http://www.allaboutjazz.com Album Reviews en-us 2013-05-22T00:20:19-06:00 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44583 m: Van Morrison, m: Rory Gallagher, Phil Lynott all brought a raw, bluesy, intensity to their performances. Singer and guitarist Nigel Mooney has been on the Irish blues scene since the '80s and his jazz-inflected take on the genre is shown to enjoyable effect on The Bohemian Mooney...]]> Bruce Lindsay 2013-05-22T00:20:19-06:00 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44556 m: Mat Maneri last appeared on ECM, collaborating with singer m: Robin Williamson on the British traditionalist's exploratory The Iron Stone (2007); even longer since the violist shared a marquee for the German label, on 2004's Angles of Repose, with his now-deceased father, microtonal reed player m: Joe Maneri, and bassist m: Barre Phillips; even longer, still, since he last released an album as a full leader, with his solo recital Trinity (2001). All of which makes Maneri's return to the label for this intimate live recording with pianist Lucian Ban (on his first-ever ECM appearance) something to celebrate...]]> John Kelman 2013-05-22T00:20:10-06:00 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44590 C. Michael Bailey 2013-05-22T00:20:05-06:00 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44510 John Kelman 2013-05-21T00:20:10-06:00 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44580 m: Lisa Young has been a mainstay of the Australian jazz scene for over two decades, whether leading quartets or as a member of Coco's Lunch, the award winning a cappella group she co-founded in the mid-1990s. The Eternal Pulse--her fourth album as leader--marries konnakol with Young's personal take on vocal improvisation in an all-acoustic setting, accompanied by some of Australia's top jazz musicians. Young is undoubtedly in fine voice on these original compositions, her silky vocals earning her a nomination for Best Australian Jazz Vocal Album 2012, in the country's prestigious Bell Awards...]]> Ian Patterson 2013-05-21T00:20:05-06:00 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44584 m: Larry Corban keeps a picture of m: Django Reinhardt (1910-1953) on the wall of his practice room. The Belgium-born Gypsy guitarist/swing pioneer was a master of tripping from single note melodies to crisp chords--and keeping it all swinging in his collaborations with violinist m: Stephane Grappelli...]]> Dan McClenaghan 2013-05-21T00:20:03-06:00 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44578 m: Christian McBride created Inside Straight to get a gig. It seems Village Vanguard owner Lorraine Gordon loved McBride but wouldn't book him with his regular, fusion-heavy outfit--or, as Gordon put it, "that rock 'n' roll band." Necessity is the mother, as they say, so McBride built Inside Straight. The thing is, he might have overreacted a tad, because the group's first release Kind of Brown was pure vanilla from end to end. Thankfully, McBride found the right mix of spices in time for Inside Straight's follow-up People Music...]]> J Hunter 2013-05-20T00:20:17-06:00 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44576 m: Joelle Leandre's At the Le Mans Jazz Festival (Leo, 2005). But when uniting four virtuoso stylists from the European free improvisation scene, it's a near certainty that their paths have crossed many times during their careers...]]> John Sharpe 2013-05-20T00:20:13-06:00 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44579 m: Laszlo Gardony's Clarity is a single, composed on the spot, piano sonata comprising ten movements. The contemplative and intimate music bears marks of his various life experiences, from his classical training in his native Budapest to his career as a jazz educator at Boston's Berklee College of Music...]]> Hrayr Attarian 2013-05-20T00:20:06-06:00 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44570 m: Daniel Bennett Group, is a refreshing album in its originality, positivity, and apparent simplicity. There are many ways in which this is not a typical jazz album. The instrumentation is one of them. Fronted by Daniel Bennett on saxophone and clarinet, a prominent percussion background, folk inspired guitar, and a rumbling upright bass--this album could easily be filed under any number of categories in the record store...]]> Mike Oppenheim 2013-05-20T00:20:04-06:00 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44560 m: Nicole Mitchell has found a supportive outlet in the Paris-based Rogue Art imprint, with her past outings including Anaya (2009), Emerald Hills (2010), The Ethiopian Princess Meets The Tantric Priest (2012) and Arc Of O (2012), and she is the most well-known name on Watershed. However she sits second in the billing below French percussionist m: Denis Fournier who contributes three out of five originals on the 51-minute 2011 concert recording from Junas in southern France. A long-time aficionado of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Music, Fournier first made acquaintance with its members back in 1985 through m: Kahil El Zabar's m: Ethnic Heritage Ensemble. Part of the band at that time was reedman Hanah Jon Taylor, invited by the drummer to join his band here, alongside Mitchell and fellow AACM initiate, cellist m: Tomeka Reid...]]> John Sharpe 2013-05-19T00:20:12-06:00 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44565 m: George Gershwin. It isn't, of course, it's m: Noah Haidu and this is his second album as leader. Any similarities between Haidu and Gershwin end with the shadowy cover shot--Haidu most definitely looks to more contemporary influences for his inspiration...]]> Bruce Lindsay 2013-05-19T00:20:07-06:00 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44566 m: Matthew Sheens became the first Australian to win a Downbeat Magazine Student Award, but that's hardly the only honor that's been bestowed upon this gifted musician. Sheens has been racking up grants, scholarships and awards at a rapid pace, as he moved from the University of Adelaide, where he completed his undergraduate work in 2008, to the New England Conservatory of Music, to pursue a Masters in Jazz Performance, to New York City, where he has resided since 2011...]]> Dan Bilawsky 2013-05-19T00:20:05-06:00 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44564 m: Rich Halley has always had a thick, brassy tone and a bold and daring improvisational approach. Over the years a certain contemplative wisdom has permeated his music enhancing its intellectual edge without tempering its fiery zeal. The result, as demonstrated on Crossing The Passes is a sublime balance of the cerebral and visceral...]]> Hrayr Attarian 2013-05-19T00:20:03-06:00 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44558 m: Darcy James Argue's Secret Society create separate but integrated works of art in the live performance of Brooklyn Babylon, it's challenging to antedate expectations around what may seem to be one part of an equation. However, Argue's release of the suite from Brooklyn Babylon does more than stand up--it is an astonishing, living and breathing creation; as sprawling and vibrant as the sweeping canvas of Zezelj's monolithic Brooklyn Bridge and wrecking ball, beautifully reproduced for the CD's cover...]]> Karl Ackermann 2013-05-18T00:20:14-06:00 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44559 m: Sidsel Endresen may be a singer, but she's far from the norm; saxophonists like FrA y Aagre and m: Hanna Paulsberg are pushing their own jazz boundaries, as is trumpeter m: Gunhild Seim. In the realm of electric guitar, few women play like m: Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen. On Shoot! (Rune Grammofon, 2011), the jazz-schooled guitarist made it crystal clear that fist-pumping, head-banging, ear-shattering instrumental rock music is no longer a purview belonging solely to the males of the species. If anything, Shoot! completely blasted through boundaries of gender and genre for one of the year's absolutely heaviest debuts...]]> John Kelman 2013-05-18T00:20:09-06:00 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44557 Nicholas F. Mondello 2013-05-18T00:20:06-06:00 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44539 m: HA kon Berre, residing in Copenhagen, and Finnish guitarist m: Markus Pesonen-- that aim to break away from the prevailing musical genres and common understanding of their instruments roles and usage. The duo is gifted with reckless energy, imaginary vocabulary and a rebellious, eccentric spirit. The live improvisations embrace all, from blues, alternative, psychedelic-jam rock and progressive rock, African rhythms to noise, guitar heroic blasts and free improvisations. The duo's unconventional sonic spectrum is so dense and detailed that it is hard to acknowledge that only Berre and Pesonen are responsible for the mass of sounds...]]> Eyal Hareuveni 2013-05-18T00:20:04-06:00 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44519 m: Behn Gillece has been steadily releasing music of a similar nature on the Posi-Tone label since its 2009 debut, Full View, hit the shelves. With this, the duo's fourth album, Fowser and Gillece continue along the same path with nary a stylistic sharp turn, yet this one manages to stand out because of one important difference: a third man out front. The three previous recordings were leaders-and-rhythm dates but, with Top Shelf, the group opens the frontline door, inviting trombonist m: Michael Dease to join in...]]> Dan Bilawsky 2013-05-17T00:20:14-06:00 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44546 C. Michael Bailey 2013-05-17T00:20:12-06:00