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Wallace Roney - 09-Jun-05 04:42 PM
Wallace Roneys dilemma recalls that of Sonny Stitt in the 50s and 60s: his trumpet tone, timbre, approach, phrasing, and sound so closely mirror that of Miles Davis in his pre-jazz/rock phase that hes been savaged in many places for being a clone and unrepentant imitator. Stitt stopped playing alto for years because of his disdain of being labeled a Charlie Parker clone; Roney, on the other hand, played many of Miles Davis parts on the 1992 tribute to the Birth of the Cool sessions, which was issued in 1993 as Miles Davis and Quincy Jones at Montreaux. Roney even addressed the situation in the publication Jazz Times in 1993, blasting what he saw as unfair critical obsession with his stylistic similarity to Davis. Its a classic no-win situation; he does sound tremendously like Davis and cant be completely absolved from critical charges of imitation. But hes also a fine, evocative player on ballads and can be fiery and explosive on up-tempo tunes. Roney put in his stint in one of the last editions of Art Blakeys Jazz Messengers. He began recording as a leader in the late 80s with several sessions for Muse in primarily a hard bop mode, many pairing him with equally energized saxophonists Gary Thomas or Kenny Garrett.

Jukka Eskola - 04-May-05 04:41 PM
Jukka Eskola is a young trumpetist who is involved in various jazz groups, but perhaps he is best known outside Finland from his work in the Finnish dancefloor/hard-bop jazz quintet, The Five Corners Quintet. Eskola is about to release his debut album, ”Jukka Eskola” (Free Agent Records) in the spring of 2005 and Ricky-Tick Records is proud to release the first single taken from it.

Eskola felt that the time was right for his solo album because he has played as a sideman in several bands (NuSpirit Helsinki, Teddy Rok 7, Quintessence, Jimi Tenor Group etc.) and recordings, and now he wanted to do something of his own. The tracks are straight ahead jazz with a club feel. By playing ”club jazz” Eskola feels that you can reach a new audience, not only the traditional jazz fans, even though his groups formation is old school, the solos improvised and the tracks recorded live in the best jazz tradition.

Eskola’s quintets musicians are the cream of the Finnish jazz scene, all awarded young men except Jukkis Uotila (on piano) who has been around a bit longer. He has performed as a leader of his own small groups that have included such sidemen as Randy Brecker, Bob Mintzer, Mike Stern, Bob Berg, Wayne Krantz, and has played with such jazz giants as Toots Thielemans, Randy Brecker/Eliane Elias, Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, Benny Goodman, Chet Baker, Freddie Hubbard, Jack McDuff, Gil Evans and John Scofield to name a few. Timo Lassy plays tenor sax in U-Street All Stars, Antti Lötjönen is the bassist for The Five Corners Quintet and Ilmiliekki and the producer/drummer Teppo Mäkynen plays in Teddy Rok 7, The Five Corners Quintet, NuSpirit Helsinki and various other jazz groups.