Jazz Articles

like 242

Daniel Ori: So It Goes

by C. Michael Bailey
May 23, 2010

There exists a triple point where adult contemporary, modern, and acoustic improvisatory jazz meet and exist together in an equilibrium where none of the three schools dominate the other two. While real, this creative point remains oddly elusive. Enter Israeli bassist Daniel Ori, whose second recording, So It Goes edges ever closer to the desirable goal of modern jazz parity--the perfect meeting of style and substance. Bassist/composer Daniel Ori is successfully divining his way to this constantly moving creative point. ...

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David S. Ware and Joe Rigby: Loft Jazz Soloists

by Clifford Allen
May 23, 2010

In the void left by the deaths of saxophonists John Coltrane and Albert Ayler, among the cheap rents in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn offering space to artists and musicians, the presence of affordable loft spaces birthed an intersection of jazz scenes in the 1970s. The music itself favored a variety of approaches, mostly built on the work of free jazz predecessors and the influence of Midwestern spaciousness, brought by AACM and Black Artists Group players relocating to New York in ...

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Festival International Musique Actuelle Victoriaville: Day 2 - May 21, 2010

by Gordon Marshall
May 23, 2010

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Festival International Musique Actuelle Victoriaville Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada May 21, 2010

Friday, Day 2 of FIMAV, started with a double feature at 2:00 in the afternoon, with two more Quebec-based acts, underscoring the impression that a new musical language and field is really promising to blossom in this province, however marginal it may appear in the larger scheme of things. One set, by ...

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Denny Zeitlin: Precipice

by Dan McClenaghan
May 23, 2010

The recorded live format seems to suit pianist Denny Zeitlin, who is certainly the only top tier jazz pianist who is also a practicing psychiatrist. His In Concert (Sunnyside Records, 2009), with his trio featuring bassist Buster Williams and drummer Matt Wilson, was filled with beautiful moments of surrender and improvisational élan, and stunningly spontaneous displays of technical proficiency. His follow-up, Precipice, a solo piano outing, finds the pianist again live in concert, recorded at Ralston Hall in 2008, in ...

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Steve Davis: Images - The Hartford Suite

by John Barron
May 23, 2010

Images--The Hartford Suite pays homage to the culture and history of Hartford, Connecticut, courtesy of trombonist/composer Steve Davis, a long time resident of the city and faculty member at the University of Hartford. The ten-part suite is a sizzling set of straight-ahead jazz; stimulating, melodic and swinging. Davis, who co-leads the acclaimed ensemble One For All, and has performed as a sideman with the likes of Jackie McLean and Art Blakey, has assembled an impressive quintet for the session, with ...

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Faruq Z. Bey

by Wilbur MacKenzie
May 23, 2010

Throughout the history of jazz, Detroit has produced world-class jazz artists, iconic individualists and ubiquitous sidemen alike. Many have moved to New York or other cities to pursue their career. A handful of great artists remained in Detroit, keeping the creative energy alive there (and consequently Detroit continues to produce incredible talent). One artist who has remained in Detroit over the decades, overcoming social and personal disaster to continue his creative pursuits, is saxophonist and composer Faruq Z. Bey.

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Cosa Brava: Ragged Atlas

by Nic Jones
May 23, 2010

There's a lot to a title as far as Ragged Atlas is concerned. The members of Cosa Brava have long been skilled in avoiding the obvious and their music incorporates influences from disparate sources. The range of their musical activities and affiliations in the past result in a coherence that is notable. When allied to the self-evident depth of intelligence at work here it amounts to something special.

There's impishness about the music, a sense of fun that maybe stems ...

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Adriano Santos Quintet: In Session

by Woodrow Wilkins
May 23, 2010

To say that everybody loves Brazilian music would be too general. But clearly, the sound has a mystique, as so many have embraced it. Percussionist Adriano Santos revisits the music of several Brazilian composers with In Session. Santos grew up in Sao Paulo and began study at the Zimbo Trio Music School at the age of 12. He continued study at Berklee College of Music in Boston and City College in New York. His professional associations include Astrud ...

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Paul Motian / Chris Potter / Jason Moran: Lost In A Dream

by Martin Gladu
May 23, 2010

Flitting like drunken fireflies, luminescent tones flutter out of a saxophone, tracing capricious, spasmodic lines. In the background, washes of cymbals and softly-brushed snare sweeps weave discretely fine-spun rhythms around a shy piano that is busy rocking drowsy chords to sleep. Fragmented, almost to the point of abstraction, the music nevertheless expands, ebb and flowing placidly like sea waves licking at a sandy beach, pulse-less yet its life beating strong.If a modernist spin on the old cubist aesthetic ...

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Festival International Musique Actuelle Victoriaville: Day 1 - May 20, 2010

by Gordon Marshall
May 22, 2010

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Festival International Musique Actuelle VictoriavilleVictoriaville, Quebec, CanadaMay 20, 2010

Festival International Musique Actuelle Victoriaville (FIMAV), translated into English, is an acronym meaning Victoriaville International Festival of Contemporary Music--or, more precisely, “Now" music, or, “the music of now." It distinguishes itself from, say, a festival like New York's Vision Fest, by never letting its avant-garde legitimacy come into question. This is a tall order and, it ...