Category: Recordings
Boston based pianist and composer Pandelis Karayorgis’ recent set of recordings on his label Driff Records feature a diverse set of players ranging from his home town of Boston, to the Chicago free jazz scene, and all the way to the Netherlands. The music is as varied as the configurations, ranging from compositions for a quintet, to interpret…
Mary Halvorson and Stephen Crump’s guitar and bass duo release Super 8 is all about atmosphere. Thoughts of Frisell come easily to mind in the opening moments of ‘Moom Song’, a minimalist musical painting, but they soon dissipate as the deeply unique and personal musical conversation of Secret Keeper reveals itself.
Halvorson, whose singular …
Black Host – Life in the Sugar Candle Mines (Northern Spy, 2013) ****½
ByPaul Acquaro
It’s not everyday that a new recording grabs you instantly. Sometimes, if it does, it’s just a fleeting thing, a little infatuation, that comes on quickly and strong, but then just as quickly is gone. My most recent infatuation began when I became enthrall…
The following are some modern jazz recordings that have been in rotation in my iTunes collection recently.I’m viewing this as a indulgence on my part, a quick dip into a different side of the collection.I decided not to star-rate these albums as they tend to be more mainstream than the recordings typically reviewed on the blog.
Rob Oswanski – Dec…
Cornetist Ron Mazurek’s The Space Between caught me off guard. Coming off of the Skull Sessions and the Pulsar Quartet, I had certain expectations, but after giving it spin, I found the oscillating electronics and instrumental fragments delightfully confounding.
Digging around the Internet, I found the context I was looking for on the Exp…
“Moments Form” does not need time to warm up, it just starts — a solid stream of invention and drive. Could one expect anything less from free jazz stalwarts, Mars Williams, Tim Daisy and Ingebrigt Haker Flaten? All are experienced and hard hitting improvisors and this consistently engaging album certainly, at the very least, solidifies this p…
Following up on last year’s Adored, guitarist Ross Hammond’s Cathedrals is another fine set of jazzrockfolkfree songsdelivered by a top notch quartet: woodwind player Vinny Golia, bassist Stuart Liebig, percussionist Alex Cline, and Hammond himself spinning rootsy lines on electric guitar. This new collection not only picks up where the group las…
Marc Ribot says it best when he sings ‘why burn like a crazy Roman candle when you’ve got a hand grenade’. Musical shrapnel, sharp lyrics and well conceived mayhem explode from the second recording by Ribot’s Ceramic Dog.
Your Turn is seething, powerful, delightful, and one heck of a rock album. The collection of songs run the gamut from stom…
By Martin Schray
Berlin in a not too distant future after the musical revolution:
Three months ago Justin Bieber was arrested at the Russian border where he was trying to ask for musical exile – he was on the run. American Idol has been banned from television for good, the whereabouts of former stars like Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and ma…
Bill Frisell – Silent Comedy (Tzadic, 2013) ****
Though not his first solo guitar album,Silent Comedyseems to be a pretty radical departure forguitarist Bill Frisell. While some of hisrecent recordings like the subtle and sublime Beautiful Dreamers and Signs of Lifefeatured mostly Americana influenced compositions, and the excellent All W…
Black Motor, a tough minded sax, bass and drum trio andtrumpeter Verneri Pohjola, bothfrom Finland, are new discoveries for me. Rubidium may mark their first release together, but without knowledge of their previous and separate works, all I can say is that it seems like a natural pairing.
Verneri Pohjola has worked with Helsinki based UMO Jaz…
Brian Groder and Tonino Miano’s FluiDensity is the work of a duo so conversant and solid that one could imagine that they were working off rather dense charts rather than engaged in the give and take of pure improvisation.Groder’smelodies are quiteengagingand Miano’s imaginative accompaniment never fails to be supportive.
Groder is New York b…
