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Masabumi Kikuchi: Hanamichi--The Final Studio Recording Vol. II
by Dan McClenaghan
Japanese pianist Masabumi Kikuchi (1939 -2015) enjoyed a decent profile via his albums under his own name--30-plus discs--and from his work with drummer Paul Motian and bassist Gary Peacock in his Tethered Moon group. But he deserved more. He was an original who worked in an inspired--if somewhat quirky--journeyman fashion until he bloomed in his late career with a pair of excellent albums on the ECM Records label--Sunrise (2009), a trio outing with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Paul Motian; ...
Continue ReadingAmina Claudine Myers: Solace of the Mind
by Troy Dostert
One of the under-heralded legends of the jazz avant-garde, keyboardist Amina Claudine Myers is finally getting her due. An early member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in the mid-1960s, her efforts were sometimes overshadowed by outsized colleagues such as Muhal Richard Abrams, Lester Bowie, or Henry Threadgill. But recent years have provided an opportunity to reassess her standing in the jazz canon. In 2024, Myers was a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, and ...
Continue ReadingBill Frisell / Andrew Cyrille / Kit Downes: Breaking the Shell
by Mike Jurkovic
When in as unique a setting as St. Luke in the Fields, the English village-like church on Hudson Street in Greenwich Village, it only figures that guitarist Bill Frisell, pipe organist Kit Downes and drummer Andrew Cyrille would rise to the distinct occasion and create something equally anomalous. A grand host of noir sci-fi themes and motifs run through Breaking the Shell. And it is awesome to hear. The trio is in an active, real-time thought experiment: what music will emerge, ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith and Amina Claudine Myers: Central Park's Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens
by Doug Collette
On Central Park's Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens, trumpeter/composer Wadada Leo Smith and keyboardist/composer Amina Claudine Myers evince as much curiosity as passion for their subject(s). This is the first recorded collaboration between the two, but they were both early members of AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians). And besides Smith's familiarity with the duo format--The Emerald Duets (Tum Records, 2022)--he had composed a paean to the (now) newly-minted NEA Jazz Master keyboardist in 2015, titling ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith - Amina Claudine Myers: Central Park's Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens
by Mike Jurkovic
Sacred music for what many consider a very sacred place, Central Park's Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths, and Gardens unites two natural forces- -the trumpeted truth of Wadada Leo Smith and the open air church of pianist & organist Amina Claudine Myers--for their first collaboration since their early years as active members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Founded in 1965, in the heat of Chicago, by pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, pianist Jodie Christian, drummer Steve McCall ...
Continue ReadingWadada Leo Smith / Amina Claudine Myers: Central Park’s Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens
by Karl Ackermann
Since the beginning of the 2000s, Wadada Leo Smith has produced a number of small masterpieces in the form of themed box sets. The prolific composer/trumpeter has aged into a creative period analogous to few of his contemporaries. His monumental Ten Freedom Summers (TUM, 2013)--a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize--America's National Parks (Cuneiform Records, 2016), and Trumpet (TUM, 2021), have each taken disparate roads in redefining creative music. The relative brevity and contemplative atmosphere of Central Park's Mosaics of Reservoir, ...
Continue ReadingBlankFor.ms - Jason Moran - Marcus Gilmore: Refract
by Pat Youngspiel
Electroacoustic music gains a new modern perspective with the sonic marvel that is Refract, a collaborative effort between degraded tapes artist Tyler Gilmore, aka BlankFor.ms, pianist Jason Moran and Marcus Gilmore on drums. An experimental series of sketched shapes featuring hovering loops turned sound- blankets, drum-set turned beat-machine and piano turned keyboard-impressionism, Refract's largely improvised fabric makes for one of the year's most adventurous and intriguing listens. Recorded with producer Sun Chung, the sonic properties are a focal ...
Continue ReadingMasabumi Kikuchi: Hanamichi The Final Studio Recording
by Pierre Giroux
Masabumi Kikuchi is not the kind of jazz pianist who just strikes the keys to produce a sound. He has a Zen-like approach to the instrument by making it an extension of himself, and thus both constructs and hears the music produced as a different form factor. There are and were other contemporary pianists such as Bill Evans, Denny Zeitlin and the late Canadian classical pianist Glenn Gould, musicians who perhaps may fit into this category, but Kikuchi was a ...
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