Florida-based drummer, composer, Buddhist, and martial artist, Abbey Rader earned his avant-garde creds coming through the late loft scene in New York City, then through an extensive tenure playing and teaching in Europe, and back in the US since ’89, playing and touring with musicians including David Liebman, Frank Lowe, and Billy Bang. He recen…
It has all the makings of biopic: Peter Kuhn, a promising young musician in the late 1970s living in New York City and taking part in the vibrant downtown loft scene – friends and collaborators with Billy Bang, Lester Bowie, Frank Lowe, William Parker and many others – plunges into the depths of addiction…
“The loft I had on Prince Street was …
Craig Taborn and Kris Davis @ Roulette
Pianists Kris Davis and Craig Taborn’s first night of a two-week tour in support of Davis’ new release Duopoly (review coming soon) at Brooklyn’s lovely Roulette was preempted by a critical piano tuning. Against the austere stage backdrop, the two concert grand Steinway’s on the theater’s stage …
Touch My Beloved’s Thoughtis an audacious undertaking that draws inspiration from the drama, passion, and presentation of Charles Mingus’ 1963 recording Black Saint and Sinner Lady. Chicago based saxophonist Greg Ward typically leans toward edgy modern jazz, with nods towards classic hard bop and free jazz, but on Touch My Beloved’s Thoug…
This year, Chicago-based saxophonist Dave Rempis began a download-only series on his Aerophonic label. While I’m passionately dedicated to the physical medium, the digital releases of side projects, live shows, and the like, is not something I’m complaining about!
Rempis/Johnson/Ochs – Neutral Nation (Aerophonic, 2016) ****
In Spring 2015,…
Ehran Elisha – Kindred Spirit: Quintets (Out Now, 2016) ****
NYC based drummer and composer Ehran Elisha’s double album Kindred Spirit: Quintetsis a rich trove of music hewn from close listening and deep personal/musical connections.
The first disc, Kindred Soul features the late Roy Campbell (1952-2014) on trumpet, and the second disc, t…
Captured at the 2015 Jazz em Agosto Festival in Lisbon,SummerSkyshift is the second collaboration betweensaxophonist John Butcher and the Portugal’s RED Trio, their first wasEmpire, from No Business in 2011. This new collection of improvisations runs from introspective toout of this world during the course of its four tracks.
Butcher hardly …
I’m not sure how Rahsaan Roland Kirks’s music is best considered- it’s not ‘free jazz’ – though it has elements ofit in sound and spirit, and its certainly not ‘traditional jazz’, though he played standards. It was tuneful, soulful, unusual, and often defined by his use of multiple horns.
It seems that it was his own music, and it came purely…
Loren Connors – The Red Painting (Family Vineyards, 2016) ***½Tom Carter & Loren Connors – untitled (Family Vineyards, 2016) ****Loren Connors & Clint Heidorn – Light (Family Vineyards, 2016) ****
The Red Painting
In the cover story from The Wire (#389, July 2016), Kurt Gottschalk describedguitarist, pianist, and painter,Loren Con…
When we last heard from pedal steel master Susan Alcorn, she had just released the stunning recasting of Astor Piazzolla’s tango compositions for solo pedal steel guitar. It was an ambitious and exquisite record. On Evening Tales, a new collection of solo pieces, we are drawn even deeper into her musical universe – it’s definitely more expansi…
Just about every week it seems that there is an alert from Bandcamp that a new release from French guitarist Noël Akchoté is available for download. The alert from the other week though was particularly intriguing: Akchoté (who has released albums with guitarists Derek Bailey, Fred Frith and Marc Ribot, among many others) had recently teame…
Oh, acoustic guitar duo, how my heart beats for thee! DeSalvo and Minasi are a great pair on Soldano Dieci Anni,both performing on either unamplified archtop guitar or acoustic (classical and steel string) guitar. They split the responsibilities, supporting each other, and creating space for stretching out, sometimes freely, and other times wi…
