdubbed in the studio by clever engineers! “Road to Kursk,” a variant of an old bebop tune, is the prime example; you’d swear that an entire big band had been involved.

Nazarian is a true jazz vocalist; she makes you believe she has “lived” the lyrics. She’s also one of the great scatters: Her voice — tone, clarity, expression and capability to improvise — blends perfectly with other voices and horns.

I hope we’ll hear more from Nazarian, her family members and friends.

John Pizzarelli: Rockin' in Rhythm

Telarc Records
By Ric Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 6.30.10
Buy CD: Rockin' in Rhythm

John Pizzarelli is the guitarist/vocalist member of the musical Pizzarelli family. His father, Bucky, also is a guitarist; brother Martin is the bassist in the group featured on this album.

Rockin' in Rhythm is a tribute to Duke Ellington; it contains 14 of the most famous charts performed by that august band, including classics such as “In a Mellow Tone,” “East St. Louis Toodle Oo,” “Satin Doll,” “C-Jam Blues,” “Just Squeeze Me,” “Cottontail” and many more.

Although most of Ellington's melodies originally were performed — and are remembered — as instrumentals, many contained lyrics; this album includes both the words and music. John Pizzarelli is the primary vocalist, accompanying himself on guitar, and two guest vocalists are included: Kurt Elling and Pizzarelli's wife, Broadway star Jessica Molaskey.

Pizzarelli's Swing Seven group — a basic rhythm section plus trumpet, trombone/alto horn, alto sax/clarinet and baritone sax/baritone clarinet — is joined by a violin and tenor sax. Bucky Pizzarelli also gets involved with a few tracks.

The result is a smooth, sophisticated and swinging time-capsule of musicians and music that so many of us grew up to. It's wonderful to be exposed to a group of talented artists who have been part of the prime jazz era, and are doing their best to keep it alive.

Holiday Jazz 1997: Santa delivers a mixed bag

By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 12.24.97

[Web master’s note: Northern California film critic Derrick Bang — the eldest, youngest and only son of this site’s jazz guru, Ric Bang — began surveying the annual holiday jazz scene with this column. Take note of its brevity, which resulted from space constraints that soon vanished, as the years continued. Subsequent columns threatened to devour the entire newspaper; in great contrast, this one is succinct to the point of being terse. Ah, well; we all have to start somewhere!]


It would seem that jazz artists continue to regard holiday tunes as a good bet, because quite a number of new releases have hit the bins during the past few weeks.

Piano fans can’t do better than Dave McKenna’s Christmas Ivory (Concord CCD-4772-2), an ambitious, one-man collection of superb solo work: blues, stride, swing rag and anything else the 67-year-old acoustic phenomenon sets his mind to.

It’s a grand series of cuts by a guy who knows he doesn’t need to impress listeners with needless flash; his renditions of “Silver Bells” and “Silent Night,” in particular, are poignant in their quiet clarity.

(By the way, if you like McKenna, do check out Butch Thompson’s solo piano work on Yulestride.)

Jim Brickman’s The Gift (Windham Hill 01934-11242-2) comes in somewhere near the lazy end of the piano spectrum: pleasant and undemanding instrumentals from a young talent who isn’t trying nearly as hard as he should. Brickman is becoming the Kenny G of the 88-string guitar, and the four vocals present on this collection are too sappy for words.

For my money, Brickman did much better work on 1996’s mini-CD, Christmas Memories, packaged with Windham Hill’s The Carols of Christmas.