Drew Gress

I’ve been waiting for some forward thinking musician to intelligently combine the music of M-Base (which is both cerebral and funky but not particularly emotional) with elements of John Coltrane’s classic period modal innovations. Alto saxophonist Steve Lehman takes an impressive step in that direction with On Meaning.

His first trio album since the '90s, Night & the Music finds journeyman jazz pianist Fred Hersch, along with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Nasheet Waits, delving into an atmospheric and intimate mix of originals and standards. Hersch has always been a tasteful, harmonically adventurous, and deeply emotive musician, and that is certainly the case here.

A unique and forward thinking ensemble, composer John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet explores the tenuous boundaries between Jazz, Classical and Rock. The group's strengths lie in their inability to be easily categorized.

Since their founding in the late 1990s, The Claudia Quintet has walked a unique path in contemporary jazz. Unlike most jazz ensembles where the particular musicians may come and go, drummer, composer and leader John Hollenbeck always wanted Claudia to be a 'band' with a sound not only determined by the compositions and the instrumentation, but with the actual players who perform the music.

Some say John Coltrane was mad with divine love. And they're right. The voice of the spirit flowed through everything he did, more and more so toward the end. He was indeed doomed to a life of eternal love.