Jazz Articles

like 441

John Surman: Listen and Trust

by Thomas Conrad
September 5, 2009

John Surman is arguably the best baritone saxophonist to come into jazz since Gerry Mulligan and one of the most important British jazz musicians of his generation. Yet he has rarely performed in the United States and never as a leader. Therefore it is no exaggeration to describe his upcoming gig at Birdland as a genuine event. The most significant recent development in the jazz art form is globalization. There are now more major jazz innovators emerging outside ...

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Bern Nix

by Martin Longley
September 5, 2009

The guitarist Bern Nix is principally known as a key member of Ornette Coleman's Prime Time band, the almost sole practitioners of harmolodic funk. The exact “rules" of harmolodic funk have never been completely clear to anyone other than its creator, but remnants of Ornette's head-heart-groin style are still discernible in Nix' current playing approach, even though he now sounds increasingly rooted in the jazz tradition. In fact, this New York resident cites Charlie Christian as a significant influence and ...

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James Carney: Ways & Means

by Terrell Kent Holmes
September 5, 2009

Pianist James Carney takes the parameters involved in scoring films and applies them with the discipline of a jazz composer on the ambitious Ways & Means, the kind of challenging and cohesive work that listeners have come to expect from this exemplary musician. Carney's band is as great a gathering of talent as one can find and they don't waste a note in his intricate arrangements. The excellence of Tony Malaby's tenor and Josh Roseman's trombone drive ...

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John O'Gallagher: Dirty Hands

by David Adler
September 5, 2009

Saxophonist John O'Gallagher and bassist Masa Kamaguchi have a history. They documented their intense, ruminative interplay on O'Gallagher's two-volume CIMP session of 2004, Rules of Invisibility, featuring Jay Rosen on drums. Dirty Hands, recorded in Portugal during a 2007 European tour, is a continuation of that history, although this time we hear the leader and Kamaguchi with veteran drummer Jeff Williams, who has lent much textural acuity to Axiom, O'Gallagher's burning double-sax quartet.

Rules found O'Gallagher playing both alto and ...

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Darcy James Argue's Secret Society: Infernal Machines

by Ted Gordon
September 5, 2009

From the first listening of this album, it is clear that Darcy James Argue intends to make a strong statement about the boundaries of musical genres--of jazz and new music--as well as about musical aesthetics and technology. This album consists of Argue's compositions for “big band" (or “large ensemble," depending on whom you ask) with a dark, modernistic edge; most numbers contain pulsating drumbeats and wildly spiraling minor and diminished harmonies. An electric guitar, often distorted, also pops up here ...

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Violin Twofer: Stefano Pastor & Mark Feldman

by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
September 5, 2009

Stefano Pastor Chants SLAM Productions2009 Mark FeldmanMusic for Violin AloneTzadik2009 The liner notes for Chants describe the record as being “a dialogue of Stefano Pastor with the other part of himself, a confrontation with his shadow." Shadow selves are no strangers to creative endeavors and popular music has recently seen a recent surge in ...

like 341

Joey Baron: Secrets, I Believe & Live at the Vortex

by Kurt Gottschalk
September 5, 2009

Mark Feldman / Uri Caine / Greg Cohen / Joey Baron Secrets Tzadik 2009 Daniel Zamir I Believe Tzadik 2008 Julian Siegel Trio Live at the Vortex Basho Records 2008 For a good 25 years, Joey Baron's every moment behind the drums has looked like his ...

like 219

Global Unity: Belgium

by Tom Greenland
September 5, 2009

Brussels Jazz Orchestra The Music of Michael Herr W.E.R.F. 2008 Nicolas Thys Virgo Pirouet 2009 Fred Van Hove Journey Emanem 2008

Belgium is associated with many things besides jazz but three new releases show, however, that she should be lauded for producing high ...

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Jessica Lurie: Shop of Wild Dreams & Laws of Motion

by Kurt Gottschalk
September 5, 2009

Jessica Lurie Ensemble Shop of Wild Dreams Zipa!/Spoot Music 2008 The Tiptons Sax Quartet Laws of Motion Zipa!/Spoot Music 2008 Jessica Lurie came to many people's attention through the Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet, an energetic group from Seattle named for the circa '50s saxophonist better known for living and passing as a man ...

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Baritone Sax: Chalie Kohlhase & Lauren Sevian

by Jeff Stockton
September 5, 2009

Charlie Kohlhase's Explorer's Club Adventures Boxholder 2009 Lauren Sevian Quartet Blueprint Inner Circle Music 2009

Baritone saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase's Explorer's Club got its start as the Boston-based CK5: two horns, guitar, bass and drums, so adding a trombone to the mix didn't seem like too much of a stretch ...