Jazz Articles

Evan Parker / Wes Neal / Joe Sorbara: At Somewhere There

by Mark Corroto
January 21, 2012

Why, you might ask, does Evan Parker perform free jazz in trio, a format more identified with rhythm-based jazz? The answer is quite evident on At Somewhere There, a 40-minute improvisational interaction with two new partners.This trio's rhythm is supplanted by energy, animation, and a certain verve; but then, Parker has been at this for many years. Beginning with late-1960s noisy free jazz, he has developed his own language of saxophone virtuosity that includes circular breathing and extended ...

Tania Gill: Bolger Station

by Mark Corroto
May 14, 2011

a recording that sounds uncomplicated and effortless might actually be a more difficult task than presenting an impenetrable maze of writing and arrangements. Pianist/composer Tania Gill does just that with Bolger Station, an unadorned minor classic that gets stuck in the heart, while tugging at the soul. Gill's music has an uncluttered yet sometimes quirky style, one that can echo Thelonious Monk, as heard on “Magpie," a fitful angular romp that she shares with the expressive trumpeter Lina ...

William Parker: At Somewhere There

by Mark Corroto
March 31, 2010

Bassist William Parker's music reveals the ever presence of two things: energy and color. Sure, a band's timekeeper is also its dynamo, but Parker's music has always radiated more than pulse. His playing gives off a spiritual vibration that translates easily into color fields.

He is a human mood ring.

This live recording, from July 2008 in Toronto, comprises one long (48 minute) bass solo and two shortish pieces for dousn'gouni and double flute.

The bassist keeps a busy schedule ...

Saint Dirt Elementary School: Ice Cream Man Dreams

by Mark Corroto
September 1, 2009

Somewhere, Tom Waits is smiling. His vision of the amalgamation of the cabaret, circus and hipster is fully realized in the small big band known as Saint Dirt Elementary School on Ice Cream Man Dreams. The title track rolls in as a squeaky child's song of twisted sentiments and wonky melody. Its circus mayhem is subterfuge for some top-shelf music making.

The nine-piece ensemble realizes composer/guitarist Myk Freedman's writing with ease. Like a Raymond Scott title, the seemingly ...

Anthony Braxton / Kyle Brenders: Toronto (duets) 2007

by Mark Corroto
February 24, 2009

Want more Anthony Braxton Ghost Trance Music (GTM)? Yes please. Following recent releases of 12+1tet's 9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006 (Firehouse 12, 2007), Nine Compositions (DVD) 2003 (Rastascan, 2008) and Quartet (GTM) 2006 (Important, 2008), this two-disc outing of GTM is paired down to simply (is anything ever simple with Braxton?) saxophone duets.

Fans of Braxton and his GTM surely will recognize the format. For the uninitiated, paraphrasing Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's characterization of pornography fits best: “I shall not ...