The word “piano” is actually a shortened version of its original name, which was “pianoforte.” It literally means “quiet-strong” which set it apart from its sister the one dimensional harpsichord. Both the “piano” and “forte” were in full display by…
Month: September 2015
THE REAL AMERICAN SONGBOOK…Manny Albam & Hal Schaefer: Jazz Goes to the Movies/Showcase
The Spanish label Fresh Sound has done a remarkable job in revisiting a lost genre in jazz, the movie score. They’ve released a ton of “B” movie scores, all of which are stupendous. Here, they’ve reissued a pair of albums…
TRUE BELIEVERS AMONG PHILISTINES…The Complete Bee Hive Sessions
If you got introduced to jazz in the 1970s (as I did), the music that was playing on radio stations and concerts was fusion, or “jazz-rock.” The ripples created by Miles Davis albums like Bitches Brew ended up with alumni…
LEO ROARS…Gratkowski/Gruglov/Nabatov/Yudanov: 35th Anniversary Moscow, Zoom trio: What’s For Dessert, Trio Lost Frequency: Found Frequency
Celebrating 35 years of free thinking music, Leo Records here presents three albums of similar attitude to amaze, inspire and confound. Frank Gratkowski/as-bcl-cl, Alexey Kruglov/as-bh, Simon Nabatov/p and Oleg Yudanov/dr-perc are caught in a 2014 concert set in Moscow. The…
Pablo Villegas: Americano
Guitarist Pablo Villegas delivers a wondrous tribute to all things America, North, Central and South, on this wondrously warm album. His touch takes you from Brazil to Venezuela to the good ol’ USA here, showing the links that 6 strings…
Mike LeDonne: Awwright!
Talk about truth in advertising! Anytime you get a B3 in capable hands such as Mike LeDonne’s, and add ingredients like Eric Alexander’s T-Bone flavored tenor, Peter Bernstein’s bopping tenor and Joe Farnsworth’s deep pocketed drums, you’re going to be…
ECM INTERPRETATIONS…Anthony De Mare: Liasons-Re-Imagining Sondheim From the Piano, Horacio Lavandera: Dino Saluzzi-Imagenes: Music for Piano
ECM’s New Series has released a pair of piano interpretations of composers. One by a single pianist, the other by a single artist as well, but with a surfeit of arrangers. So, here are one’s opinion of one’s opinion… The…
Putumayo Presents: Vintage Latino
“Lucy…You’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do!” If you’re a fan of the Latin sounds from Ricky Ricardo or Sky Masterson, this disc is going to soak into your soul like a Montecristo. Putumayo has assembled a smouldering collection of vintage…
The Gabriel Alegria Afro-Peruvian Sextet: 10
Here is a perfect example how “the Latin tinge” has saved and enriched jazz since the very early days. Gabriel Alegria plays trumpet, flugelhorn and guapeo as he leads a core team of Laura Andrea Leguia/reeds, Freddy Lobaton/perc, Yura Juarez/g,…
Karin & Mike Kelleher: Melange
Here’s a surprisingly successful album that mixes strings with chamber jazz. The husband and wife team of vocalist Mike Kelleher with violinist Karin mix strings along with jazz guitar,drums and bass on a serenely swinging affair. I’d thought I had…