Jazz Articles
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Derek & the Dominos: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs: The 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
by Doug Collette
Derek & The Dominos' Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs: The 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition is a valiant attempt to compile a definitive version of Eric Clapton's finest work. The package of two CDs collects studio rarities from early and late in the band's career, as well as previously unreleased television performances, remastered in punchy clarity. If this 2011 package is not truly all- encompassing, that's in part because such brilliant pieces of work resist redefinition, except as they occur ...
Continue Reading...Jeff Kaiser / Kronomorphic / Keneally-Minnemann-Beller: San Diego, March 11, 2011
by Robert Bush
Jeff Kaiser / Kronomorphic / Keneally/Minnemann/BellerPorter's Pub, UCSDSan Diego, CAMarch 11, 2011 The Friday, March 11 show at Porter's Pub, organized by UCSD promoter Brian Ross, was a wild, kaleidoscopic affair. Featuring two Southern California-based creative improvising exponents with a rock-fusion headliner represented a certain degree of risk: would the headliner's fans tolerate the opening acts? Conversely, would the jazz crowd stick around for the main attraction? Well, it all seemed ...
Continue Reading...Gecko Turner: Gone Down South
by Chris M. Slawecki
Gecko Turner is a globe-trotting Spanish musician and singer with a particular sweet spot for all the different aspects of American R&B and soul. While composing, arranging, and performing (on guitar, keyboards, percussion and more), Turner demonstrates a light and natural touch for mixing different soul and R&B styles--mostly from the US, but some from Latin and South America--together into organically creative new combinations. While singing, Turner rarely raises his throaty, husky yet light voice, and often purrs and meows ...
Continue Reading...The Rippingtons featuring Russ Freeman: Cote D' Azur
by Jeff Winbush
Of the many incarnations of Russ Freeman's The Rippingtons, the current version is one of the strongest, with the players actually cohering as a band and not simply sidemen in Freeman's long-running side project. He remains the guiding light as the principal composer, writer and producer, giving the other musicians some stimulating music to play. Jeff Kashiwa is typically an acceptable, if not exceptional saxophonist, but, freed from any responsibility other than to get his groove on, he falls to ...
Continue Reading...Ray Charles: Rare Genius: The Undiscovered Masters
by C. Michael Bailey
Concord records began celebrating Ray Charles' 80th birthday with the release of Rare Genius: The Undiscovered Masters, a collection of masters recorded during the '70s, '80s, and '90s, when the singer/pianist was largely silent, having forever changed American music in the '60s. These selections, housed in the vault of Charles' RPM International Studios in Los Angeles, were left as skeletons, filled out in preparation for this release by the likes of Keb' Mo', Bobby Sparks, and Chuck Berghofer.
Continue Reading...Captain Black Big Band: Captain Black Big Band
by Bruce Lindsay
The man behind the Captain Black Big Band is pianist Orrin Evans. The ensemble's eponymous debut recording is a CD of such style, musicality and instrumental power that it seems only right to ensure that Evans gets the credit upfront. This is straight-ahead, swinging, big band music, recorded at three live performances in New York and Philadelphia in early 2010. The tunes may be familiar--Evans has recorded some of them more than once--but the new arrangements ensure that the band ...
Continue Reading...Marc Copland: Crosstalk
by John Kelman
After spending the early part of the 2000s in a recording spree that found him releasing as many as four albums each year on a variety of labels, Marc Copland has, since 2006, parked his piano with Germany's upstart Pirouet label. It's clearly been a fruitful pairing, with Copland releasing a variety of albums, in 2009 along releasing solo (Alone), duo (Insight, with bassist Gary Peacock) and trio (Night Whispers, the final installment of his New York Trio Recordings series). ...
Continue Reading...Scott Henderson Trio: Bangkok, Thailand, March 18, 2011
by Ian Patterson
Scott Henderson TrioMello YelloBangkok, ThailandMarch 18, 2011 The Scott Henderson Trio crowned an impressive inaugural fortnight at Mello Yello, with an electrifying performance in front of a small but appreciative audience. With jazz clubs few and far between in Bangkok, the opening of Mello Yello at RCA, in the clubbing heartland of the city, is welcome news indeed. The intimate, informal venue offers two local bands per night from Monday to Saturday and in its ...
Continue Reading...Noah Haidu: Slipstream
by Dan Bilawsky
What do slipstreams and music have in common? The simple answer is: flow. While some genres have turned their back on the idea of letting each piece of music flow in its own unique way, subscribing instead to digital quantizing and beat perfection, jazz isn't one of them. On his appropriately titled debut, Slipstreams, pianist Noah Haidu presents eight unique tracks that are as unpredictable as the flow of air in the wake of an airplane propeller. ...
Continue Reading...The Uptown Jazz Collective: She Do What She Do
by Bruce Lindsay
The Uptown Jazz Collective is a muscular, energetic band that mixes some serious messages with some seriously good time grooves on She Do What She Do. The Ensemble is led by two baritones: saxophonist B. J. Jansen and vocalist William Theodore Carney III, aka T. C. III. The pair is backed by some strong rhythm playing, while pianist Marcus Persiani also delivers some creative lead work. Jansen's strong on the raucous R&B style of baritone playing, but ...
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