Inside the Songs
Serious listening to jazz can be intimate and intense, but sometimes wouldn't you love to tap into the thoughts of the composer/player. Surely, this knowledge would increase the aural experience several-fold, thereby fertilizing the narcotic poppy of listening pleasure. Here, you will read about one artist, one album and what is "Inside the Songs."
Julian Shore: Sharing Secrets Under The Rose
by Dean Nardi
Piano trios walk the thin line between exhibitionism and intimacy, and you can look no further than Bill Evans whose tones vibrated ever so slightly with the distant thrill of zeal. Despite insistent attempts to overlook its worthiness in contemporary jazz, the piano trio is alive and well, in good hands with pianists such as Kris Davis, whose Run the Gauntlet (Pyroclastic Records, 2024) with Robert Hurst and Johnathan Blake sends shivers up and down the spine. The Sunna Gunnlaug ...
Continue ReadingLaMP: The Three Of Me Blend Into One Of Us
by Dean Nardi
LaMP's rousing albums have a knack for keeping you listening, whether it is Russ Lawton propelling the trio along through punchy, substantial snare, Ray Paczkowski indulging in the inner point-of-view of melody and harmony on both organ and clavinet, or Scott Metzger inserting reveal after reveal in a twist-laden odyssey of gleeful, darting notes. But there is more to LaMP than all-out propulsion. Yes, at times the songs groove like there is rocket fuel baked into the amps, but the ...
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