Articles by Robert Iannapollo

A Triple Bill of Keys & Drums

by Robert Iannapollo
July 18, 2010

Three albums by keyboards and drums duos--two of them recorded in the early 1990s, the third in the noughties--demonstrate the wide and varied territory this pared down instrumentation can inhabit.

Andrew Hill / Chico HamiltonDreams Come TrueJoyous Shout!2008

On paper, the duet of late pianist Andrew Hill and drummer Chico Hamilton seems odd. Hamilton is the inventive timekeeper par excellence as well as a great textural player. Hill, especially in small groupings, is all ...

Rudresh Mahanthappa: Apti & Real People

by Robert Iannapollo
July 18, 2010

Rudresh Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak CoalitionAptiInnova2008 Anders Mogensen/Rudresh Mahanthappa/Kasper Tranberg/Jacob Anderskov/Carlo DeRosaReal PeopleBlackout2008 Over the past ten years alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa has succeeded where others have failed in fusing Indian musical traditions into modern jazz. His sinewy lines, while coursing along with the lissome grace of Indian improvisers, also reflect the harmonic edginess of players like Eric Dolphy and Jackie McLean. These ...

John Tchicai: Four Ways

by Robert Iannapollo
June 12, 2010

New York Art Quartet Old Stuff Cuneiform 2010 John Tchicai's Five Points One Long Minute Nu Bop 2010 John Tchicai In Monk's Mood Steeplechase 2009 Various Artists Treader Duos Treader 2009 With nearly 50 years of recording, Danish ...

Cuong Vu / Chris Speed: From The Pacific Northwest To The Atlantic Northeast And Beyond

by Robert Iannapollo
April 3, 2010

Myra Melford's Be Bread The Whole Tree Gone Firehouse 12 2010 Jakob Anderskov Agnostic Revelations ILK 2010 Lovedale Coziness Kills ILK 2009 Saxophonist/clarinetist Chris Speed and trumpeter Cuong Vu have a lot in common. Both hail from the Pacific Northwest and attended school in Boston. Over ...

Marilyn Lerner / Ken FIliano / Lou Grassi: Arms Spread Wide

by Robert Iannapollo
March 19, 2010

Canadian pianist Marilyn Lerner has garnered a name for herself as one of the most diverse and exciting pianists to emerge in the last ten years. Best known among her releases is a series of albums with the co-op Queen Mab Trio, with violist Ig Henneman and clarinetist Lori Friedman. But also included in her discography are several albums based around Jewish music, a duo set with guitarist Sonny Greenwich, and a number of piano trio releases, all drawing on ...

Matthew Shipp: 4D

by Robert Iannapollo
February 5, 2010

Since his emergence at the start of the 1990s, pianist Matthew Shipp seems to have fostered an infinite number of options available to him. From his free jazz alliances to his electronic beat explorations (also taking into account memberships in the groups of David S. Ware and Roscoe Mitchell), Shipp seems to like to mix it up. But periodically he releases a solo CD that functions as breathing space for him. His last solo outing was One ...

Opsvik & Jennings: A Dream I Used To Remember

by Robert Iannapollo
January 17, 2010

Over the past five years, bassist Eivind Opsvik has gained a considerable reputation around New York as a strong, resourceful jazz bassist. He's been tapped by the likes of Tony Malaby, Paul Motian and Kris Davis for their groups. His own ensemble Overseas (currently Malaby, Kenny Wollesen and Jacob Sacks), with three albums to date, has impressively shown his jazz credentials as an instrumentalist, composer and arranger. He's a player who's comfortable with all of the post-John Coltrane/Ornette Coleman permutations ...

100nka and Herb Robertson: Superdesert

by Robert Iannapollo
January 12, 2010

Herb Robertson has to be one of the most intrepid trumpeters around. He seems to be most willing to put himself in anomalous situations: the two-trumpet group he shares with Dave Ballou (MacroQuarktet), work as a sideman in various groups, membership in ad hoc assemblies like a trio with Evan Parker and Agustí Fernández or guesting with Pierre Dørge's New Jungle Orchestra. On Superdesert, Robertson collaborates with the Polish trio 100nka. This reviewer was unfamiliar with 100nka ...

Jade Visions: The Life And Music Of Scott LaFaro

by Robert Iannapollo
November 15, 2009

Jade Visions: The Life And Music Of Scott LaFaro Helene LaFaro-Fernandez Hardcover; 322 pages ISBN: 1-57441-273-4 University of North Texas Press 2009 At the outset, I have to own up to bassist Scott LaFaro being a personal hero. Growing up in Geneva, NY, also home to the bassist, it was always a point of pride that this man, a major contributor in changing the role of his ...

Lee Konitz In The 1980s

by Robert Iannapollo
November 13, 2009

Saxophonist Lee Konitz turned 82 in October 2009 and he's still going as strong and as steady as ever. He recently played a birthday duet concert with pianist Harold Danko. While the set included the usual standards there were also a couple of surprises such as the Konitz original “Kary's Trance." Konitz and Danko have a long history, although they hadn't played together in 15 years. Yet they still seemed to surprise each other. While Konitz has settled into an ...