Articles by Troy Dostert
Rasmus Kjær: Underlake
by Troy Dostert
Although he is based in Copenhagen, pianist/keyboardist Rasmus Kjær's travel to Lake Geneva in Switzerland in 2023 inspired Underlake. The set is a series of pieces united in their evocation of water in its various manifestations. For a restless musician whose many projects include Orgelimprovisationer (Lydhør, 2015), a solo organ recording, and Turist (Wetwear, 2019), a synth-based mélange of world music styles, Underlake represents a return to form, as his austere piano merges with the subtle hues provided by his ...
Continue ReadingLina Allemano Four: The Diptychs
by Troy Dostert
Maintaining its biennial release pattern going back to 2021's Vegetables (Lumo Records) and 2023's Pipe Dream (Lumo Records), The Lina Allemano Four once again strikes gold with The Diptychs, another of the group's ventures into its signature territory. With artful, multilayered themes that generate nuanced four-way dialogues, this is music born of the close collaboration that trumpeter Allemano has long championed, and her most accomplished working band is once again in top form. Built around six relatively compact ...
Continue ReadingPatricia Brennan: Of the Near and Far
by Troy Dostert
Not one to rest on her laurels, vibraphonist/marimbist Patricia Brennan has continued to challenge herself and her listeners with each stop in the studio. Her tireless dedication to her craft is undoubtedly one of the reasons for her meteoric rise in the creative jazz community, which could be charted particularly after 2021 when she released her propitious solo disc, Maquishti (Valley of Search) . Since then she has had barely a moment's pause, with More Touch (Pyroclastic) coming in 2022 ...
Continue ReadingAidan Plank and Garrett Folger: DUO
by Troy Dostert
Having demonstrated his empathetic instincts on the self produced Horizon, his trio release with pianist Anthony Fuoco and drummer Carmen Castaldi in early 2025, Garrett Folger now applies his finely-honed skills on trumpet and flugelhorn to Duo, a freely-improvised date with a fellow Clevelander, bassist Aidan Plank. And although the format does differ from the carefully constructed pieces on the former disc, the results are no less stimulating, with a broad range of exploratory possibilities that reveal yet another dimension ...
Continue ReadingJim Witzel Quartet: Very Early (Remembering Bill Evans)
by Troy Dostert
While tributes to pianist Bill Evans have certainly not been in short supply over the years, he has unsurprisingly been given far more attention by pianists than from other instrumentalists. Efforts from guitarists have been particularly rare. There are some noteworthy exceptions: John McLaughlin took a stab at it in 1993 with Time Remembered (Verve) alongside three other guitarists, for example, and John Abercrombie worked with pianist Andy LaVerne on Timeline (Steeplechase, 2003) in an homage to Undercurrent (Blue Note, ...
Continue ReadingNed Rothenberg: Looms & Legends
by Troy Dostert
Solo recordings, at least when they feature instruments other than piano or guitar, can be a challenge even for the most committed jazz listeners. The excitement generated by the dialogue of multiple instrumentalists is, of course, missing, and even the most talented artists can have trouble sustaining one's interest for an entire album. Such releases can be rather rewarding, however, when the musician in question has either astonishing technique or compelling emotional substance--or both, as is evident on multi-instrumentalist Ned ...
Continue ReadingJuanjo López: Above, Beyond, Within
by Troy Dostert
In our troubling national moment of intensified nativism and ethnic fearmongering, it can be edifying to encounter the stories of people whose lives are directly affected by the current climate. One of them is Juanjo López, a guitarist now well-established in the Chicago scene but who came years ago to the United States with his family from Mexico. His story, reflected in his second release, Above, Beyond, Within, is about much more than geographic relocation, however. There is a strong ...
Continue ReadingRodrigo Amado / Chris Corsano: The Healing
by Troy Dostert
Among recent partnerships in free improvisation, the saxophone/drum tandem of Rodrigo Amado and Chris Corsano has been one of the most dynamic and incendiary. They have joined forces in one form or another since the early 2010s; the recording which first put them on the map was their effort with Joe McPhee and Kent Kessler, the widely-celebrated This Is Our Language (Not Two Records). They continued this fruitful project with equally stirring results on A History of Nothing (Trost, 2018) ...
Continue ReadingJake Baldwin: Vanishing Point
by Troy Dostert
Trumpeter Jake Baldwin has been an important presence in the Minneapolis jazz scene since the early 2010s, known especially for a stylistic breadth that can cover the gamut from conventional post-bop fare to rock-inflected fusion. On Vanishing Point, his fourth release for Shifting Paradigm Records, he digs deeper into the latter mode, making good use of a strong band to support a set of infectious, edgy, melody-driven excursions. The album crackles with energy from the outset, as the ...
Continue ReadingAmina Claudine Myers: Solace of the Mind
by Troy Dostert
One of the under-heralded legends of the jazz avant-garde, keyboardist Amina Claudine Myers is finally getting her due. An early member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in the mid-1960s, her efforts were sometimes overshadowed by outsized colleagues such as Muhal Richard Abrams, Lester Bowie, or Henry Threadgill. But recent years have provided an opportunity to reassess her standing in the jazz canon. In 2024, Myers was a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, and ...
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