Articles by David Adler
Francesco Crosara: Circular Motion
by David Adler
"I refuse to be labeled a 'straight-ahead' player or a 'fusion' player," says Italian-born, Seattle-based pianist Francesco Crosara. It's a sentiment widely shared by jazz musicians, though they follow many different roads to get to that place. Crosara, for his part, plays both acoustic piano and Yamaha MODX-8 synthesizer on this absorbing, varied program of original music for three different trio lineups, two of them with electric bass. He cites the influence of Chick Corea, a mentor and family friend ...
read moreStacey Kent: Trans-atlantically Yours
by David Adler
This interview was first published at All About Jazz in June 2001. Stacey Kent left the States in 1991 and unwittingly became a British-based international singing sensation. She met her present husband, tenor saxophonist Jim Tomlinson, while visiting friends in London, and one thing led to another. Her first demo received airplay from an excited Humphrey Lyttelton on his well-loved show on BBC Radio 2. She landed a singing part in Ian McKellen's film ...
read moreThe Claudia Quintet: Royal Toast
by David Adler
With one exception, drummer John Hollenbeck hasn't taken prominent front-cover credit on releases by The Claudia Quintet. This holds true for Royal Toast, the band's extraordinary fifth album. The decision makes sense, for Hollenbeck's labyrinthine compositions get much of their subtlety and force from the individual players that have defined the group's identity from the start. On Royal Toast, Hollenbeck yields the floor to each of them in turn and so “Ted versus Ted" features accordionist Ted ...
read moreJason Moran: Ten
by David Adler
Pianist Jason Moran offers Ten, to mark a decade with the Bandwagon, his trio with bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits, and it's an anniversary worth celebrating. But Ten is also Moran's first release since Artist In Residence (Blue Note, 2006), so it affords him the opportunity to include pieces from long-form commissioned works he's written since then. The loping, gospel-tinged “Blue Blocks" is from a multimedia suite inspired by the quilt makers of Gee's Bend, Alabama. “RFK in ...
read moreManuel Valera: Yaoundé, Currents & Oscar e Familia
by David Adler
Samuel TorresYaoundéBlue Conga2009 Manuel ValeraCurrentsMAXJAZZ2010 Oscar FeldmanOscar e FamiliaSunnyside2010 Cuban pianist Manuel Valera is throwing his weight around the jazz scene and having an impact on several different levels. He's a fine acoustic stylist but also a serious proponent of electric keys. He's a rhythmic hyper-modernist ...
read moreSamuel Blaser: Pieces of Old Sky & Vol à Voile
by David Adler
Samuel BlaserPieces of Old SkyClean Feed2009 Pierre Favre/Samuel BlaserVol à VoileIntakt2010 There's a wonderfully eerie quality to Pieces of Old Sky, trombonist Samuel Blaser's recording with guitarist Todd Neufeld, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Tyshawn Sorey. Opening with the 17-minute title track, Blaser conjures a mood of dark, open expanse and gradual development. Neufeld ...
read moreTomasz Stanko: Dark Eyes
by David Adler
Much of trumpeter Tomasz Stanko's output in the '00s featured the piano trio of countrymen Marcin Wasilewski, Slawomir Kurkiewicz and Michal Miskiewicz. Dark Eyes is a departure--the first recording to feature the Polish icon's new quintet with pianist Alexi Tuomarila, guitarist Jakob Bro, bassist Anders Christensen and drummer Olavi Louhivuori. Bit by bit, the band's seductive rapport and cagey dynamics are revealed: first the rubato portent and spaciousness of “So Nice," then a marked shift to a ...
read moreDave Holland: Pathways
by David Adler
Bassist Dave Holland's main creative vehicle has long been the Dave Holland Quintet, but in recent years he's launched a number of other groups, tweaking and expanding instrumentation while preserving something of the quintet's signature sound. On Pathways, recorded live at Birdland in 2009, Holland takes another detour with the Dave Holland Octet, which splits the difference between his quintet and big band in terms of size, texture and orchestrated thrust. Incidentally, Holland switched from ECM Records ...
read moreDan Weiss: Timshel
by David Adler
Drummer Dan Weiss made a promising trio debut in 2006 with Now Yes When, featuring pianist Jacob Sacks and bassist Thomas Morgan. Timshel, the follow-up, shows an impressive amount of growth for this lineup in the years since. The ideas are bolder, the dynamics more acute, the presentation more evolved. There are few if any pauses between tracks, allowing for a live performance feel without belaboring the idea of a suite. The 12 compositions, all by Weiss, demand close, immersive ...
read moreTed Nash: Portrait in Seven Shades
by David Adler
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO) is often derided as a bastion of conservatism, although it's not clear what is conservative about an epic like trumpeter Wynton Marsalis' Congo Square (Blue Note, 2007), with its volleys of Ghanaian percussion and ensemble-singing in the Ga and Fante dialects. For that matter, the JLCO accommodates boundary-pushing musicians like Ted Nash, who holds a multi-woodwinds chair while still doing offbeat work with the likes of bassist Ben Allison and pianist Frank Kimbrough--not ...
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