Articles by Ryan Lippell
Saxophone Summit: New York, April 20, 2011
by Ryan Lippell
Saxophone SummitJazz Standard, Impulse! Nights--Africa/BrassNew York, NYApril 20, 2011 For Dave Liebman, it was the orange spines. For others, it was the laminated, emblematic covers with gatefolds. For everyone, Impulse! was the record label that best committed to vinyl the golden age of jazz: a fertile crescent between the late '50s and early '70s that simultaneously showcased all the branches of the jazz evolutionary tree, from Satchmo to Duke to Coltrane. To commemorate the ...
read moreLionel Loueke: Mwaliko
by Ryan Lippell
Lionel Loueke: Mwaliko Blue Note 2010
An album of duo and trio recordings, Mwaliko is the kind of world-infused smorgasbord that only guitarist Lionel Loueke could cook up--it contains hard swing, makossa, balladry, Beninese folk and a jazz standard. Hailing from Benin in West Africa, Loueke boasts a curriculum vitae whose scope is similarly impressive. Spanning more than a decade, and starting with bicycle chain-strung guitars in Benin, he completed formal music study in ...
read moreMedeski, Martin & Wood: Radiolarians I
by Ryan Lippell
Medeski, Martin & WoodRadiolarians IIndirecto Records2008
Devised for commercial effectiveness, the traditional record label model is precisely defined: artists write new music, then record that music, then market and tour to spread the word and generate sales. The model is predicated on compartmentalization and a lengthy timeline and most definitely not on leaks and theft--the thriving offspring of the twenty-first century accessibility of music. But times have ... read moreMedeski, Martin & Wood: Let's Go Everywhere
by Ryan Lippell
Medeski, Martin & Wood Let's Go Everywhere Little Monster Records 2008
Roll over Raffi and boogie on out Barney... Medeski, Martin & Wood are now cutting kids' records. Though best known for a brand of jazz that attracts 20-somethings, the Brooklyn-based trio shows with Let's Go Everywhere that jazz hybridized with elements of avant-garde, funk, trance, rock and hip-hop is also suited to seven-year-olds.
Appropriately co-conceived while bassist Chris Wood and Little ...
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