Jazz Articles
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Christy Doran's May 95 Sextet: Same But Different
by Ian Patterson
Curse or blessing? A festival handing a musician carte blanche for a one-off adventure sounds liberating, but the allure of artistic freedom can be tempered by pressure: what if the personalities do not gel? What if it bombs? Christy Doran, the Ireland-born Lucerne-based guitarist, has never been one to dodge a challenge. His entire career has been marked by adventure and innovation. From jazz-rock fusioneers OM in the early '70s to his later groups New Bag, Sound Fountain, ...
Continue ReadingSol Jang Trio: 19-29
by Neil Duggan
Sol Jang is a South Korean pianist and composer based in Arnhem in the Netherlands. She studied classical music in Korea before moving to Philadelphia to pursue her love of jazz. She gained a bachelor's degree at the University of the Arts, followed by a master's degree in the Netherlands. Her group started as the Sol Jang International Project and has now evolved into the Sol Jang Trio. They perform regularly throughout Europe. She has gained widespread recognition: in 2023 ...
Continue ReadingMoritz Stahl: Traumsequenz
by Mike Jurkovic
Swabian-born saxophonist Moritz Stahl's direct and purposeful debut, Traumsequenz is certainly, as translated, a dream sequence, but its seventeen intimate miniatures could also serve as long-lost themes to long-lost noir TV shows about down-and-out detectives on the case of any moral lassitude. But the true intent of Stahl and his equally goal-oriented bandmates--pianist Julius Windisch, guitarist Philipp Schiepek, bassist Lorenz Heigenhuber, and drummer Leif Berger--is to willfully include the listener as an active participant in the creative process. ...
Continue ReadingCaleb Wheeler Curtis and Laurent Nicoud: Substrate
by Paul Rauch
The duo, in jazz or any musical form, is an intimate conversation that requires a large degree of artistic courage. The participants must be willing to expose themselves emotionally as well as musically. It is brutally honest, a practice in individuality within the context of mutual respect and humility. In the case of Swiss pianist Laurent Nicoud and Brooklyn based alto saxophonist Caleb Wheeler Curtis, it is a venture into the musical wilderness without being safely tethered to the efforts ...
Continue ReadingFranco Ambrosetti: Lost Within You
by Chris M. Slawecki
Lost Within You is a masterpiece of smoldering passion and beauty ignited by the exquisite trumpet and flugelhorn melodies of Franco Ambrosetti. Ambrosetti assembled an enviable ensemble: bassist Scott Colley and drummer Jack DeJohnette in the rhythm section, plus guitarist John Scofield, and Renee Rosnes and Uri Caine switching turns as pianist. But the star of Lost Within You is Ambrosetti's haunting, delicate and graceful sound, revealed in one masterful ballad after another. “Miles Davis was ...
Continue ReadingSam Braysher Trio: Dance Little Lady, Dance Little Man
by Thomas Fletcher
It was back in 2017 when we were first introduced to Sam Braysher with his debut release Golden Earrings (Fresh Sound New Talent), performed alongside pianist, Michael Kanan and featuring a collection of reinterpreted songs from the Great American Songbook. Braysher is now following his own footsteps by releasing a trio album with a similar theme. The London-based alto saxophonist sees himself line up with Catalan percussionist Jorge Rossy, most recognisable for his spell with the Brad Mehldau ...
Continue ReadingBenjamin Koppel: The Ultimate Soul & Jazz Revue
by Chris M. Slawecki
Listen to music long enough, and it's almost bound to happen: You're not sure exactly what you want to listen to, but you know that whatever you listen to needs must bump and groove. The Ultimate Soul & Jazz Revue, an anthology of American jazz, soul and R&B recorded live at a Copenhagen music festival by Danish saxophonist Benjamin Koppel and his big band, is some first-rate scratch for that itch. Ultimate Soul & Jazz neatly packages Koppel's ...
Continue ReadingFranco Ambrosetti: Lost Within You
by Doug Collette
The Franco Ambrosetti Band Band's Lost Within You is a supremely unassuming listening experience. An all-star band helps the trumpeter composer conjure a sensuous mood that only grows progressively engrossing over the course of the seventy-plus minutes playing time of the album. The seductive sensation is an inexorable process that commences with the very first cut. The second-longest track on the record next to “Body and Soul," Horace Silver's “Peace" features drummer Jack DeJohnette at the piano and ...
Continue ReadingFranco Ambrosetti Band: Lost Within You
by Dan McClenaghan
Swiss trumpeter / flugelhorninst Franco Ambrosetti opens his Lost Within You with “Peace," from the pen of pianist Horace Silver. The original rendition comes from Silver's Blowin' The Blues Away (Blue Note, 1959). It was a composition that Silver stumbled upon when he was “doodling around on the piano, and it just came to me." It featured Blue Mitchell's characteristically brassy trumpet tone. It was unusual in the Silver songbook—an introspective, patiently deployed ballad, instead of the normal hard-charging, romps ...
Continue ReadingMoonMot: Going Down The Well
by Bruce Lindsay
Six musicians from the UK and Switzerland, with a strong background in improvisation and a talent for mixing acoustic and electronic instrumentation, creating tunes which move from the gentle, Rhodes-led, intro to “35 Years" and the bass-sax interplay which opens “Threnody Of The English Polity" to the raucous baritone sax of the title track—that is MoonMot on Going Down The Well. The sextet formed in 2017 when saxophonists Dee Byrne (Entropi, Deemer) and Cath Roberts (Sloth Racket, Favourite ...
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