Category: Recordings
Is there reason to buy new vinyl? Is there any reason not to just stream an album, and never to feel that physical artifact, born from the blood, sweat, and tears of so many, working so hard, to bring to life?
I think you know my answer.
Holding guitarist Jeff Parker and Cornetist Rob Mazurek’s vinyl only Some Jellyfish Live Forever, I have…
From what I can tell, Hyperbolic Spirals is the most complete manifestation of saxophonist and orchestrator PEK’s musical vision to date. Rarely does something so musically big and audacious come together in such a complete package!
The first track on the fist volume of the set is the core Leap Of Faith band (named below) – a quartet of …
I first put on SumariwhileI was driving through the Catskills in New York State over the summer, little did I know how geographically apropos it was. The trio on Sumarihas its roots in the Hudson valley, going back over 20 years, and the inspiration of the name has something do with a series called the Seth Books, a study of paranormal experien…
Site Specific is a neat entry in the Ken Vandermark oeuvre: a minimalistic, beautifully bound book packed with two CDs capturing live solo field performances in ’14 and ’15, showcasing Vandermark’s photographs taken as he has toured the world. It’s not a travelogue or tour documentary, it doesn’t capture people, or landscapes, rather it’s imag…
Paal Nilssen-Love and Ken Vandermark
This past month, Ken Vandermark presented a showcase of his recent projects during a week-long residency at the Stone. I was thrilled to be able to catch a few of the sets, including a trio with Matt Maneri and Joe McPhee, the ongoing duos with Nate Wooley and Paal Nilssen-Love (who recently released The Lio…
Radiation begins with an aggressive bass-line and a forceful thrust of percussion in a slightly odd-meter groove. Then distorted wah of a guitar joins, followed by the growl of the organ, leading us into the type of post-apocolyptic sonic landscape reminiscent of the Tony William’s Lifetime circa Emergency. The group however is Transmit and is …
The Ches Smith Trio album that I’m waiting for is ‘Live from Winter Jazzfest’. The two times that the trio has played at the NYC jazz festival have been revelatory. The first show, two years ago, was as I understand it, entirely improvised. This time, as a part of the ECM showcase, they performed the compositions, in sequence, off of their de…
British Clarinetist and guitarist Alex Ward begins his Trios & Sextet’s Projected / Entities / Removalwith a trio configuration of clarinet, sax and drums. A rumble on the drums, a drawn out note on the clarinet and the sax and they are off to strong start.
The opener ‘Projected’ features bouts of free playing capped on both en…
Nick Mazzarella Trio – Ultraviolet (International Anthem, 2015) ****
From the opening moments of Ultraviolet you know you are listening to something special happening. With an approach not unlike mid-period Coltrane in tone, Nick Mazzarella plays with a fearsome intensity. “Neutron Star” kicks off the album with a four note melody that…
ByPaul Acquaro
Saxophonist Jon Irabagon is front and center on three new releases – two under his own Irabbagast imprint and one with drummer Barry Altschul’s 3Dom Factor out on TUM records – and each one is an outpouring of music so completely different that it raises the possibility that there actually three different Irabagons running amok!
Jo…
The SLD Trio is from Beunos Aires, Argentina. Their group is comprised of Paula Shocron: piano; Germán Lamonega: bass; Pablo Diaz: drums and their debut album Anfitrion (which means ‘host’ in Spanish) is a pretty stunning debut.
The album builds slowly. For the first two tracks the trio works with the quieter side of their instruments -Shoc…
I am going to have to ask for forgiveness on this … aswe wrap up 2015, it seems a bit … umm … untimely to mention this 2014 release, but it’s one that was brought to my attention only recently, and one that is worth the brief breach of the time-space continuum.
The Alliteration’s eponymousdebutis a meta concept – I’m not sure if they …
