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Drew Gress: The Irrational Numbers
by John Kelman
Bassist Drew Gress returns with the same group from 7 Black Butterflies (Premonition, 2005), but The Irrational Numbers is more than a logical continuation of Butterflies' postmodern lyricism. Instead, it's an album of more vivid extremes, ranging from detailed writing to even freer improvisational exchanges and an overall greater sense of adventure. Not that Butterflies was anything but intrepid, but Numbers ups the ante with ten Gress originals, proving the old adage about being the sum total of one's experiences. ...
Continue ReadingThe Claudia Quintet: For
by AAJ Italy Staff
Un nome che evoca seriosi ensemble cameristici, un gruppo di improvvisatori con un background che copre tutto l’arco costituzionale di generi e stili musicali, una combinazione di strumenti acustici alquanto insolita dalle potenzialità sconosciute e dagli sviluppi imprevedibili. The Claudia Quintet, l’ennesima formazione del vulcanico e poliedrico John Hollenbeck, nata nel 1997 dalla ceneri del trio Refuseniks, è tutto questo e molto altro. L’assenza di qualsiasi segno scritto sulla copertina del CD, invasa da strane forme geometriche che contornano opalescenti ...
Continue ReadingDrew Gress: 7 Black Butterflies
by AAJ Italy Staff
Lo swing ed il senso orchestrale della musica sono gli aspetti che sembrano emergere con maggior evidenza dall’ascolto di questo CD. Una qualche riedizione dei fasti del jazz classico, con un quintetto che ripropone canonicamente i tradizionali concetti di melodia, armonia e ritmo, la sacra triade del jazz puro e duro? Niente affatto, se l’ensemble in questione è formato da alcuni dei musicisti più avventurosi e iconoclasti del jazz newyorchese. Perché nelle nove tracce dell’album, tutte ad opera del contrabbassista ...
Continue ReadingOlivier Le Goas Quartet: Gravitations
by AAJ Italy Staff
Ventinove anni, francese, Olivier Le Goas è qui al suo album d'esordio. Un esordio forse tardivo rispetto agli standard d'età dei 'giovani musicisti emergenti' cui siamo abituati, ma indubbiamente un esordio sontuoso. Per gli illustri compagni di ventura, che lungi dall'essere uno specchio per le allodole per ascoltatori poco avveduti, sono piuttosto una conseguenza (oltre che, naturalmente, uno dei fattori causali) dell'elevatissima qualità della musica questo album. E, appunto, per la musica in esso contenuta. E' sufficiente scorrere l'elenco dei ...
Continue ReadingOlivier Le Goas Quartet: Gravitations
by Matt Cibula
Who the heck is Olivier Le Goas, and why do you need to know about him, like, tout de suite?
The 39-year-old drummer, who's much better known in Europe than he is here, has studied classical music, has led trios and other groups in his native France, and has even played in New York with some of the hippest guys around.
Gravitations should serve as his coming-out party. It's full of ambitious and spiky hard bop compositions, played with what ...
Continue ReadingLiam Noble: Romance Among The Fishes
by AAJ Staff
In his informative album notes to this invigorating recording, British pianist Liam Noble writes that he wanted to create a music in which he and his collaborator, guitarist Phil Robson, interacted as two equal voices rather than as soloist and accompanist. He wanted flexible, organic, mutating rhythmic ideas to underlie the lead players, which is precisely what bassist Drew Gress and drummer Tom Rainey provide. Romance Among The Fishes is the very rewarding result.
This music produces constant interplay, sometimes ...
Continue ReadingLiam Noble: Romance Among The Fishes
by Bev Stapleton
If some of the commentary in the jazz press is to be believed, it can only be a matter of time before European jazz musicians sail up the Potomac to burn Washington again. Jazz in America, so the thesis goes, is dead. The baton has been passed to Europe.
Such ideas would presumably be quite puzzling to the musicians on Romance Among the Fishes. This group, under the leadership of British pianist Liam Noble, was put together for a performance ...
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