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Loz Speyer's Inner Space: Live in Leipzig
by Glenn Astarita
Loz Speyer, a British trumpeter and composer known for his inventive blend of jazz traditions and free improvisation, leads the quintet Inner Space through its inaugural release. With a background spanning a wide range of influences within the jazz realm, Speyer channels these into compositions that allow each band member room for dynamic improvisation. In Live in Leipzig, recorded in the historic city during a well-received concert, Speyer's ensemble delivers a set marked by a delicate balance between ...
Continue ReadingThe Aristocrats, Tigram Hamasyan, Lyle Workman and Jizue
by Len Davis
New releases from The Aristocrats, Tigran Hamasyan, Polish band EABS, and Japanese band Jizue. Lyle Workman, Bill Laurence, Forq, Amsterdam funk band The Jig with saxophonist Bill Evans and Scott Kinsey's Luniwaz--Live. Playlist The Aristocrats “Aristoclub" from Duck (Boing) 00:00 Fiasco “Drop Test" from anger artist (Unit Records) 06:05 Tigran Hamaysan “Only The One Who Brought The Bird Can Sing" from The Bird Of A Thousand Voices (Naive) 11:53 EABS “Boratka" from Reflections Of Purple Sun (Astigmatic) 17:50 Jizue ...
Continue ReadingShawn Maxwell: J Town Suite
by Jack Bowers
Saxophonist Shawn Maxwell is so fond of his hometown--Joliet, Illinois--that he has written the J Town Suite in its honor and dedicated an entire album to themes associated with his Joliet roots and upbringing. Problem is, those essays have meaning only to Maxwell--and perhaps a handful of others--so the album must be appraised musically, not thematically. Which is fine, as it is essentially a quartet date embracing contemporary straight-ahead jazz, not unlike many others that are produced ...
Continue ReadingMiguel Zenon, Russell Malone & Yvonnick Prene
by Joe Dimino
From talented French-born, NYC-based harmonica player Yvonnic Prene and pianist Geoff Keezer, we triumphantly enter the 870th Episode of Neon Jazz. Off an album dedicated to the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim, they do their spin on “Tide." Following that cut, we get into solo work from Keezer and music from his 2000 album Zero One. We also hear new music from two Kansas City's own Rick Mareske and Eboni Fondren. Plus lots more including Jonathan Suazo, Michael Dease and ...
Continue ReadingChaka Khan And Steel Pulse At Stern Grove 2024
by Walter Atkins
The effervescent vocalist Chaka Khan closed out the 2024 iteration of the well-established Stern Grove Festival Series in grand form at San Francisco's bucolic Stern Grove. This ten-time Grammy winner and 2023 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee showed no signs of slowing down during her soulfully incendiary set. British-based reggae band Steel Pulse, a 1986 Grammy recipient, opened for the former Rufus lead singer with a torridly funky session. Ms. Khan, celebrating her 50-year career in ...
Continue ReadingLouis Stewart & Jim Hall: The Dublin Concert
by Ian Patterson
When Jim Hall decided to spend the 1982 Christmas holidays in Ireland, did he really think that one of the most influential jazz guitarists in history could pass through incognito? The master of modern jazz guitar who had played with Chico Hamilton, Jimmy Giuffre, Ben Webster, Ella Fitzgerald, Sonny Rollins and Art Farmer, who was celebrated for a quartet of famous albums with Bill Evans, and who had crafted a masterly interpretation of Joaquin Rodrigo's “Concierto de Aranjuez" on Concierto ...
Continue ReadingJon Hassell: Maarifa Street
by Geno Thackara
A little technology and a lot of imagination can go quite a long way. With an uncanny knack for bending and warping sounds slightly out of phase with the way they sound in the real world, Jon Hassell had a way of turning the trumpet (or indeed any piece of the soundscape) into something nobody had ever heard of on Earth. ...
Continue ReadingWayne Shorter: Celebration Volume 1
by Mike Jurkovic
Wayne Shorter never rested on his or anyone's laurels. So when at the start of this perilous century he convened his great, late-stage quartet with pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade it wasn't to take the bandstand and placate audience and skeptics with greatest hits or refurbished takes on old standards. It was to create new and now again, just as he had with Art Blakey (1959-19630), Miles Davis (1964-1970), and Weather Report (1971-1986). In Shorter's expansionist ...
Continue ReadingRalph Bowen: Keep the Change
by C. Andrew Hovan
I can still remember the impression that Ralph Bowen made on a young jazz enthusiast trying to break into radio and be part of the hip jazz crowd. I had decided to get involved with the programming end of a local non-profit arts support organization and on a letter perfect July evening our committee had lined up a double bill that included Kevin Eubanks and the mid '80s collective Out Of The Blue. An hour or so before OTB was ...
Continue ReadingGordon Grdina: The Axe Man Cutting Down Borders
by Lawrence Peryer
Today, the Spotlight shines On JUNO Award-winning oud player and guitarist Gordon Grdina.Gordon's work defies limitations, be they geographical, distance, time, or genre. His music incorporates avant-garde jazz, free improvisation, indie rock, and the Arabic tradition.So much music, so many collaborators, and so much ground to cover in our talk. We made the most of our time together, exploring projects, processes, the fusion of musical traditions, appropriation, authenticity, and more.If you are open to ...
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