Mike Shanley
Mike’s Contributions
November 2009 • Albums
Brewster's Rooster
John Surman
John Surman’s “return” to jazz, after recording in genres such as early music and classical, reunites him with longtime collaborators Jack DeJohnette on drums and John Abercrombie on guitar. Bassist Drew Gress, a young buck by comparison, completes the lineup...
09/16/09 • Concerts
Detroit International Jazz Festival
The largest free jazz fest in the U.S. celebrates its 30th
May 2009 • Albums
Meditations on the War for Whose Great God Is the Most High You Are God
Fat Cat Big Band
The Fat Cat Big Band didn’t earn its name from the stature of its members, but from its birthplace, New York’s Fat Cat club, which began originally as an extension of Smalls. Guitarist Jade Synstelien leads the 11-piece orchestra of relatively unknown young...
May 2009 • Albums
Thin Air
Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone
Sentimental meets edgy on this guitar-viola outing
April 2009 • Albums
Plant Life
Odean Pope
A saxist draws inspiration from Coltrane's Atlantic period, but holds back
April 2009 • Albums
Proverbs for Sam
Bill Cole
Bill Cole, Coltrane scholar and player of several exotic double-reed instruments, salutes his late friend and collaborator alto saxophonist Sam Furnace on this collection of extended live performances. The disc features four 2001 cuts on which both men share...
April 2009 • Albums
Apti
Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition
The Indian-jazz connection from another angle
April 2009 • Albums
Harmonic Disorder
Matthew Shipp Trio
Closing an album with a track titled “When the Curtain Falls on the Jazz Theatre” could be construed as a political statement. For two and a half minutes, low arco bass drones and snare rolls set a mournful mood that climaxes in a wall of thundering chords...
April 2009 • Albums
Solar Forge
Totem>
A warning flag should go up anytime a CD’s liner notes include a sentence like this: “Of course the electric guitar trio is the paradigmatic power trio to the extent the format naturally favors amplification, energy and timbral expansion.” Aside from this...
02/25/09 • Concerts
Mostly Other People Do the Killing in Pittsburgh
To be sure, the quartet that goes by the name Mostly Other People Do the Killing consists of jazz progressives. They refer to themselves as a “terrorist bebop über-jass band.” They spoof album covers by Art Blakey and Ornette Coleman. As four music school...
January/February 2009 • Albums
Complete Anthony Braxton Arista Recordings
A treasure trove of avant-garde
December 2008 • Albums
Appearing Nightly
Carla Bley Big Band
Carla Bley’s humor shapes a good portion of her music, but it never becomes the main focus of a composition. “Awful Coffee,” the second of a two-part suite commissioned a festival devoted to “dinner music,” references six food-titled standards. Yet it’s...
December 2008 • Albums
Yizkor: Music of Memory
David Chevan with Hazzan Alberto Mizrahi & the Afro-Semitic Experience
Yizkor might not be the first album to combine jazz and Jewish music, but it’s probably the first set of Jewish cantorial music to feature resonator guitar among the instrumentation. The pliable notes and tone of the instrument fit with the music, which...
December 2008 • Albums
Banshees
Scott Dubois
The pairing of guitarist Scott DuBois’ guitar and Gebhard Ullmann’s reeds (tenor and soprano saxophones, bass clarinet) at first seems like a study in contrasts. DuBois shows a pensive lyrical approach to his instrument, while Ullmann maintains his identity...
December 2008 • Albums
Soul Progressin’
Lafayette Gilchrist & the New Volcanoes
Pianist Lafayette Gilchrist has played with David Murray’s Black Saint Quartet and as a leader. His third disc shows that he knows how to write for a large group. The New Volcanoes’ frontline includes two tenors, two trumpets and an alto, and Gilchrist exploits...
11/17/08 • Concerts
Billy Bang & the Aftermath Band in Pittsburgh
The last time Billy Bang came to Pittsburgh, he played a university lecture hall in a trio with the late saxophonist Frank Lowe and drummer Abbey Rader, and less than 50 people were in the audience. This time he performed at a theater named for native sons...
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ReportAbout Mike Shanley
Mike Shanley wishes there were more hours in the day to just sit and listen to music, probably with some coffee close at hand. A native of Pittsburgh, he served as arts & entertainment editor at two of that city's alternative newsweeklies, InPittsburgh and Pulp. In addition to JazzTimes, he freelances for Pittsburgh City Paper, Blurt and maintains a blog at www.shanleyonmusic.blogspot.com where he rambles on about whatever has landed on the turntable or disc player at that moment. His writing has appeared in Harp, Pittsburgh Magazine, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and on the website PopCity.com. He has also played bass guitar in a number of Pittsburgh indie rock bands over the past two decades.