Jazz Articles

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McWain, Balgochian & Cook: Vigil

by Nic Jones
September 8, 2006

The “classic" piano trio need not result in music high in gloss and technique and low in stimulating listening, as these three players prove on Vigil. Their music comes from somewhere other than the cocktail lounge, though hazarding a guess as to where might be a little fraught, especially as, on this evidence, the trio is intent on getting as far away from that lounge as is humanly possible.

Although this is in essence a trio of equals and thus ...

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Kareem Roustom, El-Zafeer Ensemble: Almitra's Question

by Dan McClenaghan
March 7, 2005

Guitarist Kareem Roustom was born in Damascus, Syria to American and Syrian parents; on Almitra's Question he and the El-Zafeer Ensemble make music that blends American jazz with Arabic sounds. The rhythm patterns and the distinctive percussion (riqq and daff) lend an exotic and crisply declamatory backdrop to Roustom's lush accoustic guitar playing and violinist Hanna Khoury's sweetly sinuous lines. Exotic, mysterious--especially to an ear (like this reviewer's) that hasn't listened to much of the music from the East.