Articles by R. Emmet Sweeney

Steve Lacy & Brion Gysin: Songs

by R. Emmet Sweeney
July 23, 2006

At the end of 1980, the late Steve Lacy expanded his group to a sextet with the addition of pianist Bobby Few. His first recording with this new configuration was Songs, a 1981 collaboration with poet/painter Brion Gysin, best known for his work with William Burroughs.

Lacy and Gysin had worked together as far back as '69, and their rapport is evident here. Lacy states in an interview with Jason Weiss (from Duke University Press' forthcoming anthology Conversations) before the ...

Diana Ross: Blue

by R. Emmet Sweeney
May 27, 2006

In late 1971, after Diana Ross completed filming the Billie Holiday bio-pic Lady Sings the Blues, Motown put her in the studio to record an album of jazz standards to coincide with the movie's release. The material was shelved after the producers decided to keep Ross on the pop-star track, which soon produced the #1 hit “Touch Me in the Morning."This summer Motown is releasing that long-lost album, entitled Blue. A welcome attempt to cash in on the ...

Dafnis Prieto: Absolute Quintet

by R. Emmet Sweeney
May 14, 2006

Dafnis Prieto's latest release on the upstart Zoho label is The Absolute Quintet, a startlingly eclectic and occasionally maddening album. He creates strange shapes and shifting moods, which are handled adroitly by his bandmates in a unique bass-less setup. Violin and cello scrape against sax and organ, with Prieto's all-over drumming attempting to forge some unity. Prieto traces his influences back from Cuban culture to European chamber music and African percussion, and he seems to have assimilated them whole. These ...

Ben Allison: Cowboy Justice

by R. Emmet Sweeney
April 16, 2006

Cowboy Justice sticks to the basics. Each tune opens with a repeated riff that is then accented by the other instruments, heavy on layered harmonies. Ben Allison is one of the founding members of the non-profit Jazz Composers Collective, a hub for young, forward-thinking talent, and Cowboy Justice has the feel of a workshop the Collective might put on, a testing ground for basic melodic ideas yet to be fully fleshed out.The first tune, “Tricky Dick," begins with ...

Anita O'Day: Indestructible!

by R. Emmet Sweeney
April 8, 2006

Nostalgia can be a dangerous thing. Take, for example, Anita O'Day's new album. The 86 year-old, who made her name as the lead vocalist for the Gene Krupa Orchestra, hasn't released an album for thirteen years, and the results on Indestructible! are a clear indication why. Her voice has been ravaged by decades of hard living, and her attempts at singing behind the beat show the strain of effort. The shadow of her talent is there, but it's ...

SF Jazz Collective: SF Jazz Collective 2

by R. Emmet Sweeney
April 2, 2006

The SF Jazz Collective is a younger, more stylistically adventurous version of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, a repertory-minded super-group with a defined home base that tours at upscale theaters instead of clubs, aiming at middle-class pocketbooks. Both intend to educate as much as entertain, but SF Jazz, with Joshua Redman at the helm, manages to sound contemporary by emphasizing individual composition as much as repertory, while the LCJO routinely gets bogged down getting misty eyed about the past.

Each ...

Chris Potter: Underground

by R. Emmet Sweeney
March 17, 2006

Chris PotterUndergroundSunnyside Records2006 Consensus is always the sought-after ideal in criticism. When writers can line up behind an artist and declare his or her greatness, the health of an art form is reinforced. We need to ordain geniuses to be reassured that this love of ours is still valid, and that our scribblings, you know, mean something. Jazz hasn't had a young mobilizing figure like this for quite ...

Fred Hersch: In Amsterdam: Live At The Bimhuis

by R. Emmet Sweeney
March 17, 2006

Fred Hersch In Amsterdam: Live At The Bimhuis Palmetto Records 2006

This live release by Fred Hersch is a rare creature: a solo piano recital that is never at a loss for lyrical and melodic ideas. The solo format exposes all of the musician's habits, pet themes and favored tones to our virgin ears without the benefit of the commanding physical pulse of a rhythm section. It's just Hersch and his thoughts. Thankfully, he's ...

Manu Katche: Neighbourhood

by R. Emmet Sweeney
February 8, 2006

It's a quiet day in the Neighbourhood. Manu Katché's ECM debut understates everything with a calm reserve, threatening to fade into the background without a fight (or a sax squawk). Check out the titles: “Lullaby," “No Rush," and “Lovely Walk," all urging your fragile attention to wander from the lilting tune. But then Tomasz Stanko steps up to solo, gilding the lyrical lily until he arpeggios up to a breathy peak in “Number One," snapping you out of whatever pleasant ...

The Mary Lou Williams Collective: Zodiac Suite: Revisited

by R. Emmet Sweeney
February 1, 2006

She was “the little girl who swings the band, an arranger for Andy Kirk, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and practically any other sublime big band name you could deign to think of. Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell hung out at her NYC apartment to soak up her knowledge during the bop era. Mary Lou Williams should be a household name, or at least a dorm room name. Something.One who carries her torch to enlighten bedraggled minds ...