Jazz Articles
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Geri Allen & Kurt Rosenwinkel: A Lovesome Thing
by Pierre Giroux
At Philharmonie de Paris on September 5, 2012, pianist Geri Allen and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel delivered the mesmerizing performance preserved on this album. Geri Allen is known for her innovative perspective on the piano. Kurt Rosenwinkel has a distinctive approach to the guitar. They seamlessly blend their craft to approach a thoughtful selection of standards and original compositions. Billy Strayhorn's “A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing" opens. With its lush harmonies and soulful melodies, the piece serves ...
read moreGeri Allen & Kurt Rosenwinkel: A Lovesome Thing
by Neil Duggan
Geri Allen and Kurt Rosenwinkel had a duo date as part of the Jazz à la Villette festival in Paris in 2012. They flew in on the night from separate cities to play for a packed audience. They had only played together a couple of times and this concert was the first and only time they played in a duo together. There was no rehearsal. Perhaps surprisingly, this was an evening when the stars aligned and the night was a ...
read moreGeri Allen and Kurt Rosenwinkel: A Lovesome Thing
by Dave Linn
This year the jazz gods have bestowed an early Christmas present upon us. A Lovesome Thing (truncated from the Billy Strayhorn composition which opens the album), is a seven-song, fifty-three-minute album which documents a remarkable live duo performance from Geri Allen and Kurt Rosenwinkel. It will likely be found on many Top Ten lists this year. By 2012, Geri Allen was a pianist in demand by the elite of jazz. Artists such as Ornette Coleman, Tony Williams, Charlie ...
read moreShuteen Erdenebaatar: Rising Sun
by Mike Jurkovic
It is most invigorating and affirming to stand witness to new talent. New givers of themselves despite the cold, gale-force headwinds that rise up against most, if not all, artistic endeavors. Fortunately, Rising Sun, the more than mature and compelling Motema Music debut of pianist/composer Shuteen Erdenebaatar and her award-winning quartet, is one of those statements. Let loose with three henchmen just as inquisitive and intent on making their stand: Erdenebaatar's second voice and foil Anton Mangold on-saxophones, ...
read moreShuteen Erdenebaatar Quartet: Rising Sun
by Troy Dostert
Rarely does one find a debut recording as confident and accomplished as pianist Shuteen Erdenebaatar's Rising Sun. With eight well-crafted compositions, and superb support from her young colleagues, all of whom have similarly bright futures ahead of them, Erdenebaatar successfully stakes her claim as one of the rising stars in post-bop jazz. Although she hails from Mongolia, Erdenebaatar has already won a pretty good haul of European jazz awards. This release will no doubt earn her some additional ...
read moreShuteen Erdenebaatar Quartet: Rising Sun
by Neil Duggan
When a debut album comes along with a cracking opening track, one can only hope that there are later tracks which can get near the same level. Fortunately, that proves to be the case with Rising Sun, the debut album from Mongolian pianist Shuteen Erdenebaatar and her quartet. With a father who spent 40 years as director of the National Mongolian Opera, it was natural for Erdenebaatar to be surrounded by the arts. She studied classical piano and composition in ...
read moreCharnett Moffett: The Bridge
by Howard Mandel
Solo bass records are rare, and might seem to appeal mostly to bassists and bass aficionados. But on The Bridge Charnett Moffett, the charismatic bass virtuoso with an impressive past and equally brilliant future, has proven here without benefit of a band--that his music can touch anyone who loves music, regardless of instrumentation or genre. Alone with his upright bass, Moffett has created an engaging hour of organic, richly detailed and fundamentally physical sounds. He lays down ...
read moreCharnett Moffett: New Love
by Jerome Wilson
If one thing is obvious from this CD, it is that electric bassist Charnett Moffett is a happy man these days. His playing leaps out of the speakers on these tracks with joy and high spirits. That may be because he works here in the company of his “new love," his wife, guitarist Jana Herzen. The two of them bounce, dance and wiggle their instruments together on twelve wide-ranging tracks which take in funk, reggae, folk, and psychedelia, always exuding ...
read moreJihye Lee: Daring Mind
by Jack Bowers
Korean-born composer Jihye Lee is a musician who knows her own mind, whether it be relentless, unshakable, revived, dissatisfied or Daring, as on her second recording for Motema Records. In 2018, Lee earned the prestigious BMI Charlie Parker Composition Prize for “Unshakable Mind," one of nine diverse themes presented here. Another, “I Dare You," is loosely based on Wayne Shorter's response when asked, “What is jazz?" It is a question Lee must also address, as her music is not only ...
read moreJihye Lee Orchestra: Daring Mind
by Mike Jurkovic
Listening to bandleader/composer Jihye Lee and her mic-drop orchestra is like watching your life flash before your eyes. You see it all: All the richness of spirit one can attain. All the sadness one can espouse. All the waltzing mischief to which one can aspire. Testing malleability at every turn, Lee's on to an eclectic something that doesn't pass through the torpor too often: A lucid, active imagination. Thus Daring Mind, Lee's Motema Music debut, co-produced by Darcy ...
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