The Carla Bley many of us think of first is the provocateur, the straw-haired iconoclast behind the sprawling avant-garde opera Escalator Over the Hill and … Read More “Steve Cardenas/Ben Allison/Ted Nash: Healing Power: The Music of Carla Bley (Sunnyside)”
On a casual listen, bassist Ben Allison’s Moments Inside doesn’t differ temperamentally from its predecessor, 2018’s Quiet Revolution; both offer serene music with intricate complexity just … Read More “Ben Allison: Moments Inside (Sonic Camera)”
Steve Cardenas’ spacious guitar sound was a key element in bands led by Paul Motian and Charlie Haden, in addition to his own albums as … Read More “Steve Cardenas: Blue Has a Range (Sunnyside)”
Valuable chunks of the jazz canon go undistinguished—no doubt about that. But while the process of honoring the classics may be forever heroic, there’s no … Read More “Ben Allison: Quiet Revolution (Sonic Camera)”
The big concept for the latest release from guitarist Mark Whitfield is … no concept. As suggested by the album’s title, it’s a document of … Read More “Mark Whitfield: Live & Uncut (Chesky)”
“Blowback,” the sixth track on bassist Ben Allison’s 12th album as a leader, is an object lesson in the transmutational possibilities that a piece of … Read More “Ben Allison: Layers of the City (Sonic Camera)”
Bassist-composer Ben Allison puts together such great bands you can’t help but regret his tendency to record each of them only once. But with standout … Read More “Ben Allison: The Stars Look Very Different Today”
A departure for bassist and composer Ben Allison, whose nine previous recordings featured mostly original material, this album focuses on covers, tackling material by artists … Read More “Ben Allison: Action-Refraction”
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