Jazz Articles

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Nate Wooley

by Stuart Broomer
June 12, 2010

Nate Wooley Trumpet/Amplifier Smeraldina-Rima 2010 Nate Wooley & Paul Lytton Creak above 33 psi 2010

Nate Wooley somehow maintains a relatively low profile among younger trumpeters, a group traditionally given an excess of attention, but it may just be that he's hard to pin down. His quality as a free improviser ...

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Wadada Leo Smith: Abbey Road Quartet; Spiritual Dimensions & Spirit Catcher

by Marc Medwin
June 12, 2010

Wadada Leo SmithAbbey Road QuartetTreader2009 Wadada Leo SmithSpiritual DimensionsCuneiform2009 Wadada Leo SmithSpirit CatcherNessa2009 There are few players that continue to be as adventurous in maturity as they were in youth. Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith's work is as uncategorizable as his sound is unique. This trio of ...

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Duo Piano: Two For the Ages

by Ken Dryden
June 12, 2010

Bill Charlap & Renee RosnesDouble PortraitBlue Note2010 Eric Reed & Cyrus ChestnutPlenty Swing, Plenty SoulSavant2010 The debate continues as to whether having two pianos is merely a novelty or something that inspires great performances. If two complementary pianists join forces, check their respective egos and tune in to their partner, magic can indeed happen.

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Avant Piano and Saxophone Duets: Interaction & SAMA

by John Sharpe
June 12, 2010

Joel Futterman / Kidd Jordan Interaction Self produced 2010 Matthew Shipp/ Sabir Mateen SAMA Not Two Records 2010 Sax-piano duets have an illustrious lineage. The vast majority have relied on compositional signposts to direct their musings, something avoided on these two studio dates that unite seasoned musicians who have made infrequent joint forays into the territory. First up is the appropriately named Interaction from ...

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Moving To Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life

by Florence Wetzel
June 11, 2010

Moving To Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life Wynton Marsalis with Geoffrey C. Ward 208 pages ISBN: 978-1-40006078-8 Random House 2008

Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis' passionate and inspirational Moving To Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life is not only an ode to jazz, but a call to creativity in all its forms. It's a meditation on life and art, and an invitation to live an ...

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George Brooks: Spirit And Spice

by Dan Bilawsky
June 11, 2010

Fusing Indian classical music and jazz has met with mixed results over the years. For a long time, it seemed that a combination of these disparate styles could only result in overly aggressive fusion music; hints of India or standard jazz fare, with tabla drumming thrown into the mix. Over time, a more organic musical merge has taken place thanks to artists like saxophonist George Brooks. Brooks has worked tirelessly--with his Summit band, Bombay Jazz group and Kirwani Quartet--to show ...

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Steve Tibbetts: Natural Causes

by John Kelman
June 11, 2010

Alongside Stephan Micus, Steve Tibbetts occupies a somewhat rare position in ECM's roster of longstanding musical collaborators. Like the German composer/multi-instrumentalist, this “Zen Guitarist" defies ECM's general rule of two days to record, one day to mix (with minimal editing and overdubbing); instead, Tibbetts has, with rare exception, recorded his music from a home base in St. Paul, Minneapolis--again like Micus, sometimes taking years between recordings and with minimal label intervention. Unlike Micus, however, who produces his albums in isolation, ...

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Pianos in the Foreground: Six Modern Masters

by Eugene Holley, Jr.
June 11, 2010

Because of its huge range, the piano might be the most expressive and adaptable instrument in western music. And since jazz is a product of western culture, it's no surprise that jazz pianists have been the genre's foremost creators, interpreters and stylists. This has been true since the days of ragtime, New Orleans, stride and swing, and on to bebop, hard-bop, modal, avant-garde, Latin, world and beyond. The six pianists featured in this review have since the 1980s investigated, adapted ...

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Tobias Gebb & Unit 7: free at last

by David A. Orthmann
June 11, 2010

Tobias Gebb's prodigious talents as a composer, arranger, bandleader, and drummer run throughout the admirable free at last. A positive, good-natured quality pervades the project. Despite the disc's eight tracks being relatively short, each is substantial and complete unto itself.

Gebb writes distinctive melodies, clothes them in a variety of forms, and arranges the material in imaginative and enjoyable ways. His own “Spitball" moves between funk and medium tempo swing, while the standard, “You Don't Know ...

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Anat Cohen: Clarinetwork: Live at the Village Vanguard

by Thomas Conrad
June 11, 2010

Anat Cohen is one of the major jazz success stories of the last decade. She arrived in New York from Israel in 1996 and, by the turn of the century, was an important factor in the reemergence of the clarinet as a solo jazz instrument. Yet her recordings have not captured the bacchanalian riot of Cohen in person, whirling on the stage, curls flying, unleashing clarinet notes in formally elegant torrents. Clarinetwork comes closer, in part because ...