First off, this is one of the more creatively packaged CDs that I’ve opened in a long time. Inside a white cardboard shell with stark simple lettering and black and white images of wood or maybe cut stones, the CD itself is wrapped in a folded plastic envelope. Demanding delicacy in just its appearance, pulling at the corners of the wrapper then re…
A few weeks ago I wrote about several duo recordings featuring the guitar. Guitar and guitar, guitar and bass, guitar and flute, and several other combos. Now, I am moving into trio configurations and the definition of what makes this list gets even trickier. At first, I thought my basic approach is that the guitarist is the group’s organizer, but …
I still rather vividly recall first hearing woodwind’s Anna Webber’s compositions sometime ago and looking back at a review of the Simple Trio from 2014, I realized that all I wrote then still applied. All of the notes on her music’s concentrated intricate interconnecting pieces and edgy improvisation still apply, and if anything, her powers have o…
Today, I took a walk to one of Lisbon’s botanical gardens — there are actually a number of places that could serve as such, but this one is the Jardim Botânico de Lisboa, a part of the University of Lisbon — perched on the hillside near the old, winding streets of Bario Alto. The entrance was unexpectedly free, and as I began descending into the…
Photo by Juliane SchützThe 9th A L’ARME! Festival kicked off Wednesday night at Zenner in Berlin’s Treptower Park. An open air event with DJs and drums, the event is a nod to normal, helping to welcome live events back, which tepidly have begun popping up throughout the city (and will hopefully continue… Daumen sind gedrückt.)After the opening …
Photos by Vera Marmelo – Gulbenkian MúsicaHow do you know on what soundyou’re dropping the needle?I’ve never understood this, being a long time LP enthusiast, but by no means a DJ, I shakily aim the stylus for the blank area before the starting groove, placing it anywhere else is simply random. So when the Berlin based electronic musician Ignaz …
Last year, Jazz 2020, a scaled back and localized version replaced the venerable Jazz em Agosto for its traditional two weekends at the end of July and start of August. It was supposed to be the Covid-19 version of festival, but as we all know, 2021 hasn’t been the light at the end of the tunnel that we all hoped for, however at least Jazz em Agost…
Robert Dick ; Nicola L. Hein – Structures of Unreason (Shhpuma, 2021) **** Nicola L. Hein often plays a well worn electric guitar with many pedals at his command. Looking the part of a serious philosopher, one may not expect the array of sound that emerges from his instrument. Or then again, why not? He lists sound artist first on his website, then…
Today we continue our series of reviews celebrating Clean Feed’s 20th anniversary, with more to come in the near future. Be sure to check out the first installment here.Happy Anniversary Clean Feed!
Mario Pavone – Isabella (Clean Feed, 2021) ****
By Kenneth Blanchard
Mario Pavone had no intention of going quietly. …
“Let the Free Be Men” is Lisbon based tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado’s “This is Our Language” quartet’s third outing. It began in 2015 the self-titled album, which was a homage to free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman, from the mix of the title of two Coleman recordings This Is Our Music from 1961 and In All Languages from 1987, to the similar stell…
Part two in the series of recent guitar duos, before we move onto trios.We begin today with a couple of actual guitar duos and continue from there …
Rubén Reinaldo ; Kely García Guitarra Jazz Dúo – Acuarel (Free
Code Jazz Records, 2020) ****
Guitar and Guitar. I’ve confessed before about my reverence for the
guitar …
Fingerstyle guitarist Duck Baker with Derek Bailey, Steve Beresford, John Butcher, Mark Dresser, John Edwards, Michael Moore, Steve Noble, Roswell Rudd, Alex Ward, and Joe Williamson.Yes, let that list sink in for a bit. This latest offering from Baker, a master musician across so many idioms, is so many things at once. The releases is a series of …
