In this day of extreme polarities, is there any way that variant backgrounds and cultures can coincide? Judging by the 2 hour show presented by Julian Lage, Chris Eldridge and Aoife O’Donovan, the answer is a resounding “Of course” as…
Month: April 2017
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****Jean John: The Port of Life
Drummer and composer Zan Tetickovic, aka “Jean John” assembles a classical and jazz team to create a musical experience of a journey that involves the thoughts and moods of “an immigrant on an unforgiving emotional path of acculturation.” While it…
Rich Halley & Carson Halley: The Wild
Rich Halley does a series of fun and wild duets with drummer Carson Halley during 10 musical wrestling matches on this release. On tenor, he’s got a thick Sonny Rollins-styled tone, with deep breaths on “Flat Plane of the Sky”…
Nicholas Payton: Afro-Caribbean MixTape
For the past few years, trumpet Nicholas Payton has been trying to stretch beyond the confines of the label “jazz” and create his own mix of sounds. Gone are the days with Doc Cheatham or even his tribute to Bitches…
Eliane Elias: Dance of Time
Some of the best Brazilian sounds come from the hand and voice of Eliane Elias, as she teams up with Randy Brecker, Mike Mainieri, Mark Kibble, Amilton Goday, Joao Bosco and the famous Toquinho for a dozen samba bathing beauties.…
Mostly Other People Do The Killing: Loafer’s Hollow
Just because I don’t understand MOPDTK doesn’t mean I can’t like them. I mean, not too long ago, they did a note by note, breath by breath repetition of Miles Davis’ modal classic Kind of Blue. Now, just a…
SEMI-ROCKERS…Lawrence Morrill Glass: Neanderthal, Scott Nolan: Silverhill, Bridge: Songs of Lee Palmer, Steve Strongman: No Time Like Now
Somewhere between rock and a hard place… Lawrence Morrill Glass writes the material here, and the 11 songs have some quirky and clever lyrics. The settings for them range from fragrant mandolin on ”No Christmas This Year” to rich ballad…
Michael Attias Quartet: Nerve Dance
Alto saxist Michael Attias leads a highly intuitive quartet of Aruan Ortiz/p, John Hebert/b and Nasheet Waits/dr through a collection of fluid originals. There are oblique hints of Thelonious monk on the angular “Dark Net” and “La Part Maudite” while…
FRISKY AND FREE…Trouble Kaze: June
Music to stretch boundaries and ears! A sextet of two drummers (Didier Lasserre, Peter Orins), pianists (Sophie Agnel, Satoko Fujii) and trumpeters (Natsuki Tamura, Christian Pruvost) make up this five part cooperative collection. Lots of valve sounds which include fluffing,…
Tamuz Nissim & George Nazos: Liquid Melodies
Tamuz Nissim teams her floating light voice with George Nazos’ guitar, accompanied by Willie Applewhite/tb, Danny Weller/b and Ronen Itzik/dr for some impressionistic originals and covers. On electric guitar, Nazos at times gives hint of a debt to Pat Metheny…