Category: Recordings
Alexander von Schlippenbach – Plays Monk Piano Solo (Intakt, 2012) ****½
Pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach’sPlays Monkbegins with pianist’s own tune ‘Reverance’. The song fits wonderfully into the Thelonious Monk oeuvre in that it feels, well, reverent. But what does reverence with Monk mean? His playfully angular compositions are so open …
I find myself returning again and again to Elliot Sharp’s Trio recording Aggregat. Sharp is hit or miss for me, but I’ve enjoyed cherry picked albums like Monk/Sharpe and his duo recording with Scott Fields. Aggregat however, turned my ears on end.
Sharp, usually an unusually inventive guitarist is heard here on both guitar and saxophone….
There is almost too much to write about here. From the over the top send-up cover to the smorgasborg of styles and sounds, saxophonist Jon Irabagon’s group Outright! has unleashed a musical tour de force on Unhinged.
A follow up to 2008’s eponymous Outright!, the only carryover is Irabagon himself. Replacing the large cast on that album is…
A few months back I wrote a review about Nate Wooley’s album The Almond. It was interesting recording in which there was one note, and slight variations, stretched across 75 minutes. This one note was layered and changed slightly over time, but essentially it was one note.
This new album from Jon Irabagon, Mike Pride, and Mick Barr is exactly …
Trumpeter Ben Holmes’ Anvil of The Lord kicks off with the song ‘A Doodle for Rhapsody’. It builds slowly while the intertwining lines shared between the trombone and trumpet mix alluringly. The longing melody is of mysterious origin and inspiration.
Thus it makes sense that the elusive mixture of styles and sounds is first foremost in Hol…
The mythology of the blind soothsayer Tiresias, expressed in numerical relationships, undergirds the compositions in Jason Robinson’s Tiresian Symmetry. However, I must admit I’ve paid less attention to this aspect than the music, which is delightfully rife with clever melodic passages, rich harmonies, vibrant rhythms and fantastic playing.
‘S…
When I first heard about the album, Pine Barrens, I was intrigued. A press release came out indicating that Holus Bolus leader, woodwind player and composer Josh Sinton, would be releasing the album on his own via his website. I decided to follow the albums’ release, but soon found the experience a little tricky. So, I’m quite happy that he al…
A few weeks ago I caught up with some slightly older releases, finally getting to Elephant9’s2011 releaseLive at the BBC. Upon posting, I had no idea that this new studio album was dropping, and like a sudden blast of refreshing Nordic air, the latest Elephant9 made an unexpected and most welcome arrival.
However, before I go any further, I…
Bassist Ben Thomas is a recent arrival to the jazz scene in NYC, prior to which he was active in upstate New York and a graduate of the Eastman School of Music. The trio that he directs on Endless Mountain Region is saxophonist Tony Malaby and percussionist Aaron Staebell.
Endless Mountain Regions works in between the lines of free and co…
In the note that came along with Bogdo Ula’s Crash Canis Majoris, guitarist Samuli Kristian indicated that the Finnish trio was making a conscientious effort to change up their sound. This power trio’s music, which is fully improvised, features full throated guitar, punchy bass, and propulsive percussion. So, what could be wrong?
“In a sense,…
Bassist Michael Bisio and pianist Matthew Shipp’s Floating Ice is a rather beautiful recording. It’s a collection of conversations between two masterful improvisors, and the album’s sound is well represented by the title.
There is a delicacy to the intertwining acoustic instruments. Mostly eschewing extended techniques, and working within the…
SacredExhalationsfrom Ra-kalam Bob Moses is a fiery affair, one where you can feel the music as much as you hear it. It is dense and pulsatingat times and reflective and searching at others.
The opening track, ‘Sacred Exhalations’ is a wide-ranging and free affair. Instrumental voices rise and fall, searching tones and unfulfilled wails contr…
