Reviews
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...
05/01/13 Concerts By Carlo Wolff
Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland
Loueke, Lovano, Frisell, Cole, Feinstein and more highlight this sprawling week-long fest
05/01/13 Albums By Christopher Loudon
Miles Tones
Savant
It has long been widely accepted that Kurt Elling is heir apparent to Mark Murphy. But an equally strong case can be made for Giacomo Gates. Indeed, while Elling has advanced to a somewhat distant—some might say higher—plateau, Gates remains truer to Murphy’s...
05/01/13 Albums By Christopher Loudon
Passion of a Lonely Heart
Motema
Though Jana Herzen is best known in the jazz community as founder and president of Motéma Music, currently home to the likes of René Marie and Gregory Porter, the respected label was actually established so that Herzen could release her debut album, Soup’s...
04/30/13 Albums By Sharonne Cohen
Heels Over Head
Amulet Records
Here, drummer Billy Martin, of the inimitable Medeski Martin & Wood, leads his compact avant-brass group through its second release. Its name derived from Shake Your Wicked Knees (a compilation of piano rags, blues and stomps of the ’20s and ’30s), the quartet...
04/29/13 Albums By Britt Robson
Elvin
Jive
Saxophonist Chico Freeman credits the innovative drummer Elvin Jones for taking him on his initial tours of Europe and the major jazz clubs of the U.S., and for procuring and appearing on his first recording as a leader, Beyond the Rain , in 1978. It’s a...