Jazz Articles

like 221

Rez Abbasi: Things to Come

by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
September 3, 2009

It may be a new day in America but we're all still keenly interested in identity. This is a statement of sociopolitical reality, but it is also an observation of musical trend. In the liner notes for Things to Come, guitarist Rez Abbasi writes about recording music that “is neither jazz nor Indian; it has its own identity." In order to understand this statement, it is worth mentioning that Abbasi is an accomplished guitarist of Pakistani ancestry and his group ...

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Luciana Souza: Tide

by Ian Patterson
September 2, 2009

On Tide, Brazilian vocalist Luciana Souza displays all the attributes that brought her the Jazz Journalists Association's female jazz vocalist of 2005 award. Her voice is never less than captivating at either end of a notable vocal range and holds the attractive mix of worldly maturity that comes with age, and a seductive suavness. Beautifully crafted songs with melodies which lull, embrace, and envelop the listener reveal a singer/songwriter at the top of her game.

Souza shares songwriting ...

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Keith Rowe: One Bird Flying Through

by John Eyles
September 2, 2009

In early June 2009, multi-instrumentalist Keith Rowe made one of his rare visits to London to play a concert at Cafe Oto as part of Another Timbre's Unnamed Music Festival in a trio with saxophonists Martin Kuchen and Seymour Wright, before heading north to Leeds to play another set the following evening with the same trio. Having been in the audience for the first night of the festival--and seeing fine sets by Sebastian Lexer and Aleks Kowalski, Rhodri Davies, Lee ...

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Tom Chant / Angharad Davies / Benedict Drew / John Edwards: Decentred

by John Eyles
September 2, 2009

When the Another Timbre label was launched in autumn 2007, proprietor Simon Reynell expressed his desire to release contemporary composition alongside improvised music, with the understandable proviso that it was more expensive to release. To date, the label's releases have been dominated by improvised music. There was a fine release of compositions by Frank Denyer, played on shakuhachi by Yoshikazu Iwamoto. However, a promised album by John Tilbury of pieces by John Cage and Terry Jennings remains unreleased and seems ...

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Jack Cortner Big Band / Peter Hand Big Band / Chicago Jazz Philharmonic

by Jack Bowers
September 2, 2009

Jack Cortner Big Band Sound Check Jazzed Media 2009

For someone who waited so long before taking his first swings as leader of his own big band, Jack Cortner shows again on Sound Check, the band's second impressive recording in as many years, that he's got game. He's also got a bevy of the New York area's leading sidemen to anchor the ensemble, and a superlative featured soloist in longtime friend and ...

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Pianocircus featuring Bill Bruford: Skin and Wire

by John Kelman
September 2, 2009

For his final release of “new" music, percussionist Bill Bruford collaborates with Pianocircus—an all-keyboard ensemble best-known for its unique coverage of largely contemporary classical music, fitting somewhere between Steve Reich and Phillip Glass' systems music and the avante leanings of Estonian Erkki-Sven Tüür and David Lang. With four of Pianocircus' six members alongside Bruford and bass guitarist Julian Crampton, Skin and Wire features music by Colin Riley, who occupies similar territory, but adds elements of electronics and ambient music to ...

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Take Five With Alejandro Florez

by AAJ Staff
September 2, 2009

Meet Alejandro Florez:Guitarist Alejandro Florez earned a Master's degree in Jazz Performance and Composition from the University of North Texas before moving to NYC. He now performs in various jazz and Colombian bands, and works as a composer/arranger, session player and educator. Alejandro's current projects include “Tibagui," which performs his original music; the Alejandro Florez Trio, with which he performs original jazz; the free improvisation trios “Apama" and “Torus," and the quartet “Trichrome Roach"; and the Gallo/Florez Duo, ...

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Luca Aquino: Lunaria

by Nicholas F. Mondello
September 2, 2009

Not very long ago, there was an interesting best-selling fiction book entitled Einstein's Dreams (Random House, 1992). In it, author Alan Lightman depicted what might have been the unusual dreams of a young Albert Einstein as he developed his Relativity Theories. Each short chapter covered time/relativity-related dreams of places where time went in reverse, stood still, or looped a la the 1993 film Groundhog Day. Lunaria seems to send up what might be the wildly vivid, musical dreams made real ...

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Al Hood: Just a Little Taste: Al Hood Plays the Writing of Dave Henson

by Chris M. Slawecki
September 2, 2009

You might not know trumpet player Al Hood, but he's the pro's pro: he's toured with the official Harry James and Glenn Miller tribute bands, recorded and performed in ensembles led by Ray Charles, Curtis Fuller, Arturo Sandoval and others, and is a longstanding member of the Denver Brass. He's also a tenured professor at the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music, as is pianist Dave Hanson, who played on and arranged this Little Taste, Hood's first date as ...

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Dave Liebman / Michael Stephans: Nomads

by Chris Kompanek
September 2, 2009

Veteran saxophonist Dave Liebman is no stranger to experimentation, cutting his teeth playing with Elvin Jones and then Miles Davis' groundbreaking fusion group in the '70s. Drummer/poet Michael Stephans has played with everyone from Pharoah Sanders and John Patitucci to classic rock legends David Bowie and The Rolling Stones. On Nomads, the duo takes on many genres and multiple instruments; the result an ambitiously eclectic album, wandering the musical gambit from originals to reharmonized standards and forgotten pieces by jazz ...