Jazz Articles

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Justin Janer: Following Signs

by Bruce Lindsay
June 12, 2010

Following Signs, saxophonist Justin Janer's debut as leader, is an assured recording. Janer leads a tight and disciplined quintet through seven original tunes and a cover of Bob Hilliard and Sammy Fain's “Alice in Wonderland," displaying his craft and individuality as a player and composer. Musical high spots arise from the interplay between Janer's alto and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire's exciting and often fierce playing. Both Janer and Akinmusire clearly enjoy working at the upper reaches of their ...

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Masters of American Music: The Story of Jazz

by Ken Dryden
June 12, 2010

Various Artists Masters of American Music: The Story of Jazz Naxos Jazz 2009

Various documentaries have been made about jazz over the years with mixed results. While the 1993 DVD Masters of American Music: The Story of Jazz is only 98 minutes long, it ends up being far more wide-ranging, less repetitious and better written than the much longer and somewhat controversial Ken Burns' Jazz released the following decade. The Story of Jazz covers ...

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Carol Morgan Trio: Opening

by Raul d'Gama Rose
June 12, 2010

Opening is an album so rich in the intricacies of melody that it never fails to surprise at every turn. The saddest aspect of the album is that it is all too short. But the biggest surprise of all is Carol Morgan, a trumpeter who seems to have awakened the urge to find parallels in phrasing with the great Clarence Shaw. The often discussed “talking" style of playing attributed to men like Shaw, as well as trumpet players such as ...

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Steve Lacy: Let’s Call This…Esteem; Hall Egg Farm 2000.10.16; November and Ideal Bread's Transmit

by A. Henkin
June 12, 2010

Steve Lacy/Mal WaldronLet's Call This...EsteemSLAM-Silta2010 Steve LacyHall Egg Farm 2000.10.16Suigyu2010 Steve LacyNovemberIntakt2010 Ideal BreadTransmitCuneiform2010 Steve Lacy (1934-2004) held several distinctions in his 50-year career. He, alongside John Coltrane, was responsible for the modern template of soprano saxophone playing. ...

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Take Five With TOMKO

by AAJ Staff
June 12, 2010

Meet TOMKO:Tomko is a songwriter, singer, and saxophonist from San Francisco. His TOMKO TRIO is touring with Y. Capelle on drums, B. Ribiere on Hammond organ, and Tomko on sax and vocals. His new CD, From Miles Lane to Tchui Road, is available soon! Also, two CDs with the TOMKO QUINTET are out: Is that Jazz and Tomko Live. He was a sideman with several French names (Gun Morgan, Hot Jungle) as saxophonist and backup singer before forming ...

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Jason Moran: Ten

by David Adler
June 12, 2010

Pianist Jason Moran offers Ten, to mark a decade with the Bandwagon, his trio with bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits, and it's an anniversary worth celebrating. But Ten is also Moran's first release since Artist In Residence (Blue Note, 2006), so it affords him the opportunity to include pieces from long-form commissioned works he's written since then. The loping, gospel-tinged “Blue Blocks" is from a multimedia suite inspired by the quilt makers of Gee's Bend, Alabama. “RFK in ...

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JG Thirlwell: Manorexia: The Mesopelagic Waters

by Wilbur MacKenzie
June 12, 2010

Since the early '80s, Jim Gordon Thirlwell has operated under a variety of permutations of the name Foetus (including Scraping Foetus off the Wheel, Foetus Interruptus and most recently, just Foetus). Thirlwell has expressed his intention to “condense the entire history of recorded music into one piece," and elements of serialism, funk, minimalism, '50s exotica and jazz often add colorful inflection to his creative foundation of post-punk experimentalism. Manorexia was initially conceived as a solo project, emphasizing a type of ...

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Joelle Leandre: Last Seen Headed (Live at Sons D’Hiver); Trace & Duo (Heidelberg Loppem) 2007

by Wilbur MacKenzie
June 12, 2010

Joëlle Léandre/François Houle/Raymond StridLast Seen Headed (Live at Sons D'Hiver) Ayler2010 Joëlle Léandre/Maguelone Vidal/Raymond BoniTraceRed Toucan2009 Anthony Braxton/Joëlle LéandreDuo (Heidelberg Loppem) 2007 Leo2009 Bassist Joëlle Léandre is a quintessential representative of the connection between free improvisation and European classical music. The early stages of her career ...

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British Jazz

by Graham L. Flanagan
June 12, 2010

Stan TraceySenior MomentReSteamed2009 Stan TraceyThe Later WorksReSteamed2010 Various ArtistsThe Flamingo Connection: Great British Modern JazzEmber-Future Noise2009 The United Kingdom's recent political crisis surprised a world unused to seeing this powerful nation in such an unstable state. However, if there's one thing about jolly-old England that you ...

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Steve Cardenas: West of Middle

by Sean Patrick Fitzell
June 12, 2010

Guitarist Steve Cardenas sports an unassuming style, devoid of histrionics. He favors clean tones, solid rhythms and cagey harmonies for a subtle, supportive approach. It's a combination he's used to help shape the music of drummers Paul Motian and Joey Baron, bassists Alexis Cuadrado and Charlie Haden and vocalists Kate McGarry and Rebecca Martin, among others. On West of Middle, only his third record as a leader, Cardenas enlists drummer Rudy Royston and bassist Ben Allison, with whom he's developed ...