Articles by Jack Bowers
Sam Robinson: 'Chasin' the Dream'
by Jack Bowers
Chasin' the Dream is the fourth album as leader by Chicago-based trumpeter Sam Robinson who keeps chasin' his dream of success as a jazz musician and composer even while holding down a full-time gig as a middle school French teacher and trebling as a husband and father. Although that is a lot of grub to pile on anyone's plate, Robinson shows here that there is no way the jazz entrée can cause him any discomfort. In other words, ...
Continue ReadingRick Roe: Wake Up Call
by Jack Bowers
Gregg Hill writes music. Other musicians play--and record--Hill's music. Pianist Rick Roe's latest album, Wake Up Call, marks the 19th time that has happened (and the second in 2026 alone). True, Hill and Roe are both Michiganders, but that is not always the case; Hill's nearly 200 compositions have seen the light of day on albums recorded from coast to coast and beyond including several with his name in lights. Even so, it is hard to envision Hill's ...
Continue ReadingJesse Davis Quartet: Reflections
by Jack Bowers
New Orleans-bred Jesse Davis delves into the soulful side of the alto saxophone on Reflections, his tenth album as leader and one that was recorded on jny: New York's jny: Long Island, far from Davis' home base of jny:Verona, Italy, where he has lived for more than 20 years with his wife and daughter. One of the perks of recording in New York is the accessibility of blue-ribbon rhythm sections, and Davis has checked that box by enlisting ...
Continue ReadingBrian Citro: Keep Moving (Home)
by Jack Bowers
The sound of Brian Citro's mellow guitar introduces “Stay Where You Feel," the first of his 14 original compositions on Keep Moving (Home), most of which began life as pieces for solo guitar and were revised by Citro to suit a quartet format. Citro's teammates on this generally pleasing yet largely anodyne session are alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella, bassist Matt Ulery and drummer Quin Kirchner. Mazzarella doubles on the seldom-heard Wurlitzer organ. About the only thing that could ...
Continue ReadingCincinnati Pops Orchestra: Harlem Renaissance
by Jack Bowers
New York's Harlem Renaissance, which spanned the 1920s and '30s, was an intellectual and cultural movement of music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship that reshaped African-American culture and mores in Harlem and beyond and led to a new militancy and dedication to the cause of civil rights and equality for people of color in the U.S. On Harlem Renaissance, the celebrated jny: Cincinnati Pops Orchestra honors the movement by delving into its music and depicting ...
Continue ReadingJared Hall: Hometown
by Jack Bowers
The Hometown in question is jny: Spokane, Washington, where trumpeter and composer Jared Hall was born and raised. On his third album for Origin Records, Hall salutes the hometown to which he has returned after years as a touring musician with a splendid series of his original compositions and new readings of others by Bobby Hutcherson and Thelonious Monk. To help carry out his plan, Hall enlisted the services of four stellar sidemen: tenor saxophonist Troy Roberts, pianist ...
Continue ReadingBria Skonberg: Brass
by Jack Bowers
Canadian-born and jny: New York-based trumpeter, vocalist and composer Bria Skonberg focuses almost exclusively on the horn on her seventh recording, the aptly named Brass. Even though Skonberg may be a splendid singer, she plays trumpet so extremely well it's a pretty sure bet that no one but the most diehard lovers of vocal jazz may miss her voice, heard here only on the album's last number, Cole Porter's “You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To." Skonberg's ...
Continue ReadingNeal Miner: Invisibility
by Jack Bowers
Here is a jazz trio with a twist: instead of the usual piano, bass and drums--or guitar, bass and drums--Neal Miner's threesome on Invisibility consists of tenor saxophone, bass and drums. While bassist Miner is the nominal leader, the jny: New York City-based trio is a true co-op in which Miner, drummer Jason Tiemann and saxophonist Chris Byars perform distinct yet basically similar tasks. The trio started working together in 2023, found it shared chemistry and a common ...
Continue ReadingAnna Elizabeth Kendrick: In Out Of The Rain
by Jack Bowers
These albums were recorded more than a decade apart by Chicago-based singer Anna Elizabeth Kendrick who uses her middle name, she says, to avoid confusion with another Anna Kendrick, a singer and actress. The first of these sessions, In Out of the Rain, recorded in 2013, consists of a dozen of Kendrick's original compositions; the second, from 2025, is devoted entirely to standards from the Great American Songbook. Even though she surrounds herself with jazz musicians, Kendrick isn't ...
Continue ReadingDana Hall/Clark Sommers/Chris Madsen: Threefold
by Jack Bowers
Threefold, the second recording by the Chicago-based chordless trio of saxophonist Chris Madsen, bassist Clark Sommers and drummer Dana Hall, might well be called three-of-a-mind, as that is how closely the threesome works together on this album of original music written especially for the ensemble by Madsen and Sommers. While Madsen's voice, on tenor or soprano sax, is inherently the more outspoken of the three, he is shadowed and supported every step of the way by Sommers' and ...
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