Jazz Articles
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Alma Tree: Sonic Alchemy Suprema
by Karl Ackermann
New York native Ra Kalam Bob Moses grew up in the same building as Max Roach, Art Blakey and Elvin Jones. Early on he saw performances by many of the best jazz drummers in history, including Roy Haynes, Rashied Ali, Milford Graves, Billy Higgins, and Ed Blackwell. As a teenager in the mid-1960s, he played with Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Moses was not only destined to be a drummer; he had soaked up a variety of jazz styles and sub-genres that ...
read moreMAU: Utopia
by Friedrich Kunzmann
The letters spelling out Utopia are obscured by clouds on the cover of the debut record by the Portuguese Trio MAU, confirming that the idea of a Utopia is exactly that, merely an idea, a fictional place where something reminiscent of perfect is attained. Double bassist Miguel Angelo is the leader of this group, and its first offering is named after the politically perfectly-balanced island the English philosopher Thomas More made up in the 16th century. Arguably, the most important ...
read morePedro Neves: 05:21
by Jim Trageser
It is what it sounds like: West Coast jazz. It's probably worth pointing out, though, that the music found on Pedro Neves' sophomore album comes from the west coast of Portugal, not the United States. You'd never guess that this is Iberian jazz, though, just from listening to it. There's no trace of fado--that dark, smokey music of Lisbon. Not a guitar can be found, nor a single vocal. Instead, with a light, lithe playing style ...
read moreMiguel Angelo Quartet: Miguel Angelo Quarteto: A Vida de X
by Phil Barnes
Neither life nor jazz is simple or linear. On any given event there are multiple possible interpretations and perspectives--some will stand up to scrutiny others will not. At its most extreme there is the entitled trickster who shouts of their integrity even as they rob you in their consummate selfishness, but sometimes it is just that our accumulated experiences show different angles on the same basic events. Our finest jazz musicians can offer startling perspectives on familiar material, yet some ...
read moreThe Rite Of Trio: Getting All The Evil Of The Piston Collar!
by Budd Kopman
There is nothing to do but to dive in and experience the full force of The Rite of Trio head-on and fearlessly. With Getting All The Evil Of The Piston Collar!, guitarist Andre Bastos Silva, bassist Filipe Louro and drummer Pedro Melo Alves draw energy from the dark side and aim to conquer and subdue the world from their perch in Portugal. If you can imagine the merging of death metal with high jazz musicianship, and ...
read moreEnsemble Super Moderne: Ensemble Super Moderne
by Glenn Astarita
Portugal has become a state-of-the-art hotbed for creative jazz musicians and improvisers, duly represented by driving forces such as the Clean Feed record label. And Ensemble Super Moderne is another exciting Portuguese unit that skirts the outside realm by surging into ultra-progressive modern jazz persuasions. Hence, this self-titled album, housed in an oversized 45RPM sized CD jacket, offers a bountiful aural feast for jazz enthusiasts who demand something new and exciting to enter their listening space. These folks ...
read moreCoreto: Aljamia
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Coreto is an eleven-piece jazz ensemble from the Portuguese city of Porto. Aljamia, its début release, is also among the first albums to emerge from Porta-Jazz, an association of Porto jazz musicians.Leader and alto saxophonist/flautist João Pedro Brandão is a student of the multilayered musical traditions of the Mediterranean. The region is a remarkably rich amalgam of ancient and modern, European and African and Arabic ingredients. The learned quality of Brandão's six compositions for Aljamia bears witness to ...
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