Jazz Articles about Damon Banks

About Damon Banks

Album Review

Italian Surf Academy + Denver Butson: Ennio Morricone Is Dissolving

Read "Ennio Morricone Is Dissolving" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
June 19, 2025

Diciassette frammenti poetico-musicali, svarianti da mezzo minuto a poco più di tre, raccolti in forma di suite in meno di mezz'ora, è quanto ci arriva da questo cd del trio diretto dal chitarrista napoletano Marco Cappelli, di fatto newyorchese d'adozione, abbinato alla recitazione di Denver Butson, autore del poema del titolo, spalmato su alcune delle tracce del lavoro. Diciamo subito che, come non di rado accade in contesti del genere, l'interazione fra le due componenti in gioco ...

Album Review

Arun Ramamurthy Trio: New Moon

Read "New Moon" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 16, 2024

Violinist Arun Ramamurthy is a first-generation Indian American artist. His ancestral roots in India run deep, and his musical roots there run deep, too. He has embraced American jazz but remains artistically tethered to his parents' homeland. 2014's' Jazz Carnatica (Self Produced) (review here), by his Arun Ramamurthy Trio, showcased his talents for walking the line between the old world and the new. New Moon, coming ten years after Jazz Carnatica, features, again, Sameer Gupta on drums and ...

Album Review

Hu Vibrational: Timeless

Read "Timeless" reviewed by Geno Thackara

by Geno Thackara
December 18, 2023

An Adam Rudolph recording is less a collection of musical pieces than of sound paintings. The elements he works with are musical ones--any instrument known to mankind might be used, and often even used to play notes--but traditions of form and melody tend to be tossed out the window from the start. The tones are treated as daubs of paint on a palette, splashed here and there whenever they will add something to whichever imaginary landscape he is evoking at ...