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Jazz Articles about Justin Copeland
Entre Amigos: Joyful Foundation
by Jack Bowers
Joyful Foundation is a near-perfect name for the third album by Entre Amigos, wherein the Chicago-based quartet welcomes aboard one of the jazz world's rising stars, trumpeter Justin Copeland, to play--naturally--The Music of Justin Copeland on an album whose upbeat posture and sunny disposition help make it utterly charming and highly listenable. There is, of course, much more here than cheerfulness alone to digest and appreciate. For one thing, Copeland's compositions--he wrote four of the album's eight numbers--are ...
Continue ReadingGeoffrey Dean: Conceptions
by Jack Bowers
Conceptions, the second album by pianist Geoffrey Dean's able quartet, is a neatly drawn recording whose ten original compositions were written by members of the group: five by Dean, three by trumpeter Justin Copeland, and a pair by drummer Eric Binder. The concept behind the album was to showcase a diversity of genres within a jazz setting while emphasizing the group's versatility. As such, it works quite well. Dean is a sure-handed soloist and accompanist, Copeland a ...
Continue ReadingGeoffrey Dean Quartet: Foundations
by Jack Bowers
Foundations is a generally swinging debut recording by Washington, DC-based pianist and educator Geoffrey Dean's quartet. The studio date pays tribute to the groundwork laid by its storied predecessors, especially those steeped in the hard bop movement that helped change the course of jazz, well before Dean or his sidemen were born. The album consists of seven relatively unsung compositions by Sam Rivers, Sonny Clark, Duke Pearson, Elmo Hope, Peter Bernstein and Andrew Hill, and two others--Miles ...
Continue ReadingBrandonLee Cierley: Camaraderie
by Paul Rauch
Camaraderie (Lofijazzsoul,2022) is BrandonLee Cierley's introduction to the jazz world, where he is a relative newcomer. A Tacoma, WA native who now works out of Portland, OR, Cierley clearly prioritizes original composition as much as he does spontaneous composition as a jazz tenor saxophonist. For a younger player, and as stated, a musician new to the jazz idiom, it is often the case. With the major shift in the recording industry over the past decade, more and more younger players ...
Continue ReadingMachado Mijiga: Gradient
by Paul Rauch
Machado Mijiga is a Portland born and raised multi- instrumentalist, producer, audio engineer and educator, still based in his city of origin. His 2022 release, Gradient, turns his focus to his creative strengths as a drummer and composer, taking in tunes written over the course of the past decade. Mijiga has mild synesthesia, hearing sounds as colors, shapes or more specifically, colors seen through the spectrum, or color groups. This is similar to the recently passed pianist, Jessica Williams, who ...
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