John Litweiler

The Long View is a seven-movement suite inspired by the paintings of Oliver Jackson. It’s abstraction upon abstraction, as reedist Marty Ehrlich attempts to create … Read More “Marty Ehrlich: The Long View”

Pitfalls loom everywhere on this disc. Busy charts full of seemingly incongruous effects, accordion, a string quartet, French horns, Latin and rock-fusion rhythms, burbling electric … Read More “Tom Harrell: Wise Children”

The music starts with long, very low sounds-didgeridoo, tuba, bowed bass together-that is guaranteed to shake your bricks and rattle your insides. The program is … Read More “Bill Cole Untempered Ensemble: Seasoning the Greens”

An aptly named sextet-three musicians from Israel, the others from Argentina, Mexico and Cuba, and they play lots of uneventful vamps. The preponderance of one-chord … Read More “Avishai Cohen with the International Vamp Band: Unity”

Here’s an album of violin-percussion duets, and once you adjust to the unusual instrumentation, the music proves engaging, often charming and clever. Bang is an … Read More “Kahil El’Zabar/Billy Bang: Spirits Entering”

Och, the bagpipes, “those deep and plaintive sounds which have done much to imprint upon the characters of those who hear them a melancholy and … Read More “Anthony Braxton: Composition N. 247”

Four Compositions consists of Horwitz reading from newspapers and books and occasionally commenting while Braxton plays saxes and clarinets. The CD is divided into 15 … Read More “Anthony Braxton with Alex Horwitz: Four Compositions (Duets) 2000”

Four selections in this program are latter-day pop songs that, argues saxophonist Don Braden, should become jazz standards. In fact, Steely Dan’s “Kid Charlemagne” works … Read More “Don Braden: Presents the Contemporary Standards Ensemble”