New York Times' review of Riverside

One of the lovelier songs on“Riverside,” the self-titled debut album of a sturdily approachable new jazz quartet, bears the title “Old Church, New Paint.” A slow waltz by the tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Chet Doxas, from Montreal, it inhabits a kind of arid terrain between Protestant hymn and cowboy tune.

The industrious trumpeter Dave Douglas, who actually made a recent album of hymns, joins Mr. Doxas on the melody, helping give the impression of deliberative but bluesy determination. Steve Swallow, the electric bassist, lays both a foundation and a light dusting of grace notes, while Jim Doxas, a drummer (and Chet’s brother) stirs the pulse with brushes. The band, which will appear at the Jazz Standard on Tuesday and Wednesday, sounds at ease with itself, and anything but hurried.

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Have Horn, Will Travel - The Wall Street Journal

By Larry Blumenfeld

Sitting in the music room of his home in a wooded enclave of this Westchester village on a summer afternoon, Dave Douglas looked rested. The condition was temporary, the trumpeter made clear. He doesn’t stay put long. In April, he released his 39th album as a bandleader, “Time Travel,” on his independent label, Greenleaf Music. It arrived just two weeks after he turned 50, and to mark the occasion he wanted to perform in all 50 states.

“It’s not that easy from a business point of view,” he said. “There’s not really an infrastructure for touring everywhere in the U.S. But only the logistics are challenging. There are people who want to hear the music wherever I go.” Mr. Douglas has chalked up 30 states for this calendar year. Some of the most enthusiastic audiences, he said, have been in less-traveled locales such as Laramie, Wyo., and Des Moines, Iowa.

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A Jazzman Looks at Loss and Finds Inspiration - The New York Times

By Nate Chinen

Dave Douglas dealt sparingly with the emotional back story at 92YTriBeCa on Wednesday night, in the auspicious first outing by his new quintet. During a concert built around the Protestant hymns on his gorgeous and contemplative new album, “Be Still” — due out on Tuesday on Greenleaf, his independent label — Mr. Douglas spoke of his motivation only in passing. The album, he said simply, “came about because all these hymns and songs were songs that my mother recommended that I play.”

His mother, Emily Douglas, died in August 2011 after a three-year struggle with ovarian cancer. During her final months, as talk turned to her memorial service, she handed him a list of eight traditional hymns — a poignant commission and in some ways a spiritual bequest.

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