Shaun Brady
Shaun’s Contributions
08/11/12 Albums
Live at Smalls
Rick Germanson Quartet
SmallsLIVE was designed to offer listeners without easy access to the Greenwich Village club the opportunity to experience the atmosphere without the travel expenses. Pianist Rick Germanson fully embraces that mission, offering a rough-hewn, feel-over-finesse...
08/06/12 Albums
Aggregat
Elliott Sharp
When you’ve developed as distinctive a voice on a particular instrument as Elliott Sharp has on the guitar, it can be dangerous to turn your attention to a completely different one; you run the risk of diluting an individual sound. The ever-prolific Sharp...
08/05/12 Albums
Extension
Clare Fischer Orchestra
Clare Fischer’s 1963 masterwork makes its belated CD debut mere months after the composer-pianist’s death in January. The reissue makes for an eloquent epitaph, a lovely statement of impressionistic West Coast modernism. In Fischer’s arrangements can be...
07/23/12 Albums
Me, Myself & I
Kenny Werner
In the liner notes to his latest CD, Kenny Werner expresses a dislike of performing solo because “there’s no one to react to.” Hence the scarcity of solo outings in the pianist’s considerable discography, which is dominated by his renowned trio work. The...
07/05/12 Albums
Overseas IV
Eivind Opsvik
It’s become commonplace to speak of open-minded progressive jazz composers as looking simultaneously forward and backward, reaching into the past while pushing into the future. The time span in question, however, can typically be measured in decades, spanning...
06/27/12 Albums
The Tip of the Sword
Conrad Herwig, Richie Beirach, Jack DeJohnette
Much of trombonist Conrad Herwig’s activity in recent years has been focused on exploring the so-called Latin side of jazz giants like John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. Though not without their charms, those albums’ central concept...
06/06/12 Albums
Dialect Fluorescent
Steve Lehman
The picture most often drawn of the modern jazz landscape is one of schism, a split between heart and head. On the one hand are the traditionalists, keeping the flame of swing and standards burning; on the other the intellectuals, rejoicing in complexity...
05/29/12 Albums
UchŪ
Herculaneum
On their fifth release, a vinyl LP and digital download, the Chicago-based sextet Herculaneum has grown into a taut, high-impact unit, its four-horn frontline weaving together into a formidable and flexible vehicle for the band’s hard-charging grooves. This...
05/27/12 Albums
Nocturnal Prophecy
John O’Gallagher/Vardan Ovsepian
Best listened to with the lights down low, this duo set from saxophonist John O’Gallagher and Armenian-born pianist Vardan Ovsepian travels through a variety of byways, peering into the shadows beyond the streetlight’s halo and down alleys that come alive...
05/21/12 Albums
Trio Libero
Andy Sheppard/Michael Benita/Sebastian Rochford
Freedom, in the context of jazz, can often mean anarchy, a complete break from structure and restraint. But for the trio of saxophonist Andy Sheppard, bassist Michael Benita and drummer Sebastian Rochford, freedom—which recurs, in various Italian forms...
05/16/12 Albums
Book of Mae’bul (Another Kind of Sunrise)
Darius Jones Quartet
The third chapter of his sonic autobiography finds Darius Jones bringing his story up to the present, translating the events surrounding the saxophonist’s 2005 move to New York and emergence on the wider jazz scene. Where his two previous entries, 2009’s...
05/14/12 Albums
The Next Page
Eri Yamamoto Trio
Though recorded in a Brooklyn studio, the Eri Yamamoto Trio’s latest release is intended to approximate as closely as possible a live nightclub performance. How closely? The disc’s seventh track consists only of 60 seconds of silence, a pseudo-intermission...
05/08/12 Albums
Sketches and Ballads
Full Blast & Friends
It sounds like a question the lads from Spinal Tap would have asked: “How do you get more full blast than full blast?” But the trio of multireedist and free-jazz icon Peter Brötzmann, electric bassist Marino Pliakas and drummer Michael Wertmüller offers...
03/26/12 Albums
Crossroads Unseen
Jason Kao Hwang/Edge
The third outing by adventurous violinist Jason Kao Hwang’s avant-chamber-jazz group Edge, Crossroads Unseen , consists of five pieces showcasing the stunning extended vocabulary of each member of the quartet. The seemingly narrow palette of violin/viola...
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