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…
This year’s 14th annual Winter Jazzfest – now a sprawling eight day affair featuring over 600 musicians – was themed “Social Justice Engagement,” and indeed, there was a sense of urgency in the air. The message was carried by the musicians in projects like Marc Ribot’s Songs of Resistance, captured in talks like “The Long March” with Archie …
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) *…
It’s starting to look a lot like … this.
Today we present our reviewers top 10 albums of the year, and we also invite you to vote in the annual New Ears Awards.
The nominations for the award were made from compiling the lists below. This year, the blog writers are voting on the same choices, but in a separate poll. The award winner for both …
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…
I don’t know what you all think, but it seems to me that a free jazz (of the fiery variety) holiday album is right on cue. I’m not in the mood for sweet, gentle, or traditional this year, there is just too much going on that is not sweet, gentle, or traditional, but I’m also not quite ready to forgo holiday cheer entirely. So, why not add a pri…
Everyone knows Dave Douglas, right? The prolific trumpeter was a member of the original Masada in the early 1990s and has amassed an astounding and diverse discography over the years. One of his latest is the brass heavy Little Giant Still Life. His partners on the recording are the The Westerlies, whom we last encountered when they were play…
