Jazz Articles

Dino Betti van der Noot: They Cannot Know

by AAJ Staff
April 5, 2023

The last Soul Note album of Dino betti van der Noot (rhymes with note), Here Comes Springtime (SN1149), contained six of his compositions, two of which, the title track and “October's Dream," had seasonal connotations. This time he gives us “Midwinter Sunshine" and “A Midwinter Night's Dream" in a seasonal shift. Whatever the climate of Betti van der Noot's compositions, they are narratives rife with color, ranging from the boldest hues to the most subtle. This is consistent with his ...

Dino Betti van der Noot: Here Comes Springtime

by AAJ Staff
March 7, 2023

There are some musicians whose instrument is the orchestra. They hear multiple voices, textures, harmonic designs. And if they are jazz composers, they hear the sweet and pungent tension between the orchestra and the improvising soloist. If, moreover, they are composers interested in more than self-gratification, they hear, as they write, particular players so that the ultimate scores reflect a range of individual personalities, each of them telling their own stories as well as that of the composer.

Paul Motian: Jack of Clubs

by Dan McClenaghan
December 31, 2013

As a drummer, Paul Motian (1931-2011) came to an early fame from his association with Bill Evans. It was the pianist's 1961 Riverside Records trio albums Waltz for Debby and Sunday at the Village Vanguard that did the trick, shifting the way of the piano trio into the direction of democracy and intricate interplay, also launching Motian's career as a much coveted sideman, with pianists Paul Bley and Keith Jarrett, saxophonist Charles Lloyd and bassist Charlie Haden--a list that just ...

Zanussi 13: Live

by Mark Corroto
April 7, 2012

Don't let anyone tell you that size doesn't matter. It does. For a large jazz ensemble, size often dictates sound: its suppleness or lack of. This is not a problem for the malleable Zanussi 13. This live recording from a 2001 performance in Oslo displays an unpretentious big band that deals with size by exploiting its forcefulness, but also by not getting caught up in the trappings of size.Norwegian bassist Zanussi was first noted as a member of ...

Nobu Stowe: Confusion Bleue

by Budd Kopman
August 25, 2010

Pianist Nobu Stowe continues developing and honing his quest of “total improvisation" with the marvelous Confusion Bleue. The music hovers within the world of free jazz but almost always contains elements that imply structure, allowing the compositions to feel more or less anchored as time flows by. Stowe's explorations are supported by many of the same musicians from his previous efforts, Hommage an Klaus Kinski (Soul Note, 2007) and the Brooklyn and New York Moments (Konnex, 2006). ...

Roberto Magris and The Europlane Orchestra: Current Views

by Jack Bowers
April 4, 2010

Although barely known here in the States, Italian composer/arranger/pianist Roberto Magris has been making a name for himself in Europe with a number of rewarding enterprises, among which is his Europlane Orchestra, formed in 1998 to embrace musicians from throughout central Europe. On Current Views, Magris's seventh recording for Soul Note Records, the sidemen hail from Italy, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Poland, Hungary, Switzerland, Austria, Croatia and the U.S (even though the lone American, vibraphonist Bill Molenhof, has lived ...

Roberto Magris and The Europlane Orchestra: Current Views

by Raul d'Gama Rose
March 22, 2010

Redefining his relationship with contemporary music. Roberto Magris' Current Views finds the artist in a renewed setting with his Europlane Orchestra, but this time the ensemble is slightly smaller--featuring at any given time, anything from a septet to an octet. The album title suggests new perspectives on Magris' philosophy with regard to the use of sound in music. Here, the pianist/composer uses mainly brass to paint the canvases that soak in the very depths of sound, resonating with bell-like clarity ...

Roberto Magris & The Europlane Orchestra: Current Views

by Edward Blanco
March 7, 2010

Italian pianist Roberto Magris--originally from Trieste--has been a busy artist of late, having both recorded and produced seven albums in the past five years, including Current Views , a selection of live recordings made in Italy from 2001 to 2003. This album finds Magris with The Europlane Orchestra, a group he founded in 1998 as a central European venture and with whom he recorded two previous discs for the Soul Note label. The core Europlane Orchestra is augmented to a ...

Planet Safety: Planet Safety

by Doug Collette
November 23, 2008

Teeming with energy and ideas, eager to learn and anxious to show how they've educated themselves, Planet Safety evinces a healthy respect for the jazz tradition. Significantly, that reverence includes recognition for the masters from whom they learned and who gained their lofty stature--in part, by breaking free of established tradition.

Keyboardist Leo Genovese, bassist Dave Zinno and drummer Bob Gullotti spring into motion on this CD, playing Wayne Shorter's “Pinocchio" with a vigor that distinguishes it as ...

Nobu Stowe: An die Musik

by Budd Kopman
August 16, 2008

Knowledge is hierarchical and contextual, with the need of integrating the new into the old without contradiction. Furthermore, conclusions reached must also be contextual, meaning that they are conditioned by the state of the knowledge from which they are drawn. What does this have to do with pianist Nobu Stowe and An Die Musik? The act of judging an artist's output as good or bad, successful or unsuccessful, which is different than like or dislike, must center ...