Jazz Articles
Our daily articles are carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. You can find more articles by searching our website, see what's trending on our popular articles page or read articles ahead of their published dates on our Coming Soon page. Read our daily album reviews.
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Juanjo López: Above, Beyond, Within
by Troy Dostert
In our troubling national moment of intensified nativism and ethnic fearmongering, it can be edifying to encounter the stories of people whose lives are directly affected by the current climate. One of them is Juanjo López, a guitarist now well-established in the Chicago scene but who came years ago to the United States with his family from Mexico. His story, reflected in his second release, Above, Beyond, Within, is about much more than geographic relocation, however. There is a strong ...
Continue ReadingJavier Red: Life & Umbrella
by Mike Jurkovic
The secret behind Life & Umbrella is that Chicago-based, Mexican-born pianist/composer Javier Red is a studied composer who puts a great deal of thought into the music he presents, both to his peers and to the world. But that music never feels calculated like an equation with an obvious answer. Just the exact opposite. So it is with wiry, creative glee that Red and his Imagery Converter--drummer Gustavo Cortiñas, bassist Ben Dillinger and saxophonist Jake Wark--double down on their bold ...
Continue ReadingJavier Red's Imagery Converter: Life & Umbrella
by Hrayr Attarian
Chicago pianist Javier Red and his quartet, Imagery Converter, follow their stimulating debut Ephemeral Certainties (Delmark, 2019) with the equally superb Life & Umbrella. Red dedicates the current release to spreading love and understanding for individuals with autism. The dozen originals which comprise it do not have traditional starting and ending heads, as concepts flow from one to the other. This gives the album its uniqueness and contributes to its thematic unity. The angular “Brain Check" starts off ...
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