Jazz Articles

like 264

Dan DeChellis Trio: Organic Material

by Hrayr Attarian
August 30, 2009

Good ideas need to be expanded upon rather than repeated, since even the best of them may lose their appeal with multiple restatements. Dan DeChellis' Organic Matter is full of interesting musical concepts that are not really explored to their fullest; rather, they are repeated with each track multiple times, creating a pleasant, hypnotic effect that, in the end, remains heavy on form and light on substance.

The exception is the the lengthy “You're So Perceptive," which starts off sounding ...

like 425

Charles Mingus: Mingus Ah Um: 50th Anniversary Legacy Edition

by Stuart Broomer
August 30, 2009

This special edition marks the 50th anniversary of bassist Charles Mingus' 1959 Columbia masterpiece, one of the great records in a year that included Miles Davis' Kind of Blue (Columbia), John Coltrane's Giant Steps (Atlantic) and Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come (Atlantic). The Legacy edition is a two-CD set that also includes Mingus' second Columbia record of 1959, Mingus Dynasty, as well as alternate takes. It restores portions that were edited out on the original LPs in ...

like 184

Chet Baker / The Bradley Young Trio: Chet In Chicago

by Andrew Velez
August 30, 2009

The reservation approaching this late-in-his-career and previously unreleased 1986 set happily proved to be unwarranted. Attending a dismal Chet Baker set in a brief-lived New York Village club that same year left me sad and depressed at the state of his playing and appearance, vowing to enjoy him only on record. Yet here he is in quite splendid form, uniquely melancholic and lyrical with “We'll Be Together Again." Although he doesn't sing on this song, those familiar with Baker will ...

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Ayelet Rose Gottlieb: Upto Here | From Here

by Elliott Simon
August 30, 2009

Singer/songwriter Ayelet Rose Gottlieb's last project, an interpretation of the Bible's erotic Song of Songs, was a genre-straddler that succeeded both instrumentally and vocally. With Upto Here | From Here she stretches out with very strong originals in the presence of some NYC jazz stalwarts: drummer Take Toriyama, bassist Ed Schuller, pianist Anat Fort, saxophonist Loren Stillman and trumpeter Avishai Cohen. This modern jazz session highlights her voice as an integral instrument in what becomes a texturally heady setting.

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The Sound and HTML: Introducing the AAJ Orchestra

by Peter Cobb
August 30, 2009

In many discussions about jazz's future, people have argued that the Internet will be the next 52nd Street for the music. Sadly, like many things Web, there has been more sizzle than steak. But not always--this past weekend I played a gig with the All About Jazz Orchestra (AAJO), a group that existed purely in binary code up and until the moment we performed. The orchestra grew out of the lively online forums on the All About Jazz ...

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Joel Frahm / Bruce Katz: Project A

by Mark F. Turner
August 29, 2009

Joel Frahm and Bruce Katz's Project A is not a codename for a scientific research program or some covert operation, but, instead, a finger-snapping, toe-tapping tribute to the original Queen of Soul, singer Aretha Franklin. Frahm, a superlative saxophonist who has worked with Maynard Ferguson, Brad Mehldau and Kurt Rosenwinkel, is joined by Bruce Katz, a master Hammond B3 player and pianist, who is well known in R&B, blues and rock circles, having performed with Gregg Allman ...

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Melissa Walker: In The Middle Of It All

by Raul d'Gama Rose
August 29, 2009

If there was something similar to “method acting" in music and it were not so passé a word, then it would be tempting to suggest that Melissa Walker's In The Middle Of It All is such a master class. As it happens, the record is a lot more than that, hinting at griot traditions and as exemplary a work in the contemporary troubadour tradition as anything put out today. It is cause for celebration that Walker, an enigmatic vocalist--because of ...

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Depeche Mode at Madison Square Garden, NYC

by Mike Perciaccante
August 29, 2009

Depeche Mode Madison Square Garden New York, New York Tuesday, August 4, 2009 Depeche Mode are survivors. The band has been through many incarnations. Founded in 1979 as French Look by Vince Clarke with Martin Gore, the band rechristened itself as Composition of Sound when Andrew Fletcher signed on, and finally as Depeche Mode in 1980 when Dave Gahan joined. Although the band's 1981 debut, Speak and Spell (Sire), became a major ...

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Carl Maguire's Floriculture: Sided Silver Solid

by Lyn Horton
August 29, 2009

The second recording for pianist Carl Maguire's group Floriculture, Sided Silver Solid, presents a refined sensibility for instrumentation that demonstrates its potential for a larger, even orchestral, application. Accompanied by the members of his quintet, violist Stephanie Griffin, reedman Oscar Noriega, bassist John Hebert and drummer Dan Weiss, Maguire exercises his capacity for charting sonic courses that show strength, ingenuity, solidity and, most of all, character.

At no time, do any of the instruments sink to a place of Insignificance, ...

like 721

U2 in Concert in Zagreb, Croatia

by Nenad Georgievski
August 29, 2009

U2 Maksimir Stadium Zagreb, Croatia August 9, 2009

What is it that makes a concert stand out as a great one? Is it the musicians' mastery of their instruments? Is it the way the songs were crafted? is it the way the musicians communicate with their audience? Is it seeing the band members pouring their hearts and souls into the performance? Is it the show--spectacle unfolding before the eyes of the audience? Or ...