David R. Adler
David R.’s Contributions
May 2009 • Artist Profiles
John Hollenbeck: Big Apple to Brotherly Love
Gongs ring out, loud and long, followed by the boom of timpani and the sparse rattle of percussion. Then, from the rear of Philadelphia’s Painted Bride Art Center, out of view, several horns begin an achingly dissonant rubato theme. Soon the players emerge...
April 2009 • Artist Profiles
Tarbaby: Back to Basics
I don’t want to hug the tar baby …” With these words, sampled and spliced into a hip-hop montage, Tar Baby’s eponymous debut begins. The voice belongs to the late Tony Snow, press secretary for the Bush White House, who used the term from the Br’er Rabbit...
02/02/09 • Concerts
Keith Jarrett Solo at Carnegie Hall
“This recording studio has more people in it than any other studio I’ve been in,” said Keith Jarrett at Carnegie Hall, in his first New York solo engagement since September 2005. The pianist was feeling talkative, although the lighthearted quips came later...
January/February 2009 • News
Revive Da Live: Put Your Horns Up
Last November at (Le) Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village, bassist/vocalist Esperanza Spalding could be heard freestyling with an unlikely collaborator: Jeru the Damaja, one of the best underground rappers of the ’90s. The occasion? A late-night event produced...
December 2008 • Artist Profiles
Francisco Mela: Free Jazz Latin
Like many musicians, drummer Francisco Mela is impatient with categories, but he’s willing to pin down his mercurial concept as “free jazz Latin.” With his second album as a leader, Cirio: Live at the Blue Note, the New York-based Cuban native continues...
11/04/08 • Concerts
Enrico Pieranunzi at Birdland
Fittingly for shows on and around Halloween, there were different Enrico Pieranunzis on display last week at Birdland. The Italian master pianist spent two nights each with two starkly contrasting units: first a trio with bassist Steve Swallow and drummer...
November 2008 • Artist Profiles
Rebecca Martin: Post-Pop
I think all my records have a roundness to them,” says singer-songwriter Rebecca Martin. “Some records are angular, but I think of my records as big circles.” On The Growing Season, her fourth solo release and her debut on the Sunnyside label, Martin widens...
November 2008 • Albums
The Light and Other Things
Giacomo Merega/David Tronzo/Noah Kaplan
This is the debut recording of Italian-born electric bassist Giacomo Merega, although given the collaborative nature of the music, it’s fair that guitar innovator David Tronzo and Brooklyn-based saxophonist Noah Kaplan get equal billing. Inspired in part...
10/30/08 • Concerts
Creative Music Studio Celebration
From the stage at Symphony Space, pianist/vibraphonist Karl Berger wondered aloud: If he mentioned Creative Music Studio (CMS), the entity being celebrated this evening, would people know what he was talking about? It may still be one of the more obscure...
October 2008 • Artist Profiles
Mike Reed: Doubled Up
Chicago drummer Mike Reed drops two ambitious albums on the same day When drummer Mike Reed recorded The Speed of Change and Proliferation, he didn’t foresee putting both out at the same time. But together, the two discs (on 482 Music) say something important...
August 2008 • Albums
Always Outnumbered
Steuart Liebig/Tee-Tot Quartet
“Tee-tot” is an apt onomatopoeic term for the semi-drunk, limping rhythms put across by this oddball quartet. Led by West Coast “contrabassguitarist” Steuart Liebig, the group boasts a frontline of cornet (Dan Clucas) and Dobro (Scot Ray), with Joseph Berardi...
August 2008 • Solo
Playing Changes for Change
Saxophonist Tim Ries has a song called “What Happened to Ya?” with lyrics that cite a lack of political resolve among the aging ’60s generation. Some would extend this critique to the jazz community itself, arguing that protest jazz—what Archie Shepp once...
August 2008 • Albums
The Art of Dying
Jason Ajemian
There’s an alluringly schizoid quality to this solo effort by Chicago Underground bassist Jason Ajemian. At the core of the session is his trio Smokeless Heat, with tenor saxophonist Tim Haldeman and drummer Noritaka Tanaka. But the group grows to include...
August 2008 • Albums
Quartet (GTM) 2006
Anthony Braxton
“The underground is great once you get used to it,” writes Anthony Braxton in the liner notes to this multi-disc set, one of many in the reedman-composer’s elephantine discography. He’s speaking as an artist, but the same truth applies to listeners. “Getting...
August 2008 • Albums
Present Tense
James Carter
James Carter’s first outing for EmArcy is an unselfconscious mix of influences, more three-dimensional than his various tribute discs and the recent organ-trio blowouts Live at Baker’s and Out of Nowhere. The saxophonist fronts a versatile, hard-swinging...
07/03/08 • Concerts
Herbie Hancock at JVC - New York
A Herbie Hancock performance will never be insignificant, but this JVC Jazz Festival showcase, coming on the heels of the pianist’s Grammy upset for River: The Joni Letters, seemed to carry additional meaning. Here we have a living jazz master who has crashed...
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ReportAbout David R. Adler
David R. Adler writes on music, politics and culture. His work has appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer, JazzTimes, Down Beat, Jazziz, Slate, The New York Times, Forward, The New Republic Online and many other outlets. He is currently a jazz feature writer for Time Out New York and Philadelphia Weekly, and a "New York @ Night" columnist for All About Jazz-New York. His essays for the British online journal Democratiya have been featured alongside those of Michael Walzer, Todd Gitlin and other leading thinkers of the democratic left. David blogs at lerterland.blogspot.com.