Articles by Chris Mosey
Carsten Dahl: Painting Music
by Chris Mosey
Danish pianist Carsten Dahl uses the liner notes for Painting Music to try to explain the process of creation. “The universe has a sound and rhythm," he says. “Everything moves forward, either powerful and explosive or modest and like slow shadows in a landscape." The words accompany a picture of Dahl with paint-stained fingers, grinning impishly. “The energy which urges me into an artistic unfolding is the power of the universe," he says, “I am painted or ...
Continue ReadingAnna Greta Siguroardottir - Max Schultz: Brighter
by Chris Mosey
An album of moods, in which light, lilting, melodic passages are contrasted with dissonance, Max Schultz's authorative guitar generally lightens things up while Joakim Milder's saxophone signals a plunge into neurotic introspection. All this tends to drown out Icelandic pianist Anna Greta Siguroardottir's gentle musings on piano. It sounds as if they just met, but in fact Schultz and Siguroardottir first began playing together in 2015 after a stint in Hakan Brostrom's New Places Orchestra. For this ...
Continue ReadingKirk Whalum: Humanité
by Chris Mosey
The saxophone solo on Whitney Houston's “I Will Always Love You" was the work of Kirk Whalum. He played too at the memorial concert for African American astronaut Ronald McNair, killed when the space shuttle Challenger blew up during take-off in January 1986. He's no great shakes as a vocalist but Humanité features guest appearances in this department by the likes of Brendan Reilly, Robyn Troop, Mi Casa, Afgan, Liane Carroll, Andrea Lisa, Zahara and Keiko Matsui. ...
Continue ReadingThe Soul Rebels: Poetry In Motion
by Chris Mosey
The Soul Rebels is an eight-piece, New Orleans brass ensemble that employs elements of soul, jazz, funk, hip-hop, rock and pop. The group has been described by the Village Voice as “the missing link between Public Enemy and Louis Armstrong." The band aims to provoke. The title of this album derives from a ghastly 1960s pop song by Johnny Tillotson, and one of the band's best remembered gigs is one they played with the Californian thrash metal ...
Continue ReadingErroll Garner: Octave Remastered Series
by Chris Mosey
In 1958 jazz pianist Erroll Garner became embroiled in a bitter legal battle with Columbia Records over money and the fact that the company had released an album of his early work against his wishes. He cancelled his contract with the company and started recording instead for his own label, Octave, making up on lost income by tours of Europe. During the last 18 years of his career Garner recorded a total of 12 albums for Octave. ...
Continue ReadingPetter Bergander Trio: Kierkegaard's Waltz
by Chris Mosey
The honouring in popular song of Sören Kierkegaard, author of “The Sickness Unto Death" and other light works has been a long time coming. To be exact, we've waited since his death in 1855 for this moment. “Heidegger's Boogie" and “The Schopenhauer Rag" must surely follow. The curious thing is that Kierkegaard's Waltz is an album of really quite soothing music which, on the face of it, would seem to bear little resemblance to the philosophical musings of the chap ...
Continue ReadingVivian Buczek: A Woman's Voice
by Chris Mosey
An ambitious project from Sweden: vocalist Vivian Buczek joining forces with the Norrbotten Big Band using song to illustrate life from a woman's perspective. Buczek says: “It's about taking the step from a girl to a woman, looking back in time and then to the future, finding my place in the world and daring to go my own way." With this album she celebrates some of her main sources of inspiration, artists who have made a lasting ...
Continue ReadingMichel Camilo: Essence
by Chris Mosey
Michel Camilo is a virtuoso pianist who mixes jazz, Latin and classical. Playing as part of a trio, he is famous for hitting the listener with a constant barrage of technique as dazzling as it is tiring. Fortunately, the big band format of Essence puts the lid on such displays. The album forms a retrospective on Camilo's career. It opens with “And Sammy Walked In" from the maestro's 1989 album On Fire. It is dedicated to Sammy ...
Continue ReadingRanky Tanky: Good Time
by Chris Mosey
Why change a winning formula? Ranky Tanky's follow-up to their hit debut album takes things further in the same vein: a heady mix of gospel and traditional Gullah songs from the Sea Islands of South Carolina, laced with original music and lyrics. The emphasis this time is on a pounding beat generated by the electric guitar of lone white man Clay Ross and the drumming of Quentin Baxter. Much of the music, especially “Pay Me My Money ...
Continue ReadingSoren Bebe: Echoes
by Chris Mosey
Danish pianist Søren Bebe plays a melancholy, minimalistic music almost shorn of rhythm. It is gentle and flowing and easy to get lost in. When one of his pieces ends, it can be like waking from a dream. “But is it jazz?" The jury is still out on that one and will be for some time to come. Bebe's music is certainly in the tradition of Esbjørn Svensson and Tord Gustavsen, who were eventually, albeit perhaps unwillingly, ...
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