Articles by Christopher Hoard
Cameron Graves: Planetary Prince
by Christopher Hoard
Cameron Graves' debut recording, Planetary Prince (Mack Avenue) is an original and refreshing “piano jazz" outing. It's horn sextet dynamics provide familiar entry points and references into the musical sphere Graves inhabits as composer, arranger, and performer, but the extreme energy levels and sophisticated ensemble dynamics confidently echo the great bands of the jazz-rock era; perhaps it's no coincidence Graves has been touring with Stanley Clarke's band for the past two years, and has also been an integral presence touring, ...
Continue ReadingMiles Mosley and the West Coast Get Down at the Santa Monica Pier
by Christopher Hoard
Miles Mosley and The West Coast Get Down Twilight Concerts at The Santa Monica Pier Santa Monica, CA September 3, 2015 The West Coast Get Down continues to manifest themselves in myriad versions this year. They've been a fixture for more than a decade in Los Angeles, bringing in standing-room only devotees to small cubs and jazz dive bars--among them their long standing free shows at Hollywood's Piano bar, where they established a successful residencies ...
Continue ReadingMahavishnu Orchestra: The Lost Trident Sessions
by Christopher Hoard
This lost-in-the-vault-for-26-years session represents the near-impossible fusion archivist's dream: to find a complete studio release by the fusion era's seminal band at the very height of the creative powers (and the height of tension between members off the stage). Most musicians and fans who remember the force and tides of change generated by John McLaughlin's greatest ensemble will agree this one was worth the wait. Engineered by 70's production legend, Ken Scott, the tracks and takes have at times a ...
Continue ReadingKeith Jarrett Trio: Tokyo '96
by Christopher Hoard
If you're not yet familiar with the trio dynamics and musical history bestowed on the planet by Keith Jarrett, Jack DeJonette, and Gary Peacock, you probably: a) have zero interest in piano jazz b) remain unenlightened about the beauty jazz can attain as an art form c) like the music but find it difficult to get past spontaneous vocalizations from the pianist, d) are missing out big time, or e) all of the above. Known to many traditional jazz enthusiasts ...
Continue ReadingScott Henderson, Steve Smith, Victor Wooten: Vital Tech Tones
by Christopher Hoard
Perhaps a more spontaneous super-trio gathering of the post-70s fusion generation, Vital Tech Tones finds guitarist Scott Henderson chasing the voodoo down with mercurial bassist Victor Wooten (known for his scintillating slap-style as a member of Bela Fleck's Flecktones), and veteran jazz / stadium rocker, Steve Smith. The trio has assembled a wide ranging, often blues-based arrangement of group compositions / jams, and it proves an engaging showcase for Henderson's extreme talent, both in terms of solos and rhythm work. ...
Continue ReadingNiacin: High Bias
by Christopher Hoard
If you've sensed a shortage of adrenaline and testosterone in the year's new jazz releases, and still yearn for some of that down-to-earth, kick-ass fusion, replete with hyper-athletic chops and afterburner grooves, then wait no longer. Virtuoso fusion projects seem to be out of fashion with large corporate labels bent on milking their vaults with re-issues (seems they've found out there's just more profit when there's no artist development or living musicians involved!).
Fortunately, in the forever fickle record industry, ...
Continue ReadingGlenn Astarita: Resonant Swamp Theory
by Christopher Hoard
Music will never be the same after the dawn of MIDI-and most musicians understand that it was actually MIDI which gave birth to the Internet (well, it might have well have been). Now thousands if not millions of bedroom, garage, and living room studios can give rise to digital creativity, and musicians on a minimal budget can independently record, mix, produce, and master a CD. Thus, in this still dawning musical cyber age it's possible, formidable, and wonderful that musicians ...
Continue ReadingJohn Scofield: A Go Go
by Christopher Hoard
For those of us who found ourselves swept away by the funk and soulful precision of early seventies releases like the Crusaders' Chain Reaction, John Scofield's latest offering will find a grateful audience too long spoon fed and spiritually starved on lush over-productions. A Go-Go gets down to business with no-nonsense production values and grooves. Scofield's strings sing through melodies laden with R&B hooks and southern fried blues, wailing, jibing, taunting, and preaching to us the gospel of urban funk. ...
Continue ReadingGreg Howard: Sol
by Christopher Hoard
It's almost been two decades since the LA band Kittyhawk introduced the 10-stringed Chapman Stick to jazz fusion. For those still uninitiated, the stick was designed on the basis of a revolutionary, string tapping technique positioning the guitar's neck parallel to the musician's body, and approaching the neck with the arms at a perpendicular angle, and then tapping two sets of strings on an electric instrument indepentently. There have been a number of musicians who've now adopted the instrument, primarily ...
Continue ReadingBruford Levin: Upper Extremeties and Black Light Syndrome
by Christopher Hoard
Despite wholesale rejection by the mainstream record industry, the rise of the Internet coupled with independent artist-led labels gave spin-off “prog" bands a renewed lease on their strong market potential and ever growing fan base. During the past five years, “prog culture" has proliferated relentlessly on web-sites and Internet mailing lists, and some labels, such as Tony Levin's Papa Bear Records now offer releases exclusively through mail-order or Internet ordering. Thus the lion's share of album royalties are handed back ...
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