Category: Recordings
Guitarist Nick Millevoi has for some reason dropped his name off his most recent release – the last time we heard the group in 2016, the group was named after himself and title was Desertion, now the group is ‘Desertion Trio’ but with a prominent call out to band member Jamie Saft. So, what’s in a name? I don’t really know, but I can say what’s…
Pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach’s position in jazz is well secured. He was a founding/integral part of the development of the European avant-garde, leader of the highly regarded and long standing Schlippenbach Trio with Evan Parker and Paul Lovens/Paul Lytton, leader of the Globe Unity Orchestra, and a dedicated interpreter of the music o…
It’s difficult for me to imagine ‘Jazz’ without Charlie Parker. He, along with the likes of Monk, Bud Powell, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, etc.re-fashioned jazz with the advanced harmonics, intricate melodies, and asymmetrical syncopation that is typically associated with the genre today. Inventing or discovering how extended scales could be…
I’m a little late to break this news, but Jose Lencastre’s Fragment of Always is a seriously good listen. The mid-2017 release captures a series of inspired improvisations ranging from quietly sublime to eruptively ecstatic. With half of the RED trio along, Hernani Faustino on bass and Rodrigo Pinheiro on piano, and Lancastre’s brother João …
Last week at the Jazz Gallery in Midtown Manhattan, Reverso served up an aural feast to a receptive crowd. The gallery space, located on the top level of an older compact five story building along Broadway at 27th street, may have been considered a loft back in the day, and still retains some rustic industrial charm, like the elevator whe…
A few years back Pennsylvania based pianist Ron Stabinsky joined the Pennsylvania-philic Mostly Other People Do the Killing. Around the same time, long term member trumpeter Peter Evans left and the group began featuring expanded line-ups (though not all recorded) with musicians like guitarist Brandon Seabrook, trombonist David Taylor, slide tr…
Berlin based pianist Madga Mayas takes the concept of prepared piano seriously. I have seen her in concert a few times and I cannot recall her sitting at the keyboard and playing, rather there have been implements and attachments applied to it and she is pulling sound from them. Jim Denley, whom I have not seen play, is an Australia based sax…
Part two of my guilty pleasure. There just may be a third on the way too, but not before I get to a few other items on my list.
Ross Hammond – Mason Lawn (Prescott, 2016) ****½
Typically when I am listening to an album for review, I am on the way somewhere, maybe to work, maybe to a concert, on a train, in a car, on the go, in the busy thr…
Oh, I’ve been taken to task for my Guitar Weeks. They say, “why single out the guitar? Why not have sax weeks? Why not a euphonium fortnight?” Well, I have no excuse except that I love the instrument and have a bunch of albums with the guitar at the center that I’d like to share with you…
Miles Okazaki – Trickster (PI Recordings, 2017) *…
I know I start too many reviews like this “[album x] has been in heavy play on my [various devices] for quite a long time now…” And so it goes, Das Kondenstat has been in my car stereo and on my iPod for months now, and every time I listen to it, I begin thinking of my review and then my attention is sucked into the music. It is, to my ears, …
I stumbled upon The Few at a show in a now defunct spot in Brooklyn about a year or so ago. They were either the headlining or supporting Ken Vandermark playing solo, or maybe it was a bit of both. Regardless, if I recall correctly, Vandermark opened up the sonic pathways for the The Few to then make their own. The trio’s reserved but insist…
Kyle Motl / Drew Ceccato – Katabasis (s/r, 2017) ****Kyle Motl / TJ Borden – Apperception (s/r, 2017) ***½
West Coast Bassist Kyle Motl works with two very different duo on the recently released Katabasis and Apperceptions. On the former, he’s paired with saxophonist Drew Ceccato, and on the latter, cellist T.J. Borden.
The title Katab…
