Reviews
05/08/13 Concerts By Aidan Levy
“The Crosby, Stills & Nash Songbook” at JALC
Another successful fundraising collaboration for Wynton and orchestra
05/08/13 Albums By Carlo Wolff
Rubidium
Tum
Picture a band on a street corner in the very Nordic north. It’s winter. To keep warm, they spool out blowsy melodies of grave gait and linearity, their authority not immediately apparent. Then, as trumpeter Verneri Pohjola and Black Motorists Sami Sippola...
05/07/13 Albums By Christopher Loudon
Champian Sings and Swings
Sharp Nine
She was tutored in jazz by Clark Terry while still a tyke and gained youthful appreciation of big bands from Red Holloway, Butch Miles and other Basie-ites. In other words, 27-year-old pianist and vocalist Champian Fulton was taught to swing by experts and...
05/06/13 Albums By Mike Joyce
One
NFN
Lest anyone jump to a logical conclusion while playing Jonathan Kreisberg’s ingeniously arranged new solo CD, One , a listener’s note is included: “Although subtle (and not so subtle at times) guitar effects were utilized by Jonathan on some of the material...
05/06/13 Albums By Michael J. West
Sean Moran Small Elephant Band
NCM East Records
Most of Tusk sounds like Frank Zappa’s chamber music. It’s got favorite Zappa instruments (guitar, clarinet, vibraphone and drums); atonal, gnarled compositions; and blinding speed and staccato percussion. Sean Moran’s acoustic guitar style even uncannily...
05/05/13 Albums By Steve Greenlee
The Nows
Clean Feed
Paul Lytton and Nate Wooley make a good match. The English drummer and the American trumpeter (respectively) are a pair of iconoclasts, and on The Nows they create strangely alluring modern improvised music that contains not one iota of anything musical...
05/04/13 Albums By Jeff Tamarkin
Hymns/Spheres
ECM Records
Keith Jarrett was only a year removed from The Köln Concert —which became the best-selling album in jazz history to that time—when in 1976 he released Hymns/Spheres , a two-LP solo album recorded on the Karl Joseph Riepp “Trinity” Baroque pipe organ at the...
05/04/13 Albums By Christopher Loudon
A Quiet Thing
Mad-Kat Records
A dozen years have passed since Madeline Eastman partnered with the late Tom Garvin for the sublime voice-and-piano Bare: A Collection of Ballads . Since then, Eastman’s go-to pianist has been the equally skilled Randy Porter. Eastman and Porter have recorded...
05/03/13 Albums By Britt Robson
Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet
Basin Street Records
In a World of Mallets highlights the growth of Jason Marsalis as a full-fledged vibraphonist. Sure, he worked on the instrument for years before releasing his first vibes album, Music Update , in 2009, but he hedged his bets with a handful of overdubbed...
05/02/13 Albums By Jeff Tamarkin
Southern Exposure
Resonance Records
Richard Galliano is billed as a special guest on Southern Exposure , but it’s difficult to imagine the album without the French accordionist’s input. Though violinist Christian Howes and the fellow Americans that comprise his rhythm section—pianist Josh...