Jazz Articles

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Bob Downes: Open Music

by Roger Farbey
April 4, 2010

Open Music was Bob Downes' debut album, recorded for the Philips label in 1969 and his impact on the UK scene was such that he was voted top place in the flute category of the Melody Maker jazz poll's British musician section for three consecutive years from 1972. It has until now never been reissued on CD and rare vinyl copies have attracted high sums in second-hand markets. Although Downes is best known for his flute playing, he is a ...

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Salvatore Bonafede Trio: Sicilian Opening

by Raul d'Gama Rose
April 4, 2010

Sicilian Opening from Salvatore Bonafede is a wonderful album. It offers ample reason why Bonafede has been in demand by musicians as diverse as Ralph Towner, Enrico Rava, Dewey Redman, and Lester Bowie. The Italian pianist is an extremely gifted and melodic composer. His songs are utterly fascinating and memorable. They can flutter and soar, like birds on the wing, as “La Grande Ilusión" and “Appunti su Palermo," do. They gallop and swing with equal portions of equine grace and ...

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Roberto Magris and The Europlane Orchestra: Current Views

by Jack Bowers
April 4, 2010

Although barely known here in the States, Italian composer/arranger/pianist Roberto Magris has been making a name for himself in Europe with a number of rewarding enterprises, among which is his Europlane Orchestra, formed in 1998 to embrace musicians from throughout central Europe. On Current Views, Magris's seventh recording for Soul Note Records, the sidemen hail from Italy, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Poland, Hungary, Switzerland, Austria, Croatia and the U.S (even though the lone American, vibraphonist Bill Molenhof, has lived ...

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The State of OA2 Records 2010: Nelda Swiggett and Debbie Poryes

by C. Michael Bailey
April 3, 2010

The umbrella record label Origin Arts has three imprint labels beneath it: Origin Records, founded in 1997 by Seattle drummer John Bishop, focusing primarily on prominent jazz artists from the Northwest United States. OA2 records was begun in 2002 with the aim of broadening Origin's talent attention countrywide. Origin Classical was later founded with not simply the goal of recasting the standard classical repertoire, but also to reveal its lesser known quantities and to forge new directions in what might ...

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Jon Gold: Brazil Confidential

by Raul d'Gama Rose
April 3, 2010

Jon Gold's Brazil Confidential is unique. It is an album of music that shows just how much the pianist and composer has internalized the Brazilian experience and what that can do for authenticity when it comes to an American musician writing in a Brazilian style. It may be true that the experience is largely urban, but that should not take away from the achievement of this album. Perhaps the true breakthrough is in the unabashed spirituality that is fused into ...

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In Search of the Blues

by C. Michael Bailey
April 3, 2010

In Search of the Blues Marybeth Hamilton Hardcover; 320 pages ISBN: 0465028586 Basic Books 2010 Blues scholarship and archive documentation has undergone an important and much needed evolution since the 1990s. Hints of this renewed but different emphasis appeared in Stephen Calt's I'd Rather Be the Devil: Skip James and the Blues (Chicago Review Press, 1994), where the focus began turning from the artists themselves to the ...

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Kyle Brenders: Ways

by Mark Corroto
April 3, 2010

Saxophonist Kyle Brenders writes in the accompanying notes to Ways, “I would never sincerely believe that the process of composition could actually inform one's own experience of music...please experience this music at will and interpret it as you can." That said, this thoroughly compelling set of sounds provide captivating music that figure beyond individual categories of modern composition, jazz, improvisation, and musical interaction.

Brenders, a Canadian saxophonist and composer, is a protege of Anthony Braxton. Their duo of ...

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Jessica Williams: The Art of the Piano

by Jack Bowers
April 3, 2010

Jessica Williams has been playing piano since she was four years old, and realized early on that she wanted to continue doing so for the rest of her life. Her choice is our reward. The Art of the Piano, a solo piano set, was recorded in May 2009 at the Triple Door in Seattle, WA. The first two numbers, “Triple Door Blues" and “Esperanza," are followed by enthusiastic response, after which the audience inexplicably disappears, returning at the end of ...

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Mark Turner: International Alliances

by Tom Greenland
April 3, 2010

Diego Barber Calima Sunnyside Records 2008 Mamasaal Quartet Mamasaal feat. Mark Turner SAZAS 2008

Saxophonist Mark Turner, a notable bandleader and distinctive voice in his own right, has been especially effective as a co-contributor on diverse projects. On Calimaand Mamasaal, he matches wits and skills with an international cast.

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Garaj Mahal: More Mr. Nice Guy

by AAJ Staff
April 3, 2010

American funk, jazz, African-based rhythms and Middle Eastern modalities are all part of the collective sound of Garaj Mahal's More Mr. Nice Guy. That, perhaps, is the “nicest" characteristic of this CD, where there's a multitude of voices sounding from the corners of our blue marble--although “smoking hot" might be a better description. Reminiscent of Return to Forever, fusion and world music, these musicians have a vast tapestry of stories to tell.

The Flat Earth Ensemble, ...