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Fabian Almazan: Alcanza
by Angelo Leonardi
Giunto al quarto disco da leader, Fabian Almazan s'impone con un'opera ambiziosa e appassionante, che ha ricevuto superlativi giudizi dai massimi jazz magazine statunitensi. Alcanza è una suite in nove movimenti con tre brevi interludi incisa dallo stesso organico del precedente album Rhizome (Artist Share, 2014): ovvero il piano trio con la bassista Linda Oh} e il batterista Henry Cole, più la cantante Camila Meza e un quartetto d'archi. Laureato alla Manhattan School of Music, allievo di ...
Continue ReadingFabian Almazan: Alcanza
by Hrayr Attarian
There is no doubt that pianist and composer Fabian Almazan's Alcanza is a unique and boldly inventive work. On it Almazan deftly fuses the tonality and stylings of a string quartet with those of his piano trio. He also adorns this captivating composition with the scintillating romanticism of guitarist and vocalist Camila Meza's hypnotic singing. The collective sound that results is more than just a sum of coexisting parts, instead it is an elegant and delightful musical amalgam.By ...
Continue ReadingFabian Almazan: Alcanza
by Troy Dostert
When his debut record, Personalities, was released in 2011, pianist Fabian Almazan put everyone on notice: this was a musician unafraid to take some big chances with his craft. That album began with a piece by Shostakovich (augmented with a string quartet and electronics, no less), and it effectively established the trajectory Almazan has continued ever since, in which classical, Latin, and post-bop jazz-based musical languages fuse together in ways that are consistently startling and path-breaking. Although he's proven himself ...
Continue ReadingFabian Almazan: Rhizome
by Mark F. Turner
Pianist Fabian Almazan may have initially been recognized for his prodigious skills as a member of Terence Blanchard's ensemble but his debut Personalities(Biophilia Records, 2011) unveiled not only the depth he possesses as a musician but also something Blanchard realized in many of his own recordings--Almazan's forte as a composer. This should not come as a surprise since the young New York based rising star is involved not only in jazz but also filming scoring projects which included a Sundance ...
Continue ReadingFabian Almazan: Espejos
by DanMichael Reyes
Intent is one of those intangible qualities that make a jazz musician. While traits like technical facility, memory, harmonic and rhythmic sophistication play a huge part in the career and development of the aspiring jazz artist, intention is the X-factor that can make a performance special. In an art form that demands spontaneity and thrives within improvisation, hearing what you're going to play before you play it--in some cases hearing it as you play--is crucial in order to get your ...
Continue ReadingFabian Almazan: Personalities
by Mark F. Turner
Fabian Almazan began creating some buzz with his sparkling piano chops in trumpeter Terence Blanchard's group on Choices (Concord Music Group, 2009). Originally from Havana, Cuba, Almazan is not only one of the young rising stars in New York, but is also classically trained and has received a number of awards as a composer in film, chamber and orchestral projects. Many of these disciplines come into play on this auspicious debut, which includes Almazan's equally convincing trio ...
Continue ReadingSuresh Singaratnam: Lost in New York
by Raul d'Gama Rose
The breathtaking narrative of Lost in New York is couched in an abstract interplay between performers and their instruments, as they describe what must have been a most challenging newcomer's journey to that often forbidding city. Trumpeter Suresh Singaratnam's high-wire act documents every nuance with some of the most rarefied excursions to emerge from a horn. An astute observer of his own life and those around him, Singaratnam allows the angst of being, and observing, to permeate the heated rush ...
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