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Jazz Articles about Kyoko Kitamura
Cory Smythe: Accelerate Every Voice
by Alberto Bazzurro
Un vivace, originale intreccio di voci, diremmo più di matrice contemporanea che strettamente jazzistica (questa costola respira semmai soprattutto nel pianismo del leader Cory Smythe), anima questo stimolante lavoro, in cui anche l'elettronica gioca un suo ruolo, per quanto discreto. Lo compongono otto apprezzabilissimi brani brevi (il più lungo supera di poco i cinque minuti) e uno, invece, molto ampio (diciannove), logorroico e dispersivo, che purtroppo deturpa e disperde in buona parte quanto di buono, spesso di ottimo, lo precede, ...
read moreWilliam Parker: Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World
by Karl Ackermann
If multi-instrumentalist/composer William Parker's ten-CD Migration Of Silence Into And Out Of The Tone World suggests a cohesive, high concept plan, it is something more. The beautifully packaged clamshell box set is comprised of mutually exclusive projectsone dating back ten yearswith some common themes. There is an overall dedication of the music to all people of the world who are searching for freedom...." Pandemic downtime resulted in Parker's accumulating enough material for many of these albums. Viewed as a whole, ...
read moreWilliam Parker: Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World
by Giuseppe Segala
L'attività musicale di William Parker è stata copiosamente documentata da circa centocinquanta dischi, che spaziano in un caleidocopio di gruppi fondati dallo stesso contrabbassista, formazioni cooperative, omaggi, collaborazioni. Ma nessun singolo lavoro, fino a questo momento, aveva focalizzato l'attenzione su un ventaglio di ispirazioni così ampio e completo come si fa ora nei dieci CD del cofanetto The Music of William ParkerMigration of Silence Into and Out of The Tone World. In questo lavoro monumentale, che viene ...
read moreRuss Lossing: Traces: Two Song Cycles
by Mark Corroto
There is an HBO television series, A World of Calm, which delivers thirty-minute vignettes on subjects from trees to snowfall to the vastness of the universe. The unhurried series is designed to elicit restfulness while at the same time provoking deep concentration. The same can be said of Traces, a quartet project by pianist Russ Lossing. Lossing is probably best known as a former sideman to the late drummer Paul Motian, plus he has series of recordings on ...
read moreCory Smythe: Accelerate Every Voice
by Karl Ackermann
Pianist/electronics artist/composer Cory Smythe's Pyroclastic Records debut Circulate Susanna (2018) was a tongue-in-cheek attribution to the inspiration of a fictional event. He returns to the Kris Davis run label with the intriguing, socially-conscious and genre-less Accelerate Every Voice. Inspired by an assortment of sources: Andrew Hill's Lift Every Voice (Blue Note, 1970), the work of Harlem Renaissance poet and early NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, and the a cappella art form and its sociological duality. Smythe is an ...
read moreKyoko Kitamura's Tidepool Fauna: Protean Labyrinth
by John Sharpe
For her second leadership outing following Armadillo In Sunset Park (self produced, 2012), vocalist Kyoko Kitamura assembles a group which she calls Tidepool Fauna. And giving the group an identity seems entirely appropriate as what they create is very much an ensemble music. That's made all the easier by having such accomplished talents as saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and bassist Ken Filiano on board, and drummer Dayeon Seok confirms that she is at home in such company too. Kitamura herself might ...
read moreTake Five With Kyoko Kitamura
by Kyoko Kitamura
Meet Kyoko Kitamura: A former journalist with childhood piano training at Juilliard Pre-College and a stint as a one-time war reporter on her résumé, Kyoko Kitamura is an oddball vocal improviser and composer who has performed and/or recorded with many distinguished musicians including Anthony Braxton, Reggie Workman, Steve Coleman, Jim Staley and Taylor Ho Bynum. Recently, she appears on Trillium E (New Braxton House 2011), the first ever studio-recording of an Anthony Braxton opera, and released her first ...
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