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Jazz Articles about Robert Hurst
David Janeway: David Janeway Trio/Live At Blue Llama
by Pierre Giroux
Live at Blue LLama by the David Janeway Trio was recorded in June 2024 at the Blue LLama Jazz Club in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and it is the kind of album that is unforced, deeply conversational, and grounded in a shared musical trust. Pianist Janeway has long valued rhythmic authority and melodic clarity over display and possesses a composer's sense of proportion. He is paired with Billy Hart, a drummer whose influence spans generations, and Robert Hurst, a bassist deeply ...
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 ReadingKasan Belgrave: Dual Citizen
by Paul Rauch
Detroit born and raised multi-reedist Kasan Belgrave offers his first album bearing a name with a tremendous legacy. His father, the late Marcus Belgrave, was a prime mentor to generations of musicians from Detroit, one of the world's great jazz cities. His impact as a jazz trumpeter, as a major contributor to classic Motown Records hits and--especially--as a mentor and creator of musical opportunity for young aspiring Detroit jazz musicians, is unique. While we may then classify the elder Belgrave ...
Continue ReadingThomas Marriott: Screen Time
by Paul Rauch
Seattle-based trumpeter Thomas Marriott has been producing notable jazz recordings for more than a quarter century now with remarkable consistency in terms of both musicianship and composition of original works. After a decade in New York as a young musician, following his winning of the prestigious Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Competition, Marriott settled back in Seattle and produced a litany of albums featuring top Northwest musicians. At one time or another he engaged with all of his upper-left colleagues, ...
Continue ReadingKris Davis: Run the Gauntlet
by John Sharpe
While Kris Davis hews close to the hallowed piano trio format on Run The Gauntlet, her first return to the set-up since Waiting For You To Grow (Clean Feed, 2014), she inevitably gives it a few intriguing twists. By recruiting bassist Robert Hurst, alumni of Tony Williams, Steve Coleman and Wynton and Branford Marsalis, and drummer Johnathan Blake, a Blue Note leader also to be heard with Kenny Barron, Ravi Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, she ensures a driving beat which ...
Continue ReadingKris Davis Trio: Run the Gauntlet
by Alberto Bazzurro
Innanzitutto le dediche: a Geri Allen, Marilyn Crispell, Angelica Sanchez, Carla Bley, Renee Rosnes, Sylvie Courvoisier, sei colleghe di strumento (e non solo), ognuna con la sua brava colonnina esplicativa nel booklet che accompagna il CD, a cui Kris Davis si sente evidentemente vicina. Poi la musica: un piano trio pieno, vitale, contemporaneo ma senza eccessi, come già l'iniziale title--track, tredici minuti di un jazz fluente, privo di particolari barriere, ci dice eloquentemente. Poi, però, ecco subito appresso ...
Continue ReadingKris Davis: Run the Gauntlet
by Mike Jurkovic
For her first trio outing as a leader since 2014's Waiting For You To Grow (Clean Feed Records), daredevil pianist Kris Davis takes on her inspirations and mentors on the whirlwind Run the Gauntlet. Dedicated to the beacons who have guided and supported her searching, inventive way--Geri Allen, Carla Bley, Marilyn Crispell, Angelica Sanchez, Sylvie Courvoisier and Renee Rosnes--Davis enlists longtime friend and collaborator drummer Johnathan Blake alongside well respected and well-traveled bassist Robert Hurst (Mulgrew Miller, Diana ...
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