Jazz Articles

Dave Fox: Dedication Suite

by Eddie Becton
April 5, 2006

Although Dedication Suite is reminiscent of New York City's creative improv scene, pianist Dave Fox resides in North Carolina, quite removed from the Big Apple. Where many jazz fans embrace soft melodies and rhythms of the likes of Horace Silver and McCoy Tyner, Fox not only pushes the envelope, he simply ignites it. At times, he pursues subtle harmonies and complex rhythms, and just as you're beginning to settle in, bang!--a completely different direction.

On “Dedication #2: Impromptu," Fox begins ...

Carrie Shull/Tara Flandreau/Reuben Radding: The Branch Will Not Break

by Terrell Kent Holmes
August 27, 2005

The Branch Will Not Break is an impressive collection of musical episodes. To call them songs would be somewhat inaccurate, because they're closer to tone poems or paintings with notes. And this splendid trio--Carrie Shull on oboe and English horn, Tara Flandreau on viola, and Reuben Radding on double bass--is like a collective Jackson Pollock, working on a canvas that barely contains the energy of their ideas.The opening title tune suggests a traditional symphonic warmup, but the conventional ...

Tom & Gerry (Thomas Lehn & Gerry Hemingway): Fire Works

by Glenn Astarita
January 1, 2002

With their second duet outing, Tom (Thomas Lehn) & Gerry (Hemingway) at times, spark notions of those frisky cartoon characters Tom and Jerry, thanks to the artists’ generally animated and altogether good-natured approach.

Once again, Mr. Lehn utilizes his analogue synthesizer for excursions of stark expressionism amid an overall metallic sheen via his shrewdly devised maneuvers. However, Lehn’s permutations breathe new life into the world of analogue electronics! Here, sine waves, modulation techniques, and abstractly devised waveforms counterbalance drummer/percussionist, Gerry ...

Micro-East Collective: Fabric

by Glenn Astarita
May 1, 2001

The large ensemble known as “Micro-East Collective” follows up their previous effort, Out Of My Face by pursuing similar concepts and practices, consisting of verbose dialogue, multi-layered sound textures and complex arrangements on the newly released, Fabric. Yet on these fifteen pieces, the performances feature as few as three or (at times), twenty musicians. And as the title and cover artwork might suggest, the musicians’ disperse ethereal fabrics of sound via an amalgamation of disparate elements and otherworldly musings along ...

Micro-East Collective: Out of My Face

by Glenn Astarita
April 1, 2000

The aggregation of musicians known as the “Micro-East Collective” counteract the extended themes and microtonal concepts implemented on their previous release 062099 with abstract interludes, free-jazz improvisation and acerbic wit on this new recording, titled Out Of My Face. Along with guitarist Nick Didkovsky and trumpeter Rob Henke of New York’s heralded “Dr. Nerve” band, this large ensemble pursues brief melodic sound-bites and curiously interesting dialogue on the appropriately titled piece, “Sound Bites”. On “Quartet 7899”, guitarist Nick Didkovsky’s layered ...

Micro-East Collective: 062099

by Glenn Astarita
January 1, 2000

Your mission, should you accept it, is to land your manned three-wheeled vehicle on a newly discovered planet which encircles the star “Beta Pictoris some 63 light-years from the Earth’s sun. Your vehicle is equipped with sensors, photographic equipment, recorders and other data gathering devices........Well, you get the picture as the North Carolina based “Micro-East Collective” not only provide the story yet also have scored and performed the musical soundscape for this fictitious journey into the cosmos.

062099 is the ...

John Randall Pelosi: Plus Ultra

by Mark Corroto
January 1, 2000

I know people who have never heard a single song by a given musical artist, but love or hate them just the same. Read a few People Magazine articles, maybe skim a review in the Sunday New York Times and oops now you have an opinion about someone’s music. I do the same with movies, catch the preview, read a couple reviews and ta-da, I can hold up my end of the conversation at any cocktail party. Consumers no longer ...