Jazz Articles
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Dave Douglas: Alloy
by Glenn Astarita
Dave Douglas continues his alchemical pursuits with Alloy, forging a trumpet-centric ensemble that elevates group dialogue to new heights--proving that in jazz, three is not a crowd, it is a conspiracy of cool. Commissioned for the 23rd season of the Festival of New Trumpet Music, the project pairs the leader with British trumpeter Alexandra Ridout and New Hampshire's Dave Adewumi, creating a brass coalition where collaboration outshines competition, like diplomats dodging discord. The title nods to the art of melding ...
Continue ReadingKaisa's Machine: Moving Parts
by Troy Dostert
On the third release with her trusted ensemble, Kaisa's Machine, rising star Kaisa Mäensivu displays a mature compositional voice, creating seven beguiling tracks that make excellent use of her superb colleagues. The Finnish bassist has for some years split her time between Helsinki and New York City, and the album's concept is loosely centered on the challenges and opportunities of bilocation--but the music itself is remarkably cohesive and taut, with a group dynamic that indeed reflects machine-like precision, even if ...
Continue ReadingKaisa's Machine: Moving Parts
by Mike Jurkovic
Let us play an enormously simple game: Name three bands or three albums of any musical conglomerate --jazz, hop, bop, rock, neo-ethical bluegrass--whose legendary sobriquet was the absolute definition of the sound, soul, and propriety of the band. The peanut gallery erupts--Led Zeppelin, Live at the Vanguard Flatt and Scruggs, A Love Supreme Add Finnish-born bassist/composer turned fiery New York jazzer, Kaisa Mäensivu and her on-all-cylinders Machine to the list. Moving Parts hits the sweet spot. Centering around Mäensivu's ...
Continue ReadingChristian Dillingham: Halcyon
by Hrayr Attarian
On the intriguing Halcyon, his second release as a leader, Chicago bassist Christian Dillingham explores folkish motifs in a haunting ambience. The music here is a mix of his own compositions and covers of diverse backgrounds that showcase, once again, his versatility. The band has quite a unique sound, thanks to its collective virtuosity, with guitarist Matt Gold's incandescent pedal steel giving it a rootsy flavor. For instance, singer-songwriter Gillian Welch's “Lowlands" has a buoyant and a tad ...
Continue ReadingArun Ramamurthy Trio: New Moon
by Dan McClenaghan
Violinist Arun Ramamurthy is a first-generation Indian American artist. His ancestral roots in India run deep, and his musical roots there run deep, too. He has embraced American jazz but remains artistically tethered to his parents' homeland. 2014's' Jazz Carnatica (Self Produced) (review here), by his Arun Ramamurthy Trio, showcased his talents for walking the line between the old world and the new. New Moon, coming ten years after Jazz Carnatica, features, again, Sameer Gupta on drums and ...
Continue ReadingDave Douglas: Gifts
by John Sharpe
Trumpeter Dave Douglas' talents as an improviser, composer and organizer are well known by now. In some ways the challenge for him is to find novel settings in which his abilities can be appreciated. If that is indeed an issue, then he has aced the test on Gifts, with a quartet that often sounds like a much larger ensemble, thanks to Rafiq Bhatia's widescreen guitar FX, man-of-the-moment tenor saxophone star James Brandon Lewis and drummer Ian Chang. ...
Continue ReadingDave Douglas: Gifts
by Mark Corroto
When does one become an elder statesman in jazz? Is it a function of age? Awards? Discography? While that question is up for debate, it is beyond doubt that Dave Douglas is an éminence grise, except one who definitely does not work behind the scenes. When did he achieve this status? Was it when he was awarded a Guggenheim? Or the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award? Maybe it was when he started the label Greenleaf Music. A better case can ...
Continue ReadingDave Douglas: Gifts
by Glenn Astarita
Dave Douglas' Gifts emerges not merely as a collection of tracks but as an opulent gala in honor of the eternal essence of music, welcoming audiences across the spectrum of generations to partake in its celebration. This project is akin to a masterfully blended concoction of shared human emotions and experiences, articulated through the universal dialect of melodies that defy time constraints. It is a sonic tour de force, intricately weaving together the threads of history, the present and what ...
Continue ReadingMareike Wiening: Reveal
by Mark Sullivan
Mareike Wiening is a German drummer/composer who began her career in New York, and now divides her time between there and Köln, Germany. On her third album, she continues making music with her New York-based working band, an increasingly rare situation in contemporary jazz. It provides her an opportunity for more compositional experimentation with each release. “Time for Priorities" begins abstractly, a duet between drums and guitarist Alex Goodman's spacey electronics, before introducing the swinging theme and the rest of ...
Continue ReadingItamar Borochov: Arba
by Jerome Wilson
Trumpeter Itamar Borochov is originally from the Middle East but is part of the New York jazz scene. He plays a quarter-tone trumpet which helps bring an unusual expressiveness and calm to his sound, This is well-suited to the music he plays which is steeped in the chords and scales of the Mediterranean area where he grew up. Tracks such as “Abraham" and “What Broke You?" spotlight the ethereal beauty of Borochev's sound as he broods over Rob ...
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