Articles by Franz A. Matzner
Kelvin Sholar Trio: Rites of Fire
by Franz A. Matzner
A syncretic symphony, Kelvin Sholar's Rites of Fire is the product of 15 years of meditation on the history and esoteric mechanisms of musical expression. The richly satisfying album is unbounded by anything other than Sholar's relentless commitment to self-discovery. Sholar's own resurrection from clinical death to artistic and spiritual rebirth is embedded in the core of the multi-movement composition, which neither defies nor accepts conventional barriers. The piece flows from a space of integration, merging a complex network of ...
read moreJack DeJohnette: Bill Evans Legacy
by Franz A. Matzner
Modern Drummer Hall of Fame inductee, drummer and pianist Jack DeJohnette has shaped jazz drumming for decades. A compatriot of illustrious players like Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, John Scofield, and many more, DeJohnette helped shape a new conception of what the drums could bring to ensembles, including adding color, detail, and fluid interplay. His contributions to the music are legendary and could fill volumes. Reinforcing this impact, Resonance Records has been releasing a series of never-before heard live recordings of ...
read moreBill Evans: Bill Evans Live at Ronnie Scott's
by Franz A. Matzner
Bill Evans: Live At Ronnie Scott's brings to mind the phrase “on the shoulders of giants." Evans's stature in jazz history is unassailable, his influence having touched much of the music's subsequent trajectories, while also establishing a new, discernable branch of the jazz tree traceable to the present-day. A two-disc package, Bill Evans: Live at Ronnie Scott's captures the relatively brief trio configuration of Eddie Gomez and Jack DeJohnette in the natural setting of a live club performance.
read moreMary Halvorson: Artlessly Falling
by Franz A. Matzner
Released by Mary Halvorson's Code Girl, Artlessly Falling presents eight new compositions, each of which is structured around a specific poetic form with accompanying lyrics/poems by Halvorson herself. The forms represent a significant diversity of cultural origins and eras, including Japanese Tanka, 12th century Sestina, French Villanelle, and Malay Pantoum. With each of the above sources arguably requiring deep study to become well-versed in, this central conceit might feel like a daring experiment, hubris, or a bit of ...
read moreJunk Magic: Compass Confusion
by Franz A. Matzner
Density. Shifting ground. Textural discord. Sharpness like glass. Resonant emptiness. Explorative improvisation, electronica sound spaces and electric beats. Released by the Craig Taborn project Junk Magic, Compass Confusion moves the fusion of live performance with electronica to the next level, making the division between the two often difficult to discern. The album incorporates a cross section of electronica techniques, including often lesser recognized subgenres like ambient, trip-hop, and minimalist industrial. This diverse representation of electronic music coupled with ...
read moreLafayette Gilchrist: Now
by Franz A. Matzner
Pianist and composer Lafayette Gilchrist has made clear that, in part, Now addresses the racial and political conflicts erupting across America in 2020. The music is suitably intense and tumultuous. The album demands change while also reminding us that the violence and divisions splintering the country are not new. The repression and oppression embedded in American race relations has been pervasive for an unconscionably long time. Gilchrest pointedly underscores this through pieces like “Bmore Careful," which pulses forward ...
read moreBlack Lives Matter, Black Culture Matters
by Franz A. Matzner
Black lives matter. I am a jazz writer, so my lens on this truth is in some respects through music. The protests sweeping the country—and globe—are potent and necessarily focused on ending racial violence and police brutality. The images we see with increasingly open eyes of the barbaric treatment of African Americans are changing perceptions and helping us begin to confront systemic racism, the original sin of America's founding that will continue to bar our society from fulfilling the promise ...
read moreJacek Kochan & musiConspiracy: Occupational Hazard
by Franz A. Matzner
Polish-born and current Canadian Jacek Kochan's 22nd release as a leader, Occupational Hazard, exists at the crossroads of straight ahead and electric jazz. A drummer, composer and arranger, Kochan has played with a variety of musicians over the course of his long career. On Occupational Hazard he leverages this broad experience to bring together an unusual mix of instrumental and vocal talent, establishing an intriguing blend likely to appeal most to fans of accessible tunes dominated by guitar ...
read moreAdam Rudolph: Ragmala and Prototypical Music
by Franz A. Matzner
Adam Rudolph has been seeking to push the boundaries of musical creativity for decades, developing a unique concept of composition, ensemble interaction, and conducting. As many writers have commented, his music resists critical commentary due to its prototypical nature. Said another way, Rudolph's music doesn't sound like anything else, and its antecedents are so varied that reducing the music to common labels such as “jazz" or “world music" quickly feels trite. The reality is Rudolph's music taps into ...
read moreChelsea McBride's Socialist Night School: Aftermath
by Franz A. Matzner
Carve out an hour to listen to Socialist Night School's Aftermath because the combination of big-band music and progressive, challenging lyrics demands it. There's no way to let either simply wash over the ears. The music is too blunt, the lyrics too developed and too integral to absorb passively. The follow up to the equally ambitious The Twilight Fall (Browntasaurus Records, 2017), Aftermath is once again the brainchild of tenor saxophonist, conductor, and composer Chelsea McBride. With its ...
read more
Giveaway
Days remaining: 7
