Jazz Articles

Bob Brookmeyer and Kenny Wheeler: Island

by Rex Butters
January 7, 2004

Veterans Bob Brookmeyer and Kenny Wheeler explore shared sensibilities on Island, a collection that could have fit comfortably in Wheeler’s ECM catalogue, but instead spearheads the resuscitated Artists House label. Although they’ve not recorded together before, they set eachother up and finish eachother’s thoughts like a long married couple. The island in question seems more north Atlantic than Caribbean. While the program tends toward moody mid-tempo tunes, the high level of playing keeps monotony at bay.

The ...

Steve Haines Quintet: Beginner's Mind

by Ken Hohman
December 5, 2003

Do bass players make better jazz records? Back in 2000, the under-rated bassist John Goldsby released Viewpoint, and I haven't stopped listening to it since. There's no denying the consistent glories of William Parker's recent run on record. And for the past year Dave Holland has been redefining the way a big band can sound, making brilliant music in the process. Now comes a remarkable debut from North Carolina double bassist and composer Steve Haines... perhaps one of the finest ...

Vijay Iyer: Blood Sutra

by Kurt Gottschalk
November 16, 2003

Pianist Vijay Iyer isn't afraid of big ideas. He premiered a song cycle about urban life and ethnicity and “lives in transit" at the Asia Society in May (documented on the Pi Recordings release In What Language, also released this month), and is the 2003 recipient of the CalArts Alpert Award in the Arts in the field of music. He was also nominated for Up and Coming Musician of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association, and was listed as ...

Vijay Iyer: Blood Sutra

by Dan McClenaghan
November 11, 2003

You get the feeling that piansist Vijay Iyer is shifting into a period of transition with the opening track on his new CD, Blood Sutra. “Proximity (Crossroads)" is – uncharacteristicaly for Iyer – a slow tempo bit of introspection, with a swish of brush and stickwork painting washes behind the hard-edged piano notes. But the “Brute Facts" jolts out of the speakers next, in a full frontal assault, in very Iyer-esque fashion. Propulsive, urgent, jarring even, riding a relentless rhythmic ...

Oteil Burbridge and the Peacemakers: The Family Secret

by Phil DiPietro
April 6, 2003

You may recall John Snyder's name from his tenures at CTI, Horizon Records, and his own label, Artists House--not to mention past Grammy winners lists (he's been associated with 5). By the time he was 30 he'd worked with such industry giants as Creed Taylor, Rudy Van Gelder, Herb Alpert and Ahmet Ertegun, as well as jazzers George Benson, Chet Baker, Jim Hall, Ornette Coleman and Charlie Haden.

Now 55, he's resurrected Artists House as a fully manifestoed ...