Reviews
06/13/13 Concerts By Aidan Levy
Review: Tobago Jazz Experience
Jazz, world music and steel pan in a rum-soaked, boozy and laid-back atmosphere
06/10/13 Albums By Geoffrey Himes
Time Travel
Greenleaf Music
When Dave Douglas unveiled his new acoustic quintet last year, it was with an atypical project: Be Still , a pastoral collection of folk songs and hymns that his mother had requested for her funeral, and the first-ever Douglas album to feature a vocalist...
06/09/13 Concerts By Zach Hindin
Joshua Redman at the Town Hall
Saxophonist’s masterful orchestral gig highlights Blue Note Jazz Festival
06/09/13 Albums By Mike Shanley
The Orchestrion Project
Nonesuch Records
Pat Metheny’s setup for his Orchestrion tour looked like a cross between a ransacked orchestra pit and an elaborate stage show from the excessive ’70s. For those late to the game, the Orchestrion is based on the elaborate, century-old contraptions of the...
06/09/13 Albums By Christopher Loudon
The Heart of the Matter
Decca Records
There are distinctive Jane Monheit traits—the stretched notes, the dusky mewing, the ever-present tear in her voice—that can be her best or worst assets. Across the 14 tracks that fill The Heart of the Matter , her eighth studio album, the vote is split...
06/07/13 Albums By Jeff Tamarkin
A Different Time
OKeh
For his debut solo piano recording—also the first release on the newly revived OKeh label, now a Sony imprint—John Medeski does something of a 180. Performed on a 1924 French Gaveau piano in an old church in upstate New York, late at night so as to minimize...
06/06/13 Albums By Christopher Loudon
Signs of Life
Motema
That Rondi Charleston is a superb interpreter of everything from Johnny Mercer to Stevie Wonder has been proven time and again over the past dozen years. But her four previous albums have only hinted at what the remarkable Signs of Life fully reveals: that...
06/05/13 Concerts By Sharonne Cohen
Concert Review: D’Angelo Rocks Montreal
New album due in September
06/05/13 Albums By Michael J. West
Aquarius
Delmark Records
“Ice crystals” is a good visual metaphor for the sound Nicole Mitchell’s flute and Jason Adasiewicz’s vibes make together. The latter, especially, evokes ice (or glass, thus “crystal”) with a crisp, nimble attack that’s mindful of his instrument’s hard surface...
06/04/13 Albums By Mike Shanley
Skull Sessions
Cuneiform Records
Sometimes Rob Mazurek’s compositions begin quietly and move slowly. Recent works by the Chicago Underground Duo and the Exploding Star Orchestra have been as much about the journey as the destination. The trio Starlicker and the Pulsar Quartet are marked...