Bill Shoemaker

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 trumpeter had paid considerable dues in the territories before propitiously arriving in Chicago as the venerable collective was coalescing. Despite the trumpeter’s contributions to the Association’s seminal recordings of 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 under his own name. In an age of recorded-music saturation, that’s astounding. Very much to his credit, the bassist has created an ensemble, the Hear and Now, whose sound doesn’t … 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 rebound from personal and professional setbacks, so musically he returned to basics: bebop. Consistently prodded by Art Blakey, the only other player who appears on all 10 tracks, Davis’ playing … Read More “Miles Davis: Birdland 1951”

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 Fred Hersch. Despite the wide acclaim of albums like Passion Flower, Hersch’s tenure with Nonesuch ended after Songs Without Words; whether the ambitious, arguably ill-timed (market-wise) three-CD set sealed his … 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 bebop and the New Thing. Unlike many of the movement’s provincially raised exponents, Lyons spent his formative years in New York, where he was able to jam with the likes … 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. But their simultaneous release implies they are companion discs to be heard in the aggregate. With each focusing on a genre or context, they can be likened to layers of … Read More “Uri Caine: Bedrock”

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 logic with an eye on the emergent “new thing.” He made his recording debut on Cecil Taylor’s ’59 Love for Sale, sharing the front line with trumpeter Ted Curson, with … 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 Davies (1971) represent three generations of improvisers on the London scene. Accordingly, Butcher’s duets with Bailey and Davies on the Emanem disc trace an arc from the assertively nonidiomatic approach … 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 H. Fell and tap dancer Will Gaines. Comprised mainly of duos and trios (there are two lengthy quintet tracks; but even they contain substantial passages where one or more musicians … 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 with Bobby Bradford, but when it proved impossible to fly the trumpeter in from Los Angeles, they performed as a trio. People who were there talked about the set for … 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 Andersen were on the case in 1960, emulating Ornette Coleman’s shape of jazz to come. As the core of the Contemporary Jazz Quartet, they began covering Ornette’s early compositions, adding … Read More “The Contemporary Jazz Quartet: Action Action: The Original Debut Recordings 1964 & 1967”

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 on Someday…, a program that liberally taps the Miles Davis book, but with a couple of pungent twists. The first is that the drummer-composer doesn’t employ a trumpeter, giving the … 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 reiterate his bucolic synthesis of American root musics. The two-guitar, three-horn septet gives Frisell great flexibility in his trademark evocations of regional and ethnic dialects. Soloists like trumpeter Ron Miles … 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 Toucan label, this co-op quartet is equally cogent mewling with bucolic lyricism or spitting noise in electro-acoustic improvisations. Comprised of trumpeter Bill Clark, cellist Peggy Lee, guitarist Ron Samworth and … 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 sequence of pieces. To this end, Norton has wisely engaged David Bindman and Bob DeBellis, whose saxophones and flutes have provided much of the muscle for his exceptional midsized ensemble. … 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 work with alto saxophonist Marco Eneidi on Straight Lines Skewed. Eneidi, who moved to the Left Coast in the mid-’90s after stints in the ensembles of Bill Dixon, Raphe Malik … 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 to undervalue Cuban music’s Spanish roots, not just in terms of folk-dance forms, like the bolero, but in the pedagogy that has made Cuba a hothouse for virtuoso musicians as … 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 Night Sky, is not an overt jazz album like his RCA debut, Soul on Soul, Douglas’ homage to Mary Lou Williams. Nor does this album have the marketing synergy its … Read More “Dave Douglas: A Thousand Evenings”

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 the locales in which they were composed, has much the same mix of longing and belonging as Jarrett’s mid-’70s recordings. Jarrett’s shadow looms over Mehldau’s use of counterpoint and variation, … 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 between him and his collaborators. Yet his music has been documented far too infrequently in recent years. As a result, Cohn’s latter recordings have the feel of isolated snapshots instead … Read More “Steve Cohn: Bridge Over the X-Stream”

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 without corroding the conviction that Brown is a fiercely original voice. He is also a fluent composer, who can build provocative pieces from jagged, shard-like motives, and create poignant moods … Read More “Rob Brown Quartet: Jumping Off the Page”