Wadada Leo Smith: Kabell Years: 1971-1979
Affixing the AACM label to any musician is a somewhat dicey proposition, but particularly in the case of Wadada Leo Smith. Like Lester Bowie, the … Read More “Wadada Leo Smith: Kabell Years: 1971-1979”
Affixing the AACM label to any musician is a somewhat dicey proposition, but particularly in the case of Wadada Leo Smith. Like Lester Bowie, the … Read More “Wadada Leo Smith: Kabell Years: 1971-1979”
Talk about overdue: For 40 years, Cameron Brown has worked with a ridiculously long list of heavyweights, but he has only now released an album … Read More “Cameron Brown and the Hear and Now: Here and How!”
Comprised of material from three dates and featuring two contrasting groups, Birdland 1951 finds Miles Davis in particularly good form. The trumpeter was on the … Read More “Miles Davis: Birdland 1951”
While he’s not all that well known in the U.S., Alexander von Schlippenbach is one of Europe’s favorite avant-garde musicians. The German pianist mixes free and contemporary classical elements to form an energetic hybrid of American and European music-which befits the man who formed the Globe Unity Orchestra. Bill Shoemaker fills us in.
There is life after the major labels, liberation even. Perhaps no one has benefited more from severance from a blue-chip imprint in recent years than … Read More “Fred Hersch Trio: Trio Plus Two”
Jimmy Lyons is one of the most intriguing musicians to emerge in the 1960s, as the alto saxophonist provided one of the strongest links between … Read More “Jimmy Lyons: The Box Set”
Lacking the stunning conceptual audacity of watershed recordings like Urlicht/Primal Light and The Goldberg Variations, Uri Caine’s Bedrock, Solitaire and Rio are relatively casual albums. … Read More “Uri Caine: Bedrock”
Few album titles are as draped in jazz history as Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall. “Directions In Music” was a phrase stamped on … Read More “Herbie Hancock/Michael Brecker/Roy Hargrove: Directions in Music: Live at Massey Hall”
Bill Barron was an important, largely overlooked transitional figure of the late ’50s and early ’60s, a tenor saxophonist and composer who consolidated advanced jazz-harmonic … Read More “Bill Barron: Compilation”
As producer Martin Davidson points out in his notes to Vortices and Angels, guitarist Derek Bailey (born 1930), saxophonist John Butcher (1954) and harpist Rhodri … Read More “John Butcher/Derek Bailey/Rhodri Davies: Vortices and Angels”
Company in Marseille features the same U.K. contingent guitarist Derek Bailey assembled last April in New York: harpist Rhodri Davies, cellist Mark Wastell, bassist Simon … Read More “Company: Company in Marseille”
Saxophonist Marty Ehrlich, bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Andrew Cyrille first joined forces for a New York festival date in 1996. They’d intended to perform … Read More “Andrew Cyrille/Mark Dresser/Marty Ehrlich: C/D/E”
John Tchicai was not the only Dane pursuing the “New Thing” in the early ’60s. Trumpeter Hugh Steinmetz, alto saxophonist Franz Beckerlee and bassist Steffen … Read More “The Contemporary Jazz Quartet: Action Action: The Original Debut Recordings 1964 & 1967”
Though there have been several vital strains of music since the ’50s that have been lumped together under the rubric chamber jazz, the term is … Read More “Tom Harrell: Paradise”
You know when players are stepping up as leaders when they use the tradition as a means, not the end-all. Cindy Blackman does just that … Read More “Cindy Blackman: Someday”
Blues Dream is another winsome album by Bill Frisell. On this Walker Arts Center-commissioned program, the composer-guitarist amalgamates elements and players from past projects to … Read More “Bill Frisell: Blues Dream”
Talking Pictures is the premier small ensemble of the vibrant Vancouver creative music scene. As documented on two strong albums on the much missed Red … Read More “Talking Pictures/Jorrit Dijkstra: Humming”
On In Context/Out of Context, Norton deftly balances the loose-limbed blowing imperatives of a trio session and his considerable compositional skills with a flexible album-length … Read More “Kevin Norton: In Context/Out of Context”
Robinson and bassist Lisle Ellis’ ability to create a well-grounded propulsion from the barest textures, rhythms, and phrases is very much in evidence in their … Read More “Donald Robinson Trio: Straight Lines Skewed”
Most jazz-related discussions about Cuban music rightly and effusively celebrate its African component. Cuban music would be impoverished without it. Yet it is a mistake … Read More “Chucho Valdes: Solo – Live in New York”
Dave Douglas’ second major label release is a bold stroke on a few significant counts. A Thousand Evenings, his second outing with Charms of the … Read More “Dave Douglas: A Thousand Evenings”
The decidedly bluesy Cymbals was one of the best bets of the entire lot. Like Pathways, this program employed a greatly reduced Arkestra. Though stalwarts … Read More “Sun Ra: The Great Lost Sun Ra Albums: Cymbals and Crystal Spears”
Lanquidity proves that timing is everything. If this surprisingly accessible album had been released in the booming early ’70s market by Impulse! instead of by … Read More “Sun Ra: Lanquidity”
Greatest Hits: Easy Listening for Intergalactic Travel performs the much-needed service of providing a one-disc summary of Ra’s musical odyssey. The first half of the … Read More “Sun Ra: Greatest Hits: Easy Listening for Intergalactic Travel”
Brad Mehldau’s debt to Keith Jarrett has never been so plain as it is on Places. This collection of solo and trio pieces, named for … Read More “Brad Mehldau with Larry Grenadier, Jorge Rossy: Places”
Steve Cohn is a thoughtful composer and pianist who first surfaced in the early ’80s. His recordings never lack for well-formed ideas and vigorous exchanges … Read More “Steve Cohn: Bridge Over the X-Stream”
Recorded in ’63 and released in ’66, When Angels Speak of Love has several of the elements that would give Ra and the Arkestra their … Read More “Sun Ra: When Angels Speak of Love”
Pathways to Unknown Worlds (one of two discs released by Impulse! that had not been previously issued by Saturn), and the two lost sessions, Cymbals … Read More “Sun Ra: Pathways to Unknown Worlds and Friendly Love”
It was a week that is like an increasing number of weeks out of the year for drummer Jim Black. It began in France, performing … Read More “Jim Black: Opening the Filters”
Rob Brown is one of the hardest hitting alto players currently on the scene. His slashing, bluesy lines keep the spirit of Jimmy Lyons alive … Read More “Rob Brown Quartet: Jumping Off the Page”