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Extended Analysis

Uri Caine: Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue

Read "Uri Caine: Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


What is to become of the Great American Songbook, that cultural document that served as scripture to the jazz community for the better part of the Twentieth Century? Today, what we think of as jazz has flown so far and wide that it's definition encompasses everything from Craig Taborn's Chants to Robert Glasper's Black Radio and Black Radio 2. While rightly called jazz, these examples are the keepers of no flame, rather they are the new flame burning the way ...

4
Extended Analysis

Wagner e Venezia

Read "Wagner e Venezia" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Released in 1997, the Uri Caine Ensemble's Wagner e Venezia somehow evaded proper consideration within the electrons of All About Jazz. No more. Caine and his unique brand of interpretation has long been well-regarded at the magazine. Wagner e Venezia is one of the pinnacles among pinnacles from the pianist/composer's early output. Wagner e Venezia is Caine's third release on the Winter & Winter label and the first where he used classical music as his creative jumping-off point. The following ...

6
Album Review

Reijseger / Harmen Fraanje / Mola Sylla: Down Deep

Read "Down Deep" reviewed by John Kelman


As one of its first signings, Ernst Reijseger has amassed a sizable discography with Winter & Winter. Werner Herzog--with whom Reijseger has also shared a lengthy relationship, scoring seven of the German film director's films since 2000's Ajax: Hark the Herald Angels Sing--has aptly described the Dutch cellist as capable of anything, furthermore suggesting that he could “play the American Civil war on his cello." Whether or not that's true remains to be seen, but clearly Herzog sees Reijseger as ...

162
Extended Analysis

Theo Bleckmann: Hello Earth! The Music of Kate Bush

Read "Theo Bleckmann: Hello Earth! The Music of Kate Bush" reviewed by Dave Sumner


Theo BleckmannHello Earth! The Music Of Kate BushWinter & Winter2012The 1980s possessed an incongruous hope for the future against a backdrop of possible nuclear annihilation, as if in the darkest of times, society retreated to a naive state. This is a generalization that doesn't, obviously, represent the entire gamut of human experience, yet it was there all the same. The majority of singer and composer Kate Bush's music came from that decade, ...

110
Album Review

Theo Bleckmann: Hello Earth! - The Music of Kate Bush

Read "Hello Earth! - The Music of Kate Bush" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Vocalist Theo Bleckmann is a man of numerous modalities and ambitions. He's covered classical composer Charles Ives, teamed with heavyweight guitarist Ben Monder for experimental and improvised sojourns and, more recently, has performed and recorded with the always hip jazz unit, The Claudia Quintet. Here, Bleckmann treks into the pop-rock realm as he imparts a personalized touch to the music of iconic British singer/songwriter, Kate Bush. Bush's use of electronics, layered vocal parts, and futuristic production processes are also noted ...

218
Album Review

Uri Caine Trio: Siren

Read "Siren" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Pianist Uri Caine holds a unique distinction, known the world over as a stellar jazz pianist, but a critics' darling for his genre-blind reworkings of classical music. His takes on the work of Gustav Mahler, Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Wagner have become modern classics which straddle several musical worlds, but Caine's is no one-trick pony. When he isn't busy turning classical music history on its head, his restless artistic curiosity has taken him to a variety ...

177
Album Review

Uri Caine Trio: Siren

Read "Siren" reviewed by Troy Collins


Siren is the first studio recording to feature pianist Uri Caine leading a traditional acoustic trio since 1998's Blue Wail (Winter & Winter). Since then, most of Caine's albums have alternated between radical reinterpretations of the work of revered classical composers like Beethoven, Mozart and Schummann, and the heavily amplified funk excursions of his Bedrock trio with bassist Tim Lefebvre and drummer Zach Danziger. Stripped down to their basic foundations however, most of Caine's efforts typically revolve around the classic ...

168
Album Review

Paul Motian: The Windmills Of Your Mind

Read "The Windmills Of Your Mind" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


While Paul Motian's name is on the spine of this CD, guitarist Bill Frisell is the tie that binds this band. Frisell's ability to paint ethereal coats of sound in an earnest manner that speaks to his love of all things musical is at the heart of this program, which may be seen as an expansion of Petra Haden and Bill Frisell (True North, 2003)--a woefully overlooked vocals and guitar date which contains intimate and highly expressive takes on the ...

163
Album Review

Stefan Zeniuk: Gato Loco

Read "Gato Loco" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


If Danny Elfman, Marc Ribot, Ennio Morricone, Ry Cooder and Bobby Sanabria ever put together a band, it might sound something like Gato Loco. This eleven-piece unit, under the direction of saxophonist-composer Stefan Zeniuk, creates Latin-influenced carnival jazz with a punk attitude, and they seem to have a great time while doing it. Gato Loco, the group's Winter & Winter debut, was recorded live at a wine chateau in Bordeaux, France during the summer of 2010, and ...

222
Album Review

Kneebody: You Can Have Your Moment

Read "You Can Have Your Moment" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


West Coast eclectic Kneebody elbowed its way to the front of the crowd on Theo Bleckmann's Grammy-nominated Twelve Songs by Charles Ives (Winter & Winter, 2009). As is customary with Bleckmann, he always employs musicians empathetic with his creative and playful vision. On You Can have Your Moment, Kneebody is all business, pushing the musical envelope to the edge of sonic awareness. The band closes You Can have Your Moment with “High Noon," composed by trumpeter Shane ...


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