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Rob Mazurek / Exploding Star Orchestra: Dimensional Stardust
by Karl Ackermann
Composer, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist Rob Mazurek has made his Exploding Star Orchestra the centerpiece of his larger groups. In this formation, he finds ample room to channel his disparate influences such as Sun Ra and Bill Dixon, and the distinctions he's absorbed as a global citizen. On Dimensional Stardust Mazurek and a dozen collaborators present an energetic, always changeable, genre-less mélange of styles held together by imagination and daring. The imposing Exploding Star Orchestra includes flautist Nicole ...
Continue ReadingAngelica Sanchez & Marilyn Crispell: How To turn the Moon
by Dan McClenaghan
Fans of piano jazz might have a preference for the trio format—piano/bass/drums. Or they might like their piano straight, no chaser, with solo piano sets. There is no shortage of trio and solo recordings floating around for our listening enjoyment. But two pianos? Rare, though not unheard of. Brad Mehldau and Kevin Hays offered up the excellent Modern Music (Nonesuch Records) in 2011; and Vijay Iyer and Craig Taborn presented us with one of the finest jazz albums of the ...
Continue ReadingAngelica Sanchez: Float The Edge
by Glenn Astarita
Here, New York City-based pianist Angelica Sanchez employs the herculean rhythm section of Michael Formanek (bass) and Tyshawn Sorey (drums) and is the follow-up to her duet outing with renowned trumpeter, composer Wadada Leo Smith, Twine Forest (Clean Feed, 2014). Sanchez can be quite cerebral and is irrefutably focused while also showing a penchant for injecting harmonious motifs into her body of work. For the most part, she seldom takes the band into extended free-form jaunts while also ...
Continue ReadingAngelica Sanchez: Float The Edge
by John Sharpe
Pianist Angelica Sanchez has become an in demand side person since her move to NYC from Arizona in 1995, performing with Wadada Leo Smith, Tony Malaby, Kevin Norton, Harris Eisenstadt, and Susie Ibarra, among many others. But her own leadership discography remains slighter than might be expected. Surprisingly Float The Edge represents her first entry as part of a traditional piano trio. As if to make amends, Sanchez has recruited strong players in bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, ...
Continue ReadingAngelica Sanchez Quintet: Wires & Moss
by AAJ Italy Staff
L'aura di Tim Berne aleggia lieve sopra questa ottima band. Quattro su cinque componenti del Quintet provengono infatti da molte avventure con Tim, episodi di formazione fondamentali per la loro maturazione. Brava Angelica dunque, a sceglierli e a guidarli con discrezione ma risoluta fermezza. Sanchez è in un periodo di notevole intensità creativa: il solo piano, il lavoro nel Golden Quartet di Smith e questo quintetto. Che, a un primo ascolto, è piuttosto spiazzante: composizioni meditative, che non forzano mai ...
Continue ReadingAngelica Sanchez Quintet: Wires & Moss
by Glenn Astarita
Perceptive composer and cunning improviser, educator/keyboardist Angelica Sanchez has risen to the A-list of modern stylists and innovators. As history dictates, she largely summons the crème-de-la-crème of like-minded artists for her solo endeavors. Indeed, Sanchez's burgeoning discography for Clean-Feed records bears witness to her resourceful persona. On Wires & Moss, she traverses a route initiated upon evocative moods and jarring tone poems. “Soaring Piasa" is an 11-minute opus designed with guitarist Marc Ducret's angular and creaky extended notes ...
Continue ReadingAngelica Sanchez: A Little House
by Mark F. Turner
More than any other instrument, the solo piano seems to reveal a deeper glimpse into the musician's insight. This has proven true in recent works like Geri Allen's Flying Toward the Sound (Motema, 2010), Craig Taborn's Avenging Angels (ECM, 2011), and here, with Angelica Sanchez's equally absorbing A Little House . Sanchez's voice has gained notoriety in working with a coterie of like-minded individuals--saxophonist Tony Malaby (also her husband), drummer Paul Motian, and Wadada Leo Smith's Organic ...
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