Articles by Geno Thackara
Seamus O'Muinechain's Worlds of Sound
by Geno Thackara
We all know how the world is, unfortunately, full of people who talk endlessly while saying nothing. More rare and refreshing are the opposite kind, who can speak very little and yet still say a whole lot with a few words. With an evocative sound somewhere between folky and quasi-ambient, pianist Seamus O'Muineachain is like the unassuming dinner guest who never needs to clamor to be heard, but can chip in a keen insight when a little space opens up. ...
Continue ReadingScary Pockets & Frankfurt Radio Big Band: Sweet Child O' Mine
by Geno Thackara
Take a quirky group that specializes in cleverly funkified pop and rock covers with a rotation of top-shelf guest stars. On top of the novelty and fun factor, what's a nice way to elevate the recipe another step? Sharing the live experience with a big brassy band may be their best answer to date. ...
Continue ReadingTheo Travis: The Relegation of Pluto
by Geno Thackara
If Theo Travis's Double Talk has a particular strong suit, it's quadruple talk. They excel at moody atmospheres (see the odd guest appearance by Robert Fripp), but are just as happy to roll through a flat-out fusion jam--the kind that even makes it worth putting up with some mid-aughts video quality. ...
Continue ReadingFergus McCreadie: The Shieling
by Geno Thackara
Music themed around landscapes and natural beauty is common enough, but it is much more rare for the sheer wildness of nature to come through as much as it does for the Fergus McCreadie Trio. His evolving niche of folk-jazz seems to lean a bit more toward the folky side of that equation with every outing--hearing these hands caper across the piano keys is like watching a wide-screen film camera sweeping across a rugged stretch of hills splashed in sunlight. ...
Continue ReadingPat Metheny & Brad Mehldau: Summer Day
by Geno Thackara
"Summer" is a frequent shorthand for “loud and bright," but the span of the day can include a whole lot of tones more subtle and colorful. This is the scene Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau paint on this highlight of their mostly-duo debut recording (Nonesuch Records, 2006), weaving a broad palette of tones like a sky changing colors at sunset. ...
Continue ReadingBack Door: Vienna Breakdown: The Recordings 1971-1976
by Geno Thackara
It was a whole different world back then, me lad. A person could not simply plug in a couple gizmos and record an album in their bedroom--well, not a very good-sounding one at any rate. It was fairly rare for an early-'70s combo to wing it on their own (or at least with a friendly venue owner's help) without company or label support. Those who know the name Back Door, though, know that their whole career was practically built on ...
Continue ReadingGoGo Penguin: Necessary Fictions
by Geno Thackara
What exactly is the entity known as GoGo Penguin? After several recordings developing a niche they call “acoustic electronica"--an amorphous recipe of rock-and techno-oriented hooks played on jazz instruments in real time--one might have thought we had the answer to that question with the eponymous GoGo Penguin (Blue Note, 2020). Like many self-titled albums, it made a clear statement of identity with a defining sound. Then again, it was soon followed by a companion remix album (Blue Note, 2021) of ...
Continue ReadingTrey Anastasio: The 5th Round
by Geno Thackara
Merely keeping up with Trey Anastasio's work in all its contexts would practically be a full-time job. It would be easy to miss the fact that his solo catalogue includes an instrumental big-band-funk album--nestled in between an eclectic guitar-rocker and a work for orchestra, naturally enough--but this stomping ten-piece combo is just too much fun to overlook. ...
Continue ReadingThe Counterfictionals: An Incomplete Encyclopedia of Gentle Emotions
by Geno Thackara
Any hardcore film buff will tell you that plot is not really what is important--or as the estimable critic Roger Ebert often said, the thing is “not what a movie is about, it's how it is about it." This is a lesson Kristoffer Rosing-Schow and The Counterfictionals have indeed taken to heart. Their pieces are mostly modeled after inspirations from the world of cinema, but those specific sources are only jumping-off spots. The point of each piece is not which ...
Continue ReadingSnowpoet (Lauren Kinsella & Chris Hyson): Heartstrings
by Geno Thackara
If the soul of a poet is determined to follow the muse anywhere, that means being ready to accept some emotional ups and downs--or if not always ready, then willing to take the ride anyway. Wordsmith Lauren Kinsella and sonic craftsman Chris Hyson have certainly taken their share of creative swings under the Snowpoet name, crossing her emotive musings with his instrumental backing of experimental-electro-chamber-folk. It makes for a colorful and often whimsical melange, like an exhibit of impressionist paintings ...
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