Articles by John Pietaro
Mac Gollehon: The End is the Beginning
by John Pietaro
From the opening moments of “As Your World Burns," Mac Gollehon's music embraces not simply the underground, but the underside. This collection of fleeting, gripping brass and dense atmosphere amounts to the lost score for the '70s-'80s noir film we've longed for, as nasty in its perfection as was the Manhattan of those years. Gollehon's trumpet soars above the fray, offering a mind's eye view of urban decay, violent crime, and rooftop fisticuffs in the cold light of day or ...
Continue ReadingJohn Pietaro's Best In Jazz And New Music 2021
by John Pietaro
This year in which we celebrated the return of live performance and simultaneously foresaw a rise in virus numbers and the resumption of show and venue closings, the pervasive issue remains on the anti-vax know-nothings affecting the lives of the careful, caring and compliant. Health regs and advisories as simple as getting a lifesaving vaccine are not too much to ask for, yet conservative talking heads retain their manipulative stronghold over the frightened Right, conveniently confounding vaccine mandates as anti-liberty. ...
Continue ReadingThe New Muse 4Tet: Blue Lotus
by John Pietaro
The New Muse 4Tet, led by violinist/violist Gwen Laster, is a post-modern, plain-speakng incarnation of the string quartet, augmented by tabla and voice. Laster has engaged in a series of such ensembles and has also served well under the leaderships of Wadada Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, the Sun Ra Arkestra, William Parker, Danny Elfman and others. She has also featured as soloist with R&B performers including Aretha Franklin, Nona Hendryx, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Lopez and Rhianna, as well as Shakira ...
Continue ReadingShelley Hirsch: Back with a Vengeance
by John Pietaro
It took Brooklyn's Roulette performance space to break COVID-19's hold on Shelley Hirsch. Now, it seems there'll be no stopping her. The vocal acrobat, poet and performance artist was a new music original long before “downtown" moved across the East River. An original member of the avant rock band The Public Servants, Hirsch also worked her way through fringe arts circles in San Francisco and then Europe before returning to her native ground in New York City. Arriving ...
Continue ReadingSteve Swell: Astonishments
by John Pietaro
Among the trombonists of New York's downtown scene, or uptown for that matter, no one even comes close to Steve Swell. His level of artistry, ability to create within any sonic cloud, compositional strengths and sheer fortitude set a new standard decades ago. Deemed a veteran of the new music that tore up the 1970s and '80s, Swell has, too, been a tireless voice within new millennial jazz and free circles. The music industry has never acknowledged the music of ...
Continue ReadingTower of Power: 50 Years of Funk and Soul
by John Pietaro
In the realm of power funk and jazz-rock, Tower of Power was an original voice, one carved from a unique place within an exceptionally heady moment. And this convergence of forces, clearly, has yet to cool some 53 years hence. Horns? They've carried up to six at a time, to hell with diminished door splits. A big band of scorching funk, Tower of Power traces its roots to 1968 Oakland, where it flourished in a thicket of sound ...
Continue ReadingAllison Miller: Driving the Balance
by John Pietaro
Allison Miller sits at the vintage Camco drumkit in her Brooklyn home, playing post-bop over a rolling samba. Within the shimmer of an age-darkened cymbal, she switches from sticks to brushes, filling the room with the shush of summer rain, then a sudden hailstorm as her arms, aerial, traverse snare, tom-toms and cymbals in a blurring, but loving assault. Just a release of Covid fallout frustration? Maybe for some, but Miller remains unstoppable: this time also marks the rising of ...
Continue ReadingJohn Pietaro's "Test" Of 2020
by John Pietaro
It would be a fool's errand in a covid-damaged society to attempt a peaceably gathered year's end “Best of" list, in jazz or any other genre or medium. But artists of jazz and all avant gardes have been especially susceptible to the considerable financial ebbing and health concerns of this period. Discussing this concept with my wife (and best critic) Laurie, I was caught by her knowing response: “It's not so much a Best of," she said, “but a TEST ...
Continue ReadingChicago Soul Jazz Collective: It Takes a Spark to Start a Fire
by John Pietaro
Solace. Listening to classic 1960s soul-jazz as an escape from today's stresses united the musicians who founded the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective. Many of us know of that comfort, the one carried by a cursory view of nostalgia. But don't look too close. Tenor saxophonist John Fournier and trumpet player Marques Carroll built a band on this foundation, exploring the canon. Their sophomore effort is an album of urban tinder and smoke signals, recorded on vintage equipment. The final product ...
Continue ReadingRaul Midon: Flamenco’s Fire Into The Cool
by John Pietaro
Leaning into the tenacious chordal structure of “Bad Ass and Blind," Raul Midon's surging flurries, stinging dyads and whirling solos over nylon strings speak with artful determination. His vocals and guitar in aerial unison can be intoxicating. In his voice one hears terse vibrato, a searching, spiritual tone and the strain of hardship. Celebrated. For the concertgoer recognizing that the artist on stage—who also does uncanny 'trumpet' vocalizations and plays hand drums--is sightless, the experience becomes awe-inspiring. “There's not a ...
Continue Reading
