Category: Recordings
ByPaul Acquaro
What better way to end a week of big band reviews than with a two-disc release featuring a total of 49 musicians? Californian drummer and composer, Nathan Hubbard and his Skeleton Key Orchestra’sFuriously Dreamingis a sprawling mixture that features in all 49 musicians andencompasses many styles and approaches over its two hou…
When you invite 21 musicians onto a stage, with probably two to three times the number of instruments between them, you better have a plan! Boston-based musician and band leader David Peck (aka PEK) certainly does.
PEK’s reinvigorated Leap of Faith quartet came out of hiatus a few years ago and since they have been busy creating music – and i…
We’re working our way through the combinations – recently we had solo, duo and trio weeks, and this week we check out some larger than average bands, starting with one that has beenwaitingfar too long for a review on the Free Jazz Blog…
Baltimore-based bassist and composer Michael Formanek has a concise but impressive list of recordings as…
Jed Gottliebs’ article “Curtains fall on arts critics at newspapers” in the Columbia Journalism Review from earlier this month really got to me. Having grown up in New Jersey reading the arts and leisure section in the Star Ledger,I learneda lot about the arts, music reviews, concert listings – basically all of the things that are still important…
Ivo Perelman, Joe Morris & Gerald Cleaver – The Art of the Improv Trio, Volume 5 & 6 (Leo, 2016) ****
As we draw to a close on this series of reviews of saxophonist Ivo Perelman’s latest set of recordings, The Art of the Improv Trio, we have a rare chance to hear the same trio but with the key difference of guitarist Joe Morris o…
Steeped is blistering, no holds barred, instrumental avant-rock. Striking a balance between the ‘jazzier’ strain of band leader Alex Ward’s lithe clarinet playing and guitarist Roberto Sassi’s distorted guitar work, Forebrace manages to be forceful and direct without losing a melodic touch.
Ward is a clarinetist and guitarist from the…
The final installment of duo’s week…
Trevor Watts & Stephen Grew – Con Fluent (FMR, 2016) ****
Saxophonist Trevor Watts has had a wonderfully creative and imaginative musical career, from his early exploratory work with the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, to his groups Amalgam, Moire Music, and beyond. On Con Fluent, he continues his restl…
We were looking through some recent releases and noticed that members of the band Cortexhave been pretty busy lately. Following Wednesday’sLive in New YorkandThursday’sFriends and Neighbors, we thought we’d end this rather trying week with three albums loosely and lightly connected through the vortex of Cortex ….
Damana (Dag Magnus Narvesen O…
Earlier this fall, in what seems like another lifetime now, I had the opportunity to see Norway’s Friends and Neighbors in concert. It was a beautiful Saturday night in New York City, on the night before a big storm was supposed to hit, and myself and a small appreciative audience were essentially treated to a private show.
Friends and Neig…
Towards the end of his life, saxophonist David S. Ware reunited with pianist Cooper-Moore for a set of brilliant recordings with a quartet called Planetary Unknown, (two recordings released on AUM Fidelity in 2011 and 2012). Yesterday, Martin reviewed AUM’s re-release of Ware’s first recording, Apogee(1977), that also featured Cooper-Moore. I…
I was hooked by Yoni Kretzmer’s new quintet from the start. First hearing the group in concert an Arts for Arts event last April, then at a show in the tight subterranean headquarters of the DowntownMusicGallery, and finally on their debut recording, Five, to my ears, is the clearest example of saxophonist and OutNow label head Kretzmer’s mus…
Wrapping up solo week (and yes, you can expect a Duo week coming soon) we have two folks known to the blog: Catherine Sikora andPaulo Chagas.
Catherine Sikora – Jersey (Relative Pitch, 2016) ****
Saxophonist Catherine Sikora spent some time living in the Garden Stateand knows about the unbridled joy of waking up to a New Jersey sunrise and…
