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Jack Wood: Movie Magic. Great Songs from the Movies
by Richard J Salvucci
Someone could be forgiven for thinking that everyone loves music from the movies. After all: Jule Styne; Leslie Bricusse; Johnny Mandel; Sammy Fain; Harry Warren; Richard Rodgers ; Henry Mancini; Johnny Mercer; Antonio Carlos Jobim; Michel Legrand; Bernice Petkere; and Isham Jones is hardly a list of minor talents, but all are represented on Movie Magic. Is it the music itself, the associated film or both that are compelling? Perhaps an emotional connection to a moment, a time, a person ...
Continue ReadingAlbare: Eclecticity
by Jack Bowers
On Eclecticity, his 17th recording as leader of his own groups, Moroccan-born Australia-based guitarist Albare (given name: Albert Dadon) uses, for the most part, members of his working groups, the Alchemists and Harmonix Experiment, to help him plumb jazz tradition and breathe life into 10 of his distinctive yet custom-tailored compositions and arrangements. As a rule, Albare favors strong mid-tempo rhythms that meld emphatically behind sporadic solo commentary by trumpeter Mat Jodrell, saxophonist Phil Noy, pianist Phil ...
Continue ReadingVanessa Perica: The Eye is the First Circle
by Angelo Leonardi
Il secondo album della compositrice e bandleader australiana Vanessa Perica, conferma le aspettative suscitate dall'impressionante debutto del 2020 Love Is a Temporary Madness che le ha portato numerosi riconoscimenti in patria e all'estero, con recensioni superlative della massime riviste specializzate. Entro le coordinate espressive del modern mainstream orchestrale, Vanessa mostra una scrittura avvincente, che alterna momenti ritmicamente trascinanti a sequenze d'ampio respiro, timbricamente ricercate. Entro smaglianti orchestrazioni ricche di trascinanti riff, lunghi pedali e scontri di sezioni, i ...
Continue ReadingVanessa Perica Orchestra: The Eye is the First Circle
by Barry O'Sullivan
The music on The Eye is the First Circle is undeniably outstandingly composed and arranged by Vanessa Perica. Her second outing--following Love is A Temporary Madness (Self released, 2020)--with another supersonic ensemble, it was superbly recorded at the Sing Sing East Studios in Melbourne, showcasing numerous flawlessly performed solos by some of Australia's best improvising musicians. The bandleader, composer and arranger has created explosively expressionistic charts which would bring out the best in any orchestra. Perica utilises the chosen voices ...
Continue ReadingVanessa Perica Orchestra: The Eye is the First Circle
by Jack Bowers
In a review of Love Is a Temporary Madness, the debut recording by Australian composer/arranger Vanessa Perica, the observation was made that “Perica's impact in the realm of big-band jazz should be anything but temporary." Perica's second album, The Eye Is the First Circle, has added an exclamation point to that assertion. Again, each of the album's seven numbers was written and arranged by Perica. And again, she has shown that she deserves to be in the ...
Continue ReadingVanessa Perica: Love is a Temporary Madness
by Jack Bowers
Even as the year 2020 has slid ignobly into the dustbin of history, music-lovers have been buoyed by a number of encouraging signs that the future of big-band jazz is in capable hands. While splendid recordings by old hands Mike Barone, Steve Spiegl, Mark Masters and Maria Schneider have helped keep the flame burning brightly, their customary artistry has been rivaled if not surpassed this year by relative newcomers such as Jeremy Levy, Seth Weaver, Lisa Maxwell, Jon Schapiro, Dennis ...
Continue ReadingVanessa Perica Orchestra: Love is a Temporary Madness
by Angelo Leonardi
Da Melbourne ci giunge quest'impressionante debutto orchestrale di Vanessa Perica, bandleader e compositrice che guida una formazione con i migliori jazzmen australiani di nuova generazione. Anche se geograficamente distante dal nostro emisfero, il jazz prodotto in Australia e Nuova Zelanda ha sempre mantenuto connessioni con le tendenze e le espressioni nate negli Stati Uniti, esprimendo notevoli musicisti come i pianisti Mike Nock e Chris Abrahams, i batteristi Tony Buck e Ben Vanderwal, il chitarrista Tony Barnard, il ...
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