Articles by Don Ball

Album Review

Mali Obomsawin: Automatic

by Don Ball
October 24, 2026

The cover of Mali Obomsawin's Automatic finds her in a room surrounded by cultural influences such as her bass and traditional ash basket splints and revolutionary artifacts like Marxist literature, grenades, and the Mohawk Warrior Society flag. A provocative cover for a provocative album where Obomsawin pulls together a rich musical tapestry that is difficult to define or label but which is wildly compelling to listen to. Obomsawin, a citizen of the Odanak community of Abenaki Nation in ...

Album Review

Alessandro Florio: Controra Avenue

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by Don Ball
September 23, 2026

Jazz organ trios tend toward a funky, nitty-gritty sound, like a night out at a juke joint in Mississippi. Italian guitarist Alessandro Florio presents a different approach, much like lazing away on a warm, sunny day at a Mediterranean beach. Not that he cannot bring the groove when he wants, but Florio's album lives up to its name of an imaginary street in New York City that reflects the time after lunch, “controra" in Italian, when the sun is the ...

Album Review

Steve Rawlins: Word on the Street

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by Don Ball
September 6, 2026

Steve Rawlins has been known as more of a behind-the-scenes kind of guy than a band's frontman for the past few decades, but that may be changing with his release Word on the Street. Rawlins is accredited for his work as an arranger and musical director for artists such as Smokey Robinson, Bette Midler, and Chaka Khan, as well as for television programs such as The Merv Griffin Show, The John Davidson Show, and Academy Award and Emmy Award ceremonies. ...

Album Review

Charles Downs: Inner

by Don Ball
August 20, 2026

It has been a long time coming for Charles Downs' debut recording as a leader. He began his career in the 1970s playing as Rashid Bakr with the likes of Cecil Taylor, Jemeel Moondoc, William Parker and others before reverting to his birth name in the new century. Since then, he has performed as part of the Flow Trio with Joe Morris and Louis Belogenis, as well as playing with Larry Ochs, Joe McPhee, and Peter Brötzmann, among others. At ...

Album Review

Pascal Niggenkemper: D'une rive à l'autre

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by Don Ball
August 14, 2026

Tuvalu is a tiny Western Pacific island nation with a rich cultural life, but it may not be around much longer. From the consequences of climate change, scientists expect that Turvalu will be uninhabitable in a few decades, taken back by the rising ocean. And that's why bassist/composer Pascal Niggenkemper wants you to know about it before it disappears altogether. Niggenkemper put together Ensemble Tuvalu to express artistically how we deal with the loss of habitats and cultures ...

Album Review

Mike Caudill: Caught at Dusk

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by Don Ball
July 4, 2026

Mike Caudill acquits himself well on his first trio recording as a leader, Caught at Dusk. The saxophone/bass/drums trio has been all but a rite of passage for young saxophonists ever since Sonny Rollins released his trio recordings, Way Out West (Contemporary Records,1957) and A Night at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note Records,1958). It is a tricky configuration, with no chordal instrument, like a piano or guitar, for support. That allows unprecedented freedom to play outside the chords, but requires ...

Album Review

Janel Leppin: Ensemble Volcanic Ash: Pluto In Aquarius

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by Don Ball
June 24, 2026

Janel Leppin's title choice for her 2026 Ensemble Volcanic Ash (EVA) recording gives a hint of what kind of music to expect. Pluto being in Aquarius is a momentous sign, one of change and tension, and lasts 20 years (we are currently in one such phase). The last time Pluto was in Aquarius was 1777 to 1798--during the American and French Revolutions. Whether you believe in the astronomy or not, the Pluto in Aquarius is certainly bursting with tension and ...

Album Review

Filipa Santos ~ Miguel Moreira: Now Swim

by Don Ball
June 13, 2026

Atmospheric does not begin to describe Filipa Santos and Miguel Moreira's recording Now Swim. The music emits from another dimension, a soundtrack from the bottom of the ocean: exotic and dense, weird and abrasive, soothing and lulling, often simultaneously. Santos' saxophone, flute and voice are often unearthly, being manipulated electronically and creating an eerie, ghostly presence. Moreira's guitar and percussion programming vary from providing a deep rhythm to creating a cacophony of noise that explodes in the middle ...

Album Review

How Now Brown Cow: Don't Drink the Milk - It's Spoiled

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by Don Ball
May 27, 2026

Instrumental funk/soul bands are often spurned by the jazz aficionados as less serious than “real" jazz bands, but that would be a mistake with How Now Brown Cow. Despite the playfulness of the band name and song titles, in addition to having a great deal of fun playing, they are serious musicians and this is seriously good music. How Now Brown Cow has played in the Seattle , Washington community for more than a decade, often as a ...

Album Review

Revolutionary Snake Ensemble: Serpentine

by Don Ball
April 16, 2026

Any jazz band, especially a brass band, that is willing and capable of taking on the erratic rhythms and wild fluctuations of a Frank Zappa instrumental is worthy of kudos. And the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble's take of “Son of Mr. Green Genes" on their release Serpentine demonstrates their immense musical capabilities. The group was formed by saxophonist, flautist and composer Ken Field in 1990, and the album documents their performance at the Regattabar in Boston as part of their ...