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Paul Marinaro: Not Quite Yet
by Richard J Salvucci
The cover of the album is vaguely noir, with the urban greenish cast of tungsten film. A sole figure leans slightly against a building, downcast, staring into his soul, and waiting out a lit cigarette when it was still hip to smoke. The guy is Frank Sinatra and the album was In The Wee Small Hours. The year is 1955. It is difficult to believe that Chicago-based vocalist Paul Marinaro has even been born, but clearly, Sinatra will make an ...
Continue ReadingHinda Hoffman Meets Soul Message: People
by Jack Bowers
When preparing a meal, the balance of ingredients matters. A little too much here, not quite enough there, and any recipe can fall short of expectations. On the album People, Hinda Hoffman, one of Chicago's finest jazz singers, is paired with the splendid quartet Soul Message, a blend which one might expect to produce a tasty and tantalizing feast for the ears and heart. Instead, Hoffman sounds rather like a fish out of water, laboring to lend ...
Continue ReadingHinda Hoffman meets Soul Message: People
by Angelo Leonardi
Da alcuni anni la scena musicale di Chicago è tornata sotto i riflettori grazie all'innovativo impulso di musicisti come Makaya McCraven, Tomeka Reid, Junius Paul, Jeff Parker, Jaimie Branch, Angel Bat Dawid, il collettivo Irreversible Entanglements e al ruolo propulsivo dell'etichetta International Anthem. Anche se poco conosciuti oltre la metropoli dell'Illinois, la cantante Hinda Hoffman e la Soul Message Band incarnano invece il cuore caldo della tradizione coi suoi stretti legami col blues e il soul. Legami ...
Continue ReadingMatt Ulery's Delicate Charms: Live at the Green Mill
by Troy Dostert
One of the central figures of Chicago's thriving jazz scene, bassist Matt Ulery has cultivated fruitful relationships with a core of compatriots who embody the grit and beauty of the music coming out of the Windy City. He maintains a host of projects, one of the foremost being Delicate Charms, a group that released its self-titled debut in 2019 on Woolgathering Records; alto saxophonist Greg Ward, pianist Rob Clearfield, drummer Quin Kirchner and violinist Zach Brock assist Ulery in creating ...
Continue ReadingMakaya McCraven: Deciphering the Message
by Angelo Leonardi
Il debutto in casa Blue Note di Makaya McCraven è un omaggio alla storia musicale dell'etichetta, espresso ovviamente in prospettiva personale. Come ha fatto nei suoi dischi recenti—e in particolare nell'omaggio a Gil Scott-Heron (We're New Again, XL Recordings 2020)-il batterista e produttore di Chicago usa creativamente la tecnologia sperimentata dai DJ e produttori di hip-hop e club culture, in prospettiva nuova. Il classico repertorio Blue Note degli anni cinquanta e sessanta suscita l'attenzione delle subculture giovanili ...
Continue ReadingMatt Ulery: Delicate Charms
by Neri Pollastri
Nuovo album del contrabbassista chicagoano Matt Ulery, che riunisce in quintetto alcuni suoi frequenti collaboratori per realizzare un lavoro di brillante e articolato jazz moderno. La formazione vede il leader affiancato dal pianista Rob Clearfield e dal batterista Quin Kirchner, mentre la front line è composta dal sax contralto di Greg Ward e dal violino di Zach Brock, che con Ulery ha recentemente pubblicato l'ottimo Wonderment. L'ora abbondante di musica, tutta del contrabbassista, si suddivide in sette brani ...
Continue ReadingQuin Kirchner: The Shadows and The Light
by Mark Corroto
Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam war film, Apocalypse Now, was released in 1979. After sitting for 2 and ½ hours, a viewer might have hoped for theater management to stand at the exits to hand out pamphlets explaining what had just gone down. The conflict had ended 4 years prior, and most war movies, pre- Vietnam, were straight-forward, America-saves-the-world affairs. Goodnight. In between a surf crazed Robert Duval, Playboy Bunnies, and the insane Colonel Kurtz played by Marlon Brando, the movie ...
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