Articles by Geoff Barber
1959: A Great Year in Jazz
by Geoff Barber
My father really enjoys wine. We can go to a restaurant and he will talk to the waiter about wine for what seems like an eternity. The conversation normally revolves around the year a certain wine was fermented. He will settle on a year and enjoy a couple glasses with his meal. For the life of me, I could never understand the importance of the year of a glass of wine. Wine is wine: you order it, you drink it ...
read moreTomasz Stanko Quartet: Soul of Things
by Geoff Barber
The Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko has been busy making music for many years. He began his career on the forefront of the European free jazz movement in the ‘60s. While he has made many fine albums since then, most of his notoriety has come in the past few years. Since joining ECM, Stanko has produced many fine albums. Soul of Things is the latest in his string of albums ( Litania, Leosia, and From the Green Hill ) ...
read moreSteve Tibbetts: A Man About a Horse
by Geoff Barber
Steve Tibbets has taken an approach on A Man About a Horse that brings his open-minded view of improvised music together with an urgency of personal expression. I found Tibbets' mix of world music and jazz very exciting and interesting. A Man About A Horse gradually unfolded from my speakers and entranced me. On first listen, it sounded like Kid A era Radiohead filtered through a Far East sense of percussion. Tibbetts seems as though he wants to take the ...
read moreRon McCurdy Quintet: Once Again for the First Time
by Geoff Barber
Usually when I see the title of doctor (Dr.) next to a person's name, thoughts of intellectual elitism cross my mind. Here, however, the title asserts a knowledge that transfers nimbly into catchy and sincere tunes. Dr. Ron McCurdy, having taught jazz for the last 15 years, finally decided to jump into the fray and record his own CD. He gathered some of the best talent in Los Angeles and Once Again for the First Time is the result.
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