Jazz Articles

like 161

John Zorn: Femina

by Martin Longley
March 8, 2010

There are two notable elements to this album, before even listening to its contents. One is that composer John Zorn has created a work that pays tribute to female creators (his name checks include Yoko Ono, Agatha Christie and Joan Of Arc). The other is that he's making a return to his fabled file-card system of composition. The Cobra piece was the most notorious, notable and potent manifestation of this technique, where Zorn would prepare musical strategies to be spontaneously ...

like 346

Brenda Earle: Songs For A New Day

by Marcia Hillman
March 8, 2010

Brenda Earle has a well-trained, sweet-sounding, pure voice and piano and songwriting skills that are displayed ably in this, her fifth album. The New York-based Canadian native is abetted by Ike Sturm (bass), Jackie Lewis (guitars) and Jared Schonig (drums), as well as guest appearances of one track each by saxophonist Joel Frahm and cellist Lauren Riley-Rigby. The material is an array of standards, original compositions and covers of songs by Top 40 artists ranging from Crowded House ...

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Kirk Knuffke: Amnesia Brown

by Martin Longley
March 8, 2010

Amnesia Brown was the name bestowed upon trumpeter Kirk Knuffke's absconding not-so-great grandfather. Apparently, he just sidestepped to a nearby town (and a new family), changing his name on the way. It's not quite clear how his memory (or lack of it) informs the repertoire of this album, but he also happens to provide the fourth track's title. This trio has its roots in the Nublu Orchestra, which regularly plays a Monday night residency at the East ...

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Part 7 - Knitting Factory rolls out Fela Kuti reissue program

by Chris May
March 7, 2010

Following the release of its The Best Of The Black President sampler in November 2009, New York's Knitting Factory has cut to the main event in its Fela Kuti reissue program. The label, which is scheduled to release all of Kuti's albums during 2010, put out the first batch of six discs in February. Titled the “Chop 'n' Quench" batch (after the title of an early single), the discs cover the years 1964-74, Afrobeat's formative years. They contain nine albums ...

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James Zoller: Zollar System

by C. Michael Bailey
March 7, 2010

James Zollar is a musical treasure hidden in plain sight. He has played and recorded as a sideman for a variety of artists, including Cecil McBee, Tom Harrell, Weldon Irving and Sam Rivers, as a member of Wynton Marsalis' brass section in the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, The Duke Ellington Orchestra and several of Don Byron's bands. While he leads his own mainstream-oriented quintet, Zollar has recorded only one collection, the very fine Soaring With Bird (Naxos Jazz, 1998).

Twelve ...

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Eric Clapton & Jeff Beck at Madison Square Garden

by Doug Collette
March 7, 2010

Eric Clapton & Jeff Beck Madison Square Garden New York, New York February 19th, 2010

Eric Clapton was the perfect host during his appearance with Jeff Beck February 19th at Madison Square Garden. The man once likened to God could not have been more gracious had he played a more formal role of master of ceremonies. In his deference to Beck, Slowhand seemed intent on giving El Becko, his successor in The ...

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Chris Cheek / Victor Prieto: Rollo Coaster

by Dan Bilawsky
March 7, 2010

While all musical settings present different challenges to those involved, duo recordings can often be the hardest to manage well. Repetitive textural elements, characteristic of the instruments on hand, can create a certain similarity across all tracks. Some musicians fall prey to wandering free improvisation, finding various degrees of success or failure, as they try to navigate these waters and avoid unpleasant encounters with the only other musical voice on the map. Thankfully, that is not the case with saxophonist ...

like 223

Cage

by Gordon Marshall
March 7, 2010

I play the folk song twice once to ring out the singed changes, again in order that

nothing comes between you and me, however the notes pound for release from a cage...

A piece by Cage, you know the one, the 4' 33" of silence no one explains to satisfaction.

The notes--are there any, and, do they come to ground? I have a theory: ...

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douBt: Never Pet a Burning Dog

by John Kelman
March 7, 2010

Sometimes bringing two musicians together for the first time can yield some real magic. That was the case when British keyboardist Alex Maguire joined up with Michel Delville and members of the Belgian guitarist's flagship group, The Wrong Object, for Brewed in Belgium (MoonJune, 2008). Never Pet a Burning Dog largely pares things down to a trio featuring Delville, drummer Tony Bianco, and Maguire, who expands his sonic palette here to include electric piano, organ, synth, and that bastion of ...

like 236

The Harlequin Years

by Wayne Wolfson
March 7, 2010

I had been the third dreamer that she had lived with. Immediately preceding me, a 5'3" guitarist whose long hair was almost equal to his height but thinning, since it was taking him so long to “make it" as an established musician and then his friend, from a well to do family but considered incapable of ever running the family business. He was an art dilettante, plucking away at a bass and working menial jobs between allowance checks. ...