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James Brandon Lewis Quartet: Molecular
by Alberto Bazzurro
Trentotto anni, di Buffalo, James Brandon Lewis è uno dei più solidi tenorsassofonisti della sua generazione. A confermarcelo arriva questo suo nuovo lavoro in quartetto inciso a inizio 2020 (quindi fra gli ultimi ante-pandemia) in cui la solidità di cui sopra si manifesta sotto diversi profili: il suono, post-coltraniano aggiornato (non senza una patina di lirismo più o meno sotterraneo che rimanda a Gato Barbieri), le geometrie e gli equilibri quartettistici (complessivi), la cifra compositiva (tutti del sassofonista gli undici ...
Continue ReadingJames Brandon Lewis, Chad Taylor: Live In Willisau
by Vic Albani
Il set finale dell'edizione 2019 del festival di Willisau in Svizzera (uno degli appuntamenti di assoluto riferimento del jazz contemporaneo della stagione festivaliera europea) è tra quelli da ricordare. Ovvio che per far sì che questo accada i protagonisti dello stesso debbano essere “a livello" e se, come in questo caso, si chiamano James Brandon Lewis e Chad Taylor è allora facile comprendere il perché di tanto riscontro e successo. Oltre a improvvisazioni e brani firmati dai due citati, brani ...
Continue ReadingSoundpath
by Victor L. Schermer
Muhal Richard Abrams (1930-2017) was a revered pianist, composer and teacher of great capability and range who, in addition to his own achievements, inspired and influenced many jazz musicians in both the mainstream and avant-garde categories. Largely self-taught as a result of a personal decision to follow his own path, and early on pursuing church music, big band, blues, bebop and avant-garde jazz in his home city of Chicago, he grasped music from its roots, and so was able to ...
Continue ReadingRob 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 ReadingEric Revis: Slipknots Through a Looking Glass
by John Sharpe
On Slipknots Through a Looking Glass, bassist Eric Revis helms a five strong unit to experimental ends juxtaposing emotionally ambiguous abstraction with gut punch drive. To cover the bases he unites saxophonists Bill McHenry and Darius Jones from the quartet which waxed In Memory Of Things Yet Seen (Clean Feed, 2014), with the pianist Kris Davis from Sing Me Some Cry (Clean Feed, 2017), along with drummer Chad Taylor who powered both. Joining on two numbers out of 11 is ...
Continue ReadingDavid Lord: Forest Standards Vol. 2
by Troy Dostert
Although his many years spent on the expansive plains of Wichita, Kansas, wouldn't make it likely that guitarist David Lord developed an obsession with the darker recesses of forest life, his music certainly conveys a deep appreciation of that somewhat otherworldly realm. On his Forest Standards Vol. 1 (BIG EGO Records, 2018) and current Vol. 2 follow-up, Lord's song titles reveal a particular fondness for fungi of all kinds—Coltricia, Polypores, and other colorful, quietly growing things which nonspecialists will undoubtedly ...
Continue ReadingJames Brandon Lewis: Molecular
by Dan McClenaghan
Saxophonist James Brandon Lewis offers up an introductory statement in the album packaging as a preface to the liner notes of Molecular. His train of thought is difficult to follow. He leaves an impression of not being a “normal" person, in the best possible sense of that assessment. It is the impression of a deep-thinking artist working hard to pin down elusive truths, tying molecular biology and “African American quilting, spirituals, jazz, the abstract paintings of Wassily Kandinsky, the molecular ...
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