Author Archives: Mel Minter

hONEyhoUSe Keeps It Tender (Updated)

shutterstock_93623734 edithONEyhoUSe, Sweep (independent)
A Review

Just as plants turn instinctively to the light, so hONEyhoUSe turns to the healing properties of faith, hope, love, sisterhood, and self-
affirmation. They’re healiotropic. Healing is their mission. Their third release, the
beautifully packaged Sweep, delivers the
musical balm that Honeyheads crave.

Mandy Buchanan, Yvonne Perea, and Hillary Smith—with the support of Savannah Thomas on percussion and Maude Beenhouwer on bass—return to the intimate and acoustic setting of their first album, Sun, moving away from the full band setting of their second album, Medicine Lodge. I was not fully prepared for the quieter setting, having recently seen them at the Albuquerque Museum’s outdoor amphitheater, backed by a full band and blasting through a powerful sound system on a lovely summer night. They sounded great, and big enough to fill any arena, indoors or out. But that performance colored my expectations, and it took me two or three listens before I could let Sweep come to me on its own terms. Continue reading →

Pianist Tom McDermott Brings a Fresh Repertoire of Syncopated Euphoria

Photo by Rick Olivier.

Since passing through these parts last summer, Tom McDermott has traversed the northern half of the Americas, playing concerts in exotic locales from Alaska to Costa Rica, but it was an encounter with a hero from his youth in the relatively unexotic Twin Cities that left a lasting
impression on the New Orleans pianist and helped reshape his repertoire.

“I went and visited my childhood idol, maybe my first childhood idol after my mom, pianistically speaking,” says McDermott, who has enjoyed much-deserved wider exposure since his
appearances on the hit HBO series Treme. “That was Max Morath. He was Mister Ragtime. His career started in the fifties, and it went strong till the nineties. Now he’s retired.”

Little did Morath, born in Colorado Springs in 1926, know it, but he helped shape McDermott’s approach to playing ragtime and, for that matter, everything else he’s tackled along the way. This Saturday, at the Outpost, McDermott will offer a smorgasbord of syncopation via his
distinctively charming and astonishingly double-jointed pianism. Continue reading →

Fun, Seriously

Oran Etkin, Gathering Light (Motema Records)FINALcvr
A Review

The music on Gathering Light (Motema Records), the latest release from Oran Etkin (bass clarinet, clarinet, tenor sax), has an
engagingly childlike quality, which is to say that it reflects a seriously fun approach to play and is unburdened by intellectual
pretensions. From the opening bass clarinet notes on track one, the music is infused with a playful spirit, even in its more profound and searching moments, and is delivered with a soulful commitment.

Continue reading →

A Complete Package

Leslie Pintchik, In the Nature of Things (Pintch Hard Records)
A Review

Leslie Pintchik CD coverThe press release says that pianist/composer Leslie Pintchik did something else before she turned to music as a career. I’m sure that’s true, but before she did that something else, she must have lived through three or four past lives in musical surroundings. How else explain the piercing intelligence behind her musical conceptions, the muscular grace of her playing, and her supple emotional
expression?

On her latest release, In the Nature of Things (Pintch Hard Records), it’s all on display, and she gets exceptional support from her band mates: Steve Wilson (alto and soprano sax), Ron Horton (trumpet and flugelhorn), Scott Hardy (bass), Michael Sarin (drums), and Satoshi Takeishi (percussion). Continue reading →

In the Swing of Things

RecollectionsFirst Take Trio, Recollections (Lone Guitar)
A Review

Well, hello again. After my wife and I took a short vacation to celebrate a major milestone, I came down with a nasty illness that is
finally beginning to clear away, so it feels good to finally get back into the swing of things. Recollections, the latest CD from
guitarist Michael Anthony’s First Take Trio, with Michael Glynn on bass and Cal Haines on drums, provides a great way to do just that.

The title refers to Anthony’s fond
remembrance of his late mentor, guitarist Howard Roberts, to whom the album is dedicated. A legendary studio player in Los Angeles and a respected jazz artist from coast to coast, Roberts took Anthony under his wing and helped him get get airborne with a style of his own. Continue reading →