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Jeremy Pelt: Tomorrow's Another Day
by Alberto Bazzurro
L'avvio non è dei più incoraggianti, lambendo abbastanza pericolosamente la deriva dell'easy listening, ma poi, per fortuna, le cose migliorano e questo nuovo lavoro di Jeremy Pelt, virgulto ormai quarantottenne di certo “nuovo" jazz, riprende abbastanza convintamente la retta via. O meglio la strada maestra, perché è questo il nuovo verbo cui il trombettista californiano fa riferimento, glissando con una certa disinvoltura su tutto quanto avvenuto dopo (o attorno a) l'epoca aurea di suoi colleghi di strumento quali Clifford Brown, ...
Continue ReadingJeremy Pelt: Tomorrow's Another Day
by Jack Bowers
Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, a force on the jazz scene for more than two decades, simply does his own thing on Tomorrow's Another Day, the twenty-fourth album as leader of his own groups, inviting any interested listeners to come on board for the ride. Pelt's thing these days apparently includes an abundance of special effects, reverb, heavy (and at times intrusive) rhythms, leavened with occasional flashes of the remarkable improviser he can be and often is. To help ...
Continue ReadingJalen Baker: Be Still
by Neil Duggan
When studying to become a jazz drummer, students are often exposed to other percussion instruments in the course of their studies and sometimes that results in finding a specialty. That was the case for Jalen Baker, who started experimenting on the vibraphone and has now gone on to be one of the most compelling players around. Be Still is his second album. It follows on from his debut album, This Is Me, This Is Us (Outside in Music, 2021). He ...
Continue ReadingJalen Baker: Be Still
by Pierre Giroux
Tenor saxophonist and record executive Cory Weeds presents another album in the series of releases by up-and-coming black artists, to give them a voice which might not otherwise be heard. In this case, the artist is vibraphonist Jalen Baker; he and his frequent collaborators, pianist Paul Cornish, bassist Gabriel Godoy and drummer Gavin Moolchan, run through some songs which have been both inspirational and representational to Baker as his career has developed. The opening number “T'Was" ...
Continue ReadingJalen Baker: This is Me, This is Us
by Troy Dostert
Joining the ranks of young vibraphonists with skills galore, Jalen Baker brings a lot to the table on his debut record, This is Me, This is Us. Like Joel Ross, Sasha Berliner and Warren Wolf—the last of whom provides liner notes for the album—Baker's ambition goes beyond instrumental virtuosity. His compositional aims are just as impressive, as he offers a string quartet to complement several of his smartly written pieces, many of which reference pressing social and political challenges.
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