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Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York: Entity
by Karl Ackermann
As she did in 2019, pianist/composer Satoko Fujii—an artist at home in many formations—opens the new decade with an orchestra recording. Entity, from Fujii's Orchestra New York, is the eleventh release from the ensemble that has remained largely intact for almost twenty-three years. It is an all-star collective that includes saxophonists Oscar Noriega, Ellery Eskelin and Tony Malaby, trumpeters Natsuki Tamura and Herb Robertson, guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Ches Smith. Entity has its moments of tranquility but ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii Orchestra New York: Fukushima
by Karl Ackermann
Satoko Fujii's Orchestra New York has been together since their 1997 debut South Wind (Leo Lab/Libra). A “super group" by any standards, it has remained largely intact over the course of twenty years, bringing the ensemble to its latest release, Fukushima, a memorial suite. The Fukushima nuclear accident was caused by a major earthquake and a subsequent tsunami and was the worst such incident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Fujii was in Tokyo at the time, in 2011. There were ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii Orchestra New York: Fukushima
by Dan McClenaghan
In 2011 an earthquake set into motion the events that would create a partial meltdown of fuel rods in the reactors in the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan. Radiation was released. The effects are still felt, and will be for decades (at least)--an especially troubling situation for the only country to have experienced the initially catastrophic and ultimately corrosive and malignant aftermath of a nuclear attack. Satoko Fujii, the Japanese pianist/composer/band leader, has something to say about ...
Continue ReadingCurtis Hasselbring: Number Stations
by AAJ Italy Staff
Basta dare un'occhiata ai nomi che compongono il settetto chiamato The New Mellow Edwards e ci si rende subito conto che il gruppo è da paura. Sette musicisti, compreso il leader, tra i più attivi e influenti della scena newyorchese, ognuno titolare di progetti che stanno marchiando a fuoco le sorti del jazz contemporaneo, riuniti per dare vita alla musica scritta da Hasselbring. Il titolo del CD fa riferimento alle stazioni radio ad onda corta che trasmettevano serie di numeri ...
Continue ReadingCurtis Hasselbring: Number Stations
by Glenn Astarita
Many avant-garde composers, leaders or conductors employ various mechanisms to instruct the band for a specific composition. Here, longtime New York City alternative composer, trombonist Curtis Hasselbring integrates an all-star lineup for pieces inspired by a random series of numbers, based on shortwave radio stations. Hasslebring iterates that these pieces are hypothetically decoded and provide cryptic instructions for the musicians. However, the album is anything but cryptic as the leader bridges the jazz-rock idiom with New York City downtown scene-like ...
Continue ReadingCurtis Hasselbring: Number Stations
by Bruce Lindsay
Number stations are, apparently, shortwave radio stations that intermittently broadcast random series of numbers: a Cold War communication system that still lingers. Number Stations is an album by trombonist Curtis Hasselbring and his band, the wonderfully named New Mellow Edwards, that takes its inspiration from these mysterious transmitters.The tune titles are rather enigmatic, but help is at hand. The sleeve notes reveal that the titles “are hypothetically decoded from the numeric information stored in the composed music..." providing ...
Continue ReadingThe New Mellow Edwards: Big Choantza
by AAJ Italy Staff
Vi è un piacere tattile e visivo impagabile nell'affrontare le pubblicazioni della Skirl Records. Packaging cartonato e lucido formato DVD, immagini colorate dal forte impatto che occupano per intero le quattro facciate della confezione e che sembrano introdurre ad una qualche esposizione di pittura astratta, la completa assenza del segno grafico della parola, quindi niente note di copertina, date di registrazione, niente di niente. L'ascoltatore è quindi costretto ad affrontare l'audizione del CD senza punti di riferimenti, con la mente ...
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