Multiple Reviews

In a time of financial crisis in the world in general and in the music business in particular, the natural thing to do would be to cut down the number of releases and concentrate on safe and palatable productions that cater to a major audience with a predefined taste. However, Oliver Weindling's Babel Label has always ...

Scotch whiskey is an acquired taste; you must first be introduced and develop a relationship with it before this strong water reveals her charms. The same can be said for the singing of Rickie Lee Jones. A hipster in the late-1970s, Jones grew into a blind sage prophetess, showing how others' music could be experienced differently. ...

Astor Piazzolla invited jazz into the world of tango, birthing a hybridized form of music that's outlived its creator; jazz, proving equally hospitable, opened its doors to Piazzolla and nuevo tango. High-end artists like saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, vibraphonist Gary Burton, and guitarist Al Di Meola all collaborated with the legendary composer/bandoneon player, helping to raise his ...

Bassist Christian McBride is many things to many people. Leader, sideman, writer, and conceptualist are just a few of the hats that he happens to wear on these two quintet- centered dates. One album puts McBride's name up in lights, while the other finds him in a supporting role, but his work is central to the ...

Since the turn of the millennium, drummer, composer and bandleader Mike Pride has established a strong presence in the fertile Brooklyn scene. Pride's diverse interests include a wide range of styles; his myriad projects run the gamut from avant-garde jazz and indie rock to neo-classical chamber music and performance art. Encompassing key aspects of all these ...

Japanese saxophonist Katsura Yamaychi is a unique musician in the Japanese experimental and avant-garde scene. He comes from the industrial town Beppu, far from the traditional creative center around and in the bigger cities of Japan. He picked up the saxophone in the early seventies, but it took until 2012 for Yamaychi to quit his regular ...

The Le Boeuf Brothers--saxophonist Remy and pianist Pascal--don't box themselves into a jazz corner; or, perhaps it should be said that they don't box jazz into a corner, preferring instead to let it marinate in the juices of the present, where it can absorb new flavors and move in different directions.

Both men are highly capable ...

Norwegian trumpeter, composer and educator Didrik Ingvaldsen has studied at Julliard conservatory, honed his skills as in improviser at downtown New York clubs, educated students at Leeds College in England, Tanzania in Africa and at his home town, Stavanger in southern Norway. His main musical vehicle in recent years is the Pocket Corner quintet. This outfit ...

Motéma Music has a tremendous amount of material coming through the pipeline as the imprint celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2013. Drummer Jaimeo Brown's forward-thinking debut, vibraphonist Joe Locke's take on the mellow and bluesy, vocalist Rondi Charleston's most mature outing to date, and a trio release from pianist Eldar Djangirov are all hitting shelves around ...

Japanese drummer Yasuhiro Yoshigaki is one of the most influential drummers in the left-off-center alternative music scene in Japan. A close collaborator of sound sculptor Otomo Yoshihide, included in all incarnations of Yoshihide's New Jazz Quintet/Ensemble/Orchestra, and member of the groups Emergency! (with Yoshihide), Altered States (with guitarist Uchihashi Kazuhisa), Rovo (with violinist Yuji Katsui, former ...

The duo of acclaimed Swedish improvisers pianist Lisa Ullén and double bassist Nina de Heney, winner of the Swedish radio prize Jazzkatten for 2012 as the musician of the year, has been active now for more than four years and was documented on the remarkable double album Carve (LJ Records, 2009). Ullén and de Heney managed ...

Since its inaugural release in 2006, the Swiss Insubordinations label and net label has issued over sixty albums, dedicated to improvised and/or electroacoustic music, as free-of-charge downloads and as limited editions on CD or CDr. Refreshingly, all Insubordinations releases remain fully downloadable under creative commons license.

If that were not enough, Insubordinations is also an association ...

The first months of 2013 saw the emergence of two fascinating and innovative guitar albums by two very different musicians who, nevertheless, share a strong European sensibility. Marcos Pin Factor E-Reset Barbanza Free Code Jazz Records 2013 Galician guitarist and composer Marcos Pin has undertaken a daring project with Barbanza, his first recording ...

Electroacoustic improvisation is surely one of the most exciting fronts in twenty-first century music. Each time there's a digital innovation, this music innovates as well, which means that the changes are coming fast and thick. It's an explosion, really. For devotees of this music, as well as anyone who is curious about these new sounds, the ...