Eighty-Eights
November 2008 By Thomas Conrad
Currents
ECM Records
The ECM label keeps coming up with young players who create on a high level in the fertile, challenging twilight zone between 20th-century composition and jazz. On Currents they are pianist Wolfert Brederode, multi-clarinetist Claudio Puntin, bassist Mats...
November 2008 By Thomas Conrad
Runaway
Sunnyside
As he has demonstrated repeatedly in bands led by people like Buster Williams and Ravi Coltrane, George Colligan has the chops and versatility to be a very solid sideman. But taking full responsibility for a project as a leader is a different assignment...
November 2008 By Thomas Conrad
Wonderland
SteepleChase
Eliminate the drummer from a piano trio and you get subtler textures and more open spaces and extended opportunities for individual expression, especially from the bassist. Harold Danko is a known quantity, a complete pianist of remarkably consistent creativity...
November 2008 By Thomas Conrad
Above the Clouds
Munich Records
Amina Figarova’s September Suite, released in 2005, remains one of the most complete of all jazz responses to the events of 9/11, emotionally and musically. Above the Clouds confirms that Figarova is among the most important composers to come into jazz in...
November 2008 By Thomas Conrad
Sunny Day Theory
Ruby Slippers
Lisa Hilton plays feel-good music. She is unexceptional technically and conventional stylistically. But she is sincere, mostly avoids the saccharine, and, after all, who doesn’t like to feel good? She is so uniformly upbeat that a piece about last year’s...
November 2008 By Thomas Conrad
Thinking About Bix
Reference
Dick Hyman’s recordings on the Reference label are works of both art and scholarship. The new Thinking About Bix is especially valuable. The music composed by and associated with Bix Beiderbecke is currently at risk from the ravages of time. “Singin’ the...
November 2008 By Thomas Conrad
Catalysis
Sunnyside
Phil Markowitz is best known for his four-year tenure with Chet Baker. His distinctive, crystalline piano is crucial to Baker albums like Broken Wing and Love for Sale. That was 30 years ago. There are probably people who wonder whatever became of Phil Markowitz...
November 2008 By Thomas Conrad
Segments
Neoga Records
The primary purpose of Segments is to display eight original compositions by Joe Parillo. He mostly writes lilting, well-proportioned, pop-inflected sweet songs. Parillo the piano improviser is precise and fleet enough, but he is not interested in venturing...
November 2008 By Thomas Conrad
Cantando
ECM Records
The cliché is true in this case. A new recording by Bobo Stenson is an event. Since 1979, he has made only six albums as a leader for ECM. They constitute one of the important piano trio canons in modern jazz. Stenson is from Sweden, and there is something...
November 2008 By Thomas Conrad
Seasoned Wood
HighNote Records
Cedar Walton is a primary source of postbop piano classicism. His instantly identifiable style contains both passion and a sense of relaxed naturalness that comes from working within a language he helped invent and has mastered. Walton’s vast discography...
