cdhotlist.com When jazz tries to get rockish, the result is too often an embarrassing cross between oversimplifed jazz and awkwardly non-idiomatic rock. But when jazz tries to get funky, the results are often much better. Case in point: this adventurous but tight septet date led by saxophonist Sean Nowell, who writes and arranges with a great sense of voicing and structure but who can also take th ...Read More

www.allaboutjazz.com Track review of “Mantis Style”  New York City-based saxophonist Sean Nowell has found a home with the increasingly prominent West Coast modern jazz record label, Posi-Tone Records. His fourth release highlights the turbo-powered acoustic-electric band, The Kung-Fu Masters. Word has it that the ensemble has been creating a buzz in The Big Apple, and in recent ti ...Read More

somethingelsereviews.com Sean Nowell is a name I remember from a couple of years ago when sizing up his last album Stockholm Swingin’(2011), a snappy live encounter of solid, straight ahead jazz performed by both American and Swedish musicians in a small combo band. The Kung-Fu Masters is an about face from the trad direction Nowell went on Stockholm, propagating instead a brand of funk-jaz ...Read More

jazzandblues.blogspot.com Saxophonist Sean Nowell raised some eyebrows last year with an excellent mainstream post-bop jazz album called Stockholm Swinigin’. This new album approaches things from a different direction, leaving the world of buttoned down bop behind to import aspects of fusion, funk and pop into the mix. Along with Nowell on tenor saxophone, the Kung-Fu Masters are: Brad Mas ...Read More

steptempest.blogspot.com Tenor saxophonist Sean Nowell, born in Alabama, educated in Boston and New York, has, over the course of his recording career for Positone Records, shown that he can not only swing but also bring the funk.  “The Kung-Fu Masters” is his 4th CD for the Los Angeles, California-based label and it would not be out of place that Nowell and his group display their ...Read More

midwestrecord.com Breath taking electric jazz/funk with the sax man giving as much time to the B3 as he does to his own axe. Kicking it with a funked up treatment that turns Hendrix on his head, the good vibes continue to flow in non-stop fashion as the party rolls on and gate crashers try to work their way in. A super sonic stew that really gets the blood flowing, Nowell finds himself on surer fo ...Read More

www.criticaljazz.com Zen and the art of improvisation. The human chemistry of abstract creation where limitations of form and function are cast aside for soulful interpretation of a deconstructed melody by the soloist and all those that choose to participate. That and this is a really cool disc! More than a jazz disc, Sean Nowell and The Kung-Fu Masters are a multi-media presentation of positive ...Read More

www.allaboutjazz.com The Kung-Fu Masters isn’t simply another album for tenor saxophonist Sean Nowell; it’s the recorded coming out party for a band and concept that he’s been tweaking and promoting for years. Nowell has been field testing this project in New York jazz spots like 55 Bar, and his website contains various recorded performances of the group at the club dating back ...Read More