Articles by Mike Jurkovic
Craig Taborn / Nels Cline / Marcus Gilmore: Trio Of Bloom
by Mike Jurkovic
Maelstroms come and maelstroms go, but the maelstrom generated by a pumped-up Marcus Gilmore on Ronald Shannon Jackson's “Nightwhistlers," the concussive kicker that jump-starts Trio of Bloom, holds its storm-warning, jazz-rocking, course. That guitarist Nels Cline--cranked by the spirit of Jimi Hendrix via Bill Frisell circa late '87; and keyboardist Craig Taborn (himself a modern acolyte of Horace Silver and John Cage) add their key signatures makes for a hell of an opener. One not soon forgotten. Taborn's ...
Continue ReadingThe Brighton Beat: Victory At Last
by Mike Jurkovic
For the musically uninitiated and socially marooned, there is a perpetual sense of danceable immediacy to the big, fun Brighton Beat sound. The exact reason for that is that, at any moment--no, make that every moment--there is the potential to shake-your-money-maker around the moon and back again. Measure by measure by measure, the dance floor is going to get worn down to the studs. It is truly liberating. Utilizing a far greater freedom to enlist the studio as ...
Continue ReadingYosef Gutman Levitt: Shir Yedidot
by Mike Jurkovic
There is a restive, Christmas-time sound of new hope and expectations running throughout Shir Yedidot that is hard to fathom at first, given that the repertoire moves effortlessly from Chabad nigunim (Hasidic wordless melodies) into original compositions. It is as if the gifted trio--leader/bassist Yosef Gutman Levitt, pianist and ECM recording artist Yonathan Avishai (Joys and Solitudes, 2019; with trumpeter Avishai Cohen Playing The Room, 2019) and oudist Yagel Haroush. Haroush also adds depth and texture playing the kamancheh (Persian ...
Continue ReadingIvo Perelman: Armageddon Flower
by Mike Jurkovic
Ekphrastic by design, Armageddon Flower, the forty-seventh bold, forward-thinking testament pairing saxophonist Ivo Perelman and pianist Matthew Shipp is the duo's new zenith in a tireless exploration dating back nearly thirty years. It is another view from the pinnacle of their brotherhood that includes such watermark recordings as the symbiotic Live In Nuremberg (SMP, 2019), Fruition (ESP, 2022), Magical Incantations (Soul City Sounds, 2024) and the fanciful, Brazilian flavored Bendito of Santa Cruz (Cadence, 1996) which started it all.
Continue ReadingGonzalo Rubalcaba, Chris Potter, Larry Grenadier & Eric Harland: First Meeting: Live at Dizzy’s Club
by Mike Jurkovic
Let us not beat around the bush or obfuscate the obvious: First Meeting: Live at Dizzy's Club is as sweet a listen anyone can wish for or expect as simpatico luminaries--pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, saxophonist Chris Potter, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Eric Harland--take to Dizzy's stage. And command it, but not with a heavy hand or selfish aspirations. A dazzling portent, First Meeting: Live at Dizzy's Club opens all the doors and windows facing Columbus Circle and lets a most ...
Continue ReadingDave Liebman / Billy Hart / Adam Rudolph: Beingness
by Mike Jurkovic
There is something very other-worldly about Beingness. It runs on some taut meta-rhythms, courtesy of NEA Jazz Master, drummer Billy Hart, who hangs loose and fearless with award-winning, world music percussionist/composer Adam Rudolph. It sounds like free-falling. But not in a monochromatic death plunge. No, this is more a sure glide, like a leaf flirting across Bleecker in a new October, westbound breeze. A master class in hypnotic and collaborative invention, Beingness--Hart, Rudolph, and Hart's fellow NEA Jazz ...
Continue ReadingAnthony Braxton: Quartet (England) 1985
by Mike Jurkovic
Though Leo Records has previously documented Quartet (London) 1985 (1988); Quartet (Birmingham) 1985 (1991); and Quartet (Coventry) 1985 (1993), Burning Ambulance Music is proud to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the tour with this set of previously unreleased recordings from Liverpool, Sheffield, Leicester, Bristol, Southampton, Leeds, and Huddersfield. Set to be digitally released exclusively on Bandcamp on what would have been Braxton's 80th birthday, (June 4, 2025), Quartet England (1985) is an unhinged glory from start to finish.
Continue ReadingMary Halvorson: About Ghosts
by Mike Jurkovic
It has become more than an urban legend that Brooklyn's genius-in-residence Mary Halvorson is supernaturally up to something. Some new route around something else. On her second resiliency test of the year--her first, the fiery Bone Bells (Pyroclastic, 2025) alongside hot-house pianist Sylvie Courvoisier still rattles the playlist--Halvorson's About Ghosts tells of wide open spaces with a wide open lens. Its intricate inner architecture is so comfortably ethereal that you sway freely within its charm and frenzy. About ...
Continue ReadingKeith Jarrett: New Vienna
by Mike Jurkovic
What accolade has not been heaped upon the eighty-year-old Keith Jarrett and the music he has bestowed upon the world? So, without embarrassing and overbearing hyperbole, New Vienna is another of those very special recordings Jarrett sculpts from silence with an integral artistry and frequency that, some fifty-odd years after he began this solo journey, still stuns greater minds. Recorded live in July of 2016 at Austria's storied Musikverein (home of the Vienna Philharmonic and the main stage ...
Continue ReadingJoe Fonda: Joe Fonda & Bass Of Operation
by Mike Jurkovic
Only bassist /composer Joe Fonda--who cut his teeth and honed his humor in the company and camaraderie of such global visionaries as Wadada Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, Barry Altschul, Paul Bley, and Annette Peacock-- can stand defiantly at the epicenter of a free jazz and classical quartet and ease the ensemble through either door with the deceptively sly and boozy opener “Deja Vu for DC." It whirls. It twirls. It is a whole lot of fun and a particularly ...
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