Jazz Articles

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Mark Mosley: Mark's Mood

by Matthew Warnock
September 4, 2009

Mark's Mood is a blues-driven, bop-based release from Washington, D.C. based guitarist Mark Mosley. The disc, released as a six-song EP, provides an anticipatory glimpse into the musical musings of the bebop-oriented guitarist. Laced in blues-based vocabulary, reminiscent of the late, great Wes Montgomery, Mosley and company are never afraid to take chances, often stepping out into unexpected and challenging musical territory, providing a sense of unpredictability throughout the album. Featuring a mixture of Mosley originals and jazz ...

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Tierney Sutton Band: Live at Iridium

by Ernest Barteldes
September 4, 2009

Tierney Sutton Band Iridium Jazz Club New York City August 21, 2009

Backed by her longtime band formed by Chris Jacob (piano), Kevin Axt (bass) and Ray Brinker (drums), vocalist Tierney Sutton took the stage at the famed New York City jazz club with a set mostly based on her album Desire (Telarc, 2009), a collection of standards that focus on songs about love--won, unrequited and lost.

The concert opened with “Heart's ...

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Part 2 - Fela Anikulapo Kuti and the sack of Kalakuta Republic

by Chris May
September 4, 2009

Part 1 of the Afrobeat Diaries looked at the circumstances surrounding Fela Kuti's 1974 album Alagbon Close (Jofabro), the first of Kuti's discs so explicitly to expose the brutality and injustice then, as now, rampant among the Nigerian police and judiciary. Part 2 first relates the consequences of that brave album, which began with a police attack on Kuti's self-declared “Kalakuta Republic"--the live/work compound he'd established for himself and Africa 70--on 23 November, 1974. The attack was ...

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Samuel Blaser: Pieces of Old Sky

by Dan McClenaghan
September 4, 2009

Pieces of Old Sky could be called furtive jazz. The quartet--trombone, bass, guitar and drums--sneaks around the perimeter of the room, leaving big swaths of space. It sounds as if there are mysteries in this music, secrets in Samuel Blaser's sonic world. Swiss-born trombonist Blaser treads a free jazz territory that is similar in sound and scope to Henry Threadgill's, with drifting, amorphous melodies, telepathic group interplay and unwavering conviction. The ensemble prowls in stealthy, communal fashion on ...

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simakDialog: Demi Masa

by Chris M. Slawecki
September 4, 2009

simakDialog--the complex, electrifyingly joyous brainchild of guitarist Tohpathy and composer-keyboardist Riza Arshad--was born in the Indonesian capitol of Jakarta in 1993. Arshad, who wrote and produced all of Demi Masa, their fifth album, won Best Jazz Producer honors at the 2003 Indonesian Music Awards for simakDialog's album Trance/Mission (2002, Ragadi Music), also voted that year's Best Jazz/Contemporary Jazz Album.

Arshad's adventurous, exploratory structures obviously come from the jazz-rock fusion perspective. But what distinguishes Arshad's sound is his powerful ...

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Tom Knific Quartet: Lines of Influence

by Matthew Warnock
September 4, 2009

Lines of Influence is an energetic and exciting modern jazz release by multi-talented bassist/accomplished jazz educator Tom Knific. Featuring several generations of past students alongside his son, John, Knific has assembled an ensemble that not only represents his accomplishments as an educator and mentor, but performs at a level that only a working band can. Their interaction has been formed over several years of jamming, rehearsing and gigging together in various venues across the Midwest. Their years of ...

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Kenny Barron: The Traveler

by Florence Wetzel
September 4, 2009

The Traveler is a delicious offering of ten beautiful songs by pianist Kenny Barron. Eight of the tunes were composed by Barron, and each one is brimming with his famous lyricism. Most of the songs feature solid underpinning by Kiyoshi Kitagawa (bass) and Francisco Mela (drums), and in addition the CD features a variety of guests who add their own unique voices. Soprano saxophonist Steve Wilson, a superb player with an intimate, conversational tone, appears on three ...

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Laurence Hobgood: When the Heart Dances

by Joel Roberts
September 4, 2009

Laurence Hobgood is one of those artists whose undeniable talents beg the question, “Why isn't he better known?" In Hobgood's case, part of the reason may be that he's spent most of the past decade and a half in a supportive role, as pianist and musical director for singer Kurt Elling--a pretty good gig, but one that may have prevented him from garnering more attention. At any rate, it's no exaggeration to call the 49-year-old Chicago-based musician one of the ...

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Ryan Blotnick: Everything Forgets

by Wilbur MacKenzie
September 4, 2009

Guitarist Ryan Blotnick has been intermittently active in New York for years now, but since the release of his debut recording as a leader, Music Needs You, his activities have taken him throughout the world, with his own groups and also with Michael Blake, Pete Robbins and Kresten Osgood. Blotnick's second record, Everything Forgets, travels through a wide array of textures, moods and atmospheres, at one moment careening through a dense cloud of rhythms, then gliding through ...

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Patrick Moraz / Bill Bruford: In Tokyo

by John Kelman
September 4, 2009

Known as the art rock drummer who ultimately found his way to jazz, Bill Bruford doesn't appear to be letting up. It's been a busy year: the supposedly retired drummer published his thoroughly engaging Bill Bruford: The Autobiography (Jawbone, 2009) and participated in a whack of interviews; he's released what he claims will be his final album of “new" material, Skin and Wire (Summerfold, 2009) (teaming the intrepid drummer with contemporary keyboard group Pianocircus, performing music by composer Colin Riley); ...