Those expecting an exclusively outside session from Mario Pavone might be surprised by the thematic diversity on Boom (Playscape). Certainly Pavone, tenor/soprano saxophonist Tony Malaby, pianist Peter Madsen and drummer Matt Wilson can and sometimes do engage in the frenzied collective passages and dialogues usually lumped under the avant-garde banner, but they also do sentimental pieces like “Julian” and “Short Yellow” as well as fiery, long works such as “Bad Birdie” and “Bastos.” There are even some songs on Boom that feature catchy melodies, and only the snippet “Po” sounds like aimless noodling rather than a cohesive composition. While there are times where things seem close to imploding, the tunes never degenerate into chaos. If anything, Boom is among the most melodically delightful, musically proficient works issued on the Playscape label, and much of it wouldn’t ruffle the feathers of the most rigid hard-bopper.
Originally PublishedRelated Posts
Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee: Backwater Blues
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading

Jonathan Butler: The Simple Life
Jonathan Butler’s optimistic music belies a dirt-poor childhood growing up in a South Africa segregated by apartheid. Live in South Africa, a new CD and DVD package, presents a sense of the resulting inner turmoil, mixed with dogged resolve, that paved the way to his status as an icon in his country and successful musician outside of it. Looking back, the 46-year-old Butler says today, the driving forces that led to his overcoming apartheid-the formal policy of racial separation and economic discrimination finally dismantled in 1993-were family, faith and abundant talent.
“When we were kids, our parents never talked about the ANC [African National Congress] or Nelson Mandela,” he says. Butler was raised as the youngest child in a large family. They lived in a house patched together by corrugated tin and cardboard, in the “coloreds only” township of Athlone near Cape Town. “They never talked about struggles so we never knew what was happening.”
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading

Scott LaFaro
Previously unavailable recordings and a new bio illuminate the legend of bassist Scott LaFaro
Kurt Elling: Man in the Air
Nate Chinen makes the argument that Kurt Elling is the most influential jazz vocalist of our time