Keith Pray

Keith Pray's Three Bass Hit: Down the Middle

by Nicholas F. Mondello
March 10, 2022

There's just something about the sound of a B-3 organ that touches one's soul. Its awesome power seems to resonate the entire body. Perhaps it's the roots in religious environs. With Down the Middle, Albany, New York area saxophonist Keith Pray leaves his horns and reeds home and assumes the high Hammond throne along with a fine guitar and drum duo as Three Bass Hit. Together, they deliver an engaging rock and funk fest. As one might ...

Keith Pray: Universal Blues

by Nicholas F. Mondello
March 4, 2021

The opening sounds of Keith Pray's Universal Blues present a sonic gateway that ultimately leads to an overall significant musical experience. Throughout his career, saxophonist Pray, a highly talented and well-respected upstate New York artist, has been an avid explorer of textures and tonalities. With Universal Blues he and his mates deliver an intelligent and intriguing album. Through an eclectic array of Pray's original compositions, the group displays vivid emotional and creative expression while examining that unique element- -the titular ...

Keith Pray: Confluence

by Dan Bilawsky
June 18, 2012

When most people discuss the jazz scene in New York, they're referring to the music that's made in Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs, but the Empire State stretches far beyond the city that never sleeps and jazz is made in many a locale within. The Capital region, for example, has its own burgeoning jazz scene that's worth noting and saxophonist Keith Pray is a key part of it. Pray has become a force for furthering jazz through ...

Keith Pray: Confluence

by Edward Blanco
May 29, 2012

When not leading the 17-piece Big Soul Ensemble, the Soul Jazz Revival group or the New Orleans-style Mohawk Brass Band, bandleader, educator and alto saxophonist Keith Pray fronts a hard-swinging quartet performing at venues in Albany and throughout the Capital District of upstate New York. Confluence is his fifth recording as leader, a project he designed for his working quartet but modified with the addition of guitarist Chuck D'Aloia, an idea that remained percolating after seeing a 1994 gig of ...

Keith Pray's Big Soul Ensemble: Live at the Lark Tavern

by Alexander M. Stern
April 10, 2010

Live recording can be a mixed blessing. On a live album, an artist has an opportunity to capture the raw energy created in performance before an audience. When the band is cooking and the audience is whooping it up, it is clear that while music is made in rehearsal halls and recording studios, it lives onstage. On the other hand, recording live presents its own unique set of challenges. Getting the best possible sound in the controlled environment of the ...

Keith Pray's Big Soul Ensemble: Live at the Lark Tavern

by Nicholas F. Mondello
February 25, 2010

There's something marvelously intimate and involving about hearing a swinging big band live in a smaller venue. It can be let-inhibitions-go dark, bump-elbow tight and, with food and drink circling about, noisy. Perhaps the big concert (big bucks?) format of the Radio Cities, Symphony Halls or Lincoln Centers--the stuff seen on PBS (American Public Television)--slightly diminishes the experience when compared with the intensity, the sense of involvement, even the funkiness and soul of the small venue live performance.

Live at ...