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Joanne Brackeen: Pink Elephant Magic
by Jack Bowers
This new recording showcases not one but two of Joanne Brackeen’s conspicuous talents, and is uplifted not only by her exemplary keyboard work but her persuasive writing as well. Brackeen, now some 30 years removed from her early service with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, writes with clear images in mind, and the results can be observed in such charming sound portraits as “Pink Elephant Magic,” “Ghost Butter,” “Filene’s,” “Beethoven Meets the Millennium in Spain” and “Cram ’n Exam” (a note–heavy ...
Continue ReadingJoAnne Brackeen: Pink Elephant Magic
by Jim Santella
From the march tempo and hard bop power of “Pink Elephant Magic" to the drifting ballad waltz time of “Filene’s," JoAnne Brackeen’s latest album covers a lot of territory. The pianist’s seven compositions, coupled with three familiar pieces, provide variety and result in a well-rounded set. Bret Primack’s informative liner notes are available on the ‘net at http://www.arkadiarecords.com . Brackeen has a forceful keyboard style that drives her ensemble with percussive power. Her thirty-year career includes experience with Art Blakey, ...
Continue ReadingJoanne Brackeen: Pink Elephant Magic
by Bob Margolis
A Master pianist other than a Flanagan, or a Peterson, is faced with the daunting task of recording something that separates them but allows for their brilliance to shine through. The subject of this piece has consistently been able to do this, primarily using vehicles other than the trio or solo format. Putting together perhaps her finest band since the late 1980's quartet featuring Billy Hart, Cecil McBee and Gary Bartz, pianist and composer Joanne Brackeen has just put out ...
Continue ReadingDavid Liebman: The Elements: Water
by Jim Santella
Influenced by John Coltrane, Lennie Tristano, and Charles Lloyd, then having interned with Elvin Jones and Miles Davis, saxophonist Dave Liebman has a lot to draw from when he sits down at the piano to compose. More about the session’s leader may be found at www.arkadiarecords.com . This album is just the first of four jazz suites to be created by Liebman; music that wakes up the listener’s imagination and successfully folds in modern mainstream jazz with tone poem imagery. ...
Continue ReadingDavid Liebman: The Elements: Water
by Jack Bowers
Water, the first of four Jazz suites by Dave Liebman inspired by the elements (Earth, Air and Fire are to follow) is designed to evoke images of water in its many forms and guises, from tranquil to chaotic, rivulet to ocean, droplet to deluge. Does it achieve its purpose? Perhaps so. But others will have to make that assessment. I’ve always had trouble with tone poems, classical or any other kind. Even with program in hand, they usually sound like ...
Continue ReadingEndless Miles: A Tribute to Miles Davis
by Jack Bowers
A well--formed program of contemporary Jazz (for the most part anyway), presented for a good cause as well. A part of the net proceeds from Endlessmiles, recorded by a number of all--star groups at New York City's Birdland on May 26, 1998--the 72nd anniversary of the late trumpeter's birth--will be used to help establish an endowment for young musicians, the MilesDavis.com scholarship, to be administered by the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE). Two of the eight songs ...
Continue ReadingDave Liebman: John Coltrane's Meditations
by AAJ Staff
When it comes seeing how adventurous a person is, John Coltrane's late period is one of the things that separates the men from the boys and the women from the girls. From 1965 until his death in 1967, Trane offered the most atonal of free jazz-and his music became so blistering that even some of his most ardent admirers shy away from his late period. But what frightens others is a challenge that Dave Liebman accepts with this CD, which ...
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