Jazz Articles

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Michael Pagan Trio: Three for the Ages

by Edward Blanco
April 28, 2010

Pianist Michael Pagan is known as a prolific composer and arranger for small combos to big bands, and is currently Assistant Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. It is, however, his performance as a musician on Three for the Ages that stands out above his already impressive musical credentials. Adept at recording with big bands, and in a duet and solo formats, as well as small ensembles, Pagan's last trio recording was Tacitus Plus ...

like 484

Marco Benevento: Between The Needles & Nightfall

by Chris May
April 27, 2010

Marco Benevento covers a lot of ground in his search for the lost chord--jazz, rock, jam band and spangly pop--but the Brooklyn-based composer and keyboard player is no fusionist. To borrow a description applied to bassist and producer Bill Laswell in the mid 1980s, Benevento is a collisionist: he doesn't so much sit on the fence separating jazz and rock as jump up and down on it, reconstructing the splinters into something new. Shot through with strong tunes and catchy ...

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Steve Norton: Debris and Beyond

by Gordon Marshall
April 27, 2010

Multi-reedist Steve Norton is best known for his work with the 1990s Boston-based band Debris. Debris was an ambitious, exuberant, puzzling band that puzzled together serialism, free jazz and funk. Their music is in equal measure exhilarating and exhausting.

It was the combination, in part, that burned Norton out about ten years ago, as well as a need to attend to his job and family. Back in full force now, at fighting weight, with drive and direction and ...

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Ralph Bowen, Dan Pratt, Brandon Wright: Posi-Tone strikes gold again

by J Hunter
April 27, 2010

Traditional jazz does not have to be boring. It does not have to be staid, or re-fried or adhere to a formula concocted in a New Orleans barroom over nine decades ago. A lot of the large labels don't get that. Fortunately, the creative triumvirate at Posi-Tone Records not only understands this concept, but they practice it in a big way. The label closed out 2009 with solid efforts by saxman Wayne Escoffery with Uptown and drummer David Ashkenazy with ...

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xTet Project: Phase First

by John Kelman
April 27, 2010

With the continued upsurge of music coming from Norway, it can be a challenge keeping track of which player is on what axis; equally revealing is the near-relentless cross-pollination taking place amongst artists young and old, and from an unfettered variety of musical spaces. Oslo's Kennel Collective may consist of young groups traversing the seemingly wide chasm between country and free improv, but the ultimate goal of this eight-ensemble collective which includes Splashgirl (whose Doors. Keys. (AIM Records) was one ...

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Stephan Crump: Reclamation

by Raul d'Gama Rose
April 27, 2010

Vignettes in music are not all that uncommon--or unusual, for that matter. But when they are only partially written--or mostly suggested--by the composer, to be largely interpreted and improvised with singular flights of the imagination then they are not simply uncommon, but beautifully unique. Moreover, if the performers form a string trio where a myriad of perspectives collide, swinging madly as they careen in and out of a moving timeline, then they become more alluring. And finally, if the music ...

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Bozzio, Holdsworth, Levin, Mastelotto: Amped In Amsterdam

by Phillip Woolever
April 27, 2010

Terry Bozzio, Allan Holdsworth, Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto Paradiso Amsterdam, The Netherlands April 8, 2010

Instrumental mastery was the only rhythmic constant for an experimental exercise that paid off in uncharted realms.

Drummers Terry Bozzio and Pat Mastelotto, along with guitarist Allan Holdsworth and bassist Tony Levin, looked pretty much like any talented jazz quartet despite having drawn some heat during their formative appearances.

Regardless of structure or the purposeful lack ...

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Vasil Hadzimanov Band: Zivota Mi

by Nenad Georgievski
April 27, 2010

The figure of Joe Zawinul casts a long shadow in the world of jazz, with plenty of artists finding inspiration in the broad spectrum of his work. Vasil Hadžimanov Band, one of Serbia's leading jazz acts, is led by an artist whose work and imagination is fueled by Zawinul's music, and has come a long way in the process of finding his place in the jazz field. Coming from a musical family with a rich background surely has helped in ...

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Larry Johnson: Circles

by Nicholas F. Mondello
April 27, 2010

Circles are infinitely symbolic in their geometric design and interpretation--no beginning and no end, directionally ambiguous, enclosing an extended infinite inner dimensional space. In Circles, his first CD as a leader, tenor saxophonist Larry Johnson steps up to deliver a dozen fine selections displaying that he's definitely no musical square. He sounds as if he knows where he's headed musically --and that direction will not be going around endlessly in a never-ending artistic circle.

Long a presence on the St. ...

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Neil Cowley Trio: Radio Silence

by Bruce Lindsay
April 26, 2010

Since it formed in 2005 the Neil Cowley Trio has developed its distinctive sound across two well-received albums. Displaced (Hide Inside Records, 2006) won the 2007 BBC Jazz Award for Best Album, while the follow-up, Loud, Louder, Stop (Cake, 2008), gained additional plaudits. Radio Silence is album number three and it finds the Trio at the peak of its power, staking a real claim to being one of the most impressive piano trios in contemporary jazz. The ...