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Jazz Articles about J.D. Parran
JD Parran and Mark Deutsch, Daniel Carter, & Irreversible Entanglements
by Maurice Hogue
California Street Sessions, a new duo recording by reed master JD Parran and bassist Mark Deutsch, is intriguing, particularly when consider the instrumentation: Parran plays a seldom-heard contralto clarinet while Deutsch plays the bazantar, a hybrid bass that he invented himself. The music's excellent too. Other new albums sampled this week come from Daniel Carter and his Telepathic Band, Kris Davis' Diatom Ribbons, Vancouver's Malleus Trio, and saxophonist Andrew Rathbun. Plus--there's always one of those--a preview of Protect Your Light ...
Continue ReadingAmir ElSaffar River of Sound Orchestra: The Other Shore
by Neri Pollastri
Secondo disco per la Rivers of Sound Orchestra, ensemble creato nel 2015 da Amir ElSaffar con il preciso intento di esplorare in modo originale le culture musicali delle sue origini. ElSaffar è infatti nato negli Stati Uniti da madre statunitense e padre di origini irachene; avvicinatosi precocemente alla musica, ha coltivato quella jazzistica dalla discoteca paterna e quella classica dalle frequentazioni della madre; musicista dalle collaborazioni di altissimo livello--tra gli altri Cecil Taylor e Vijay Iyer--solo da adulto si è ...
Continue ReadingJabbo Ware - The Me We & Them Orchestra: Vignettes in the Spirit of Ellington
by AAJ Italy Staff
La prima domanda che si pone dopo l’ascolto di Vignettes in the Spirit of Ellington riguarda questo Jabbo Ware che riesce a mobilitare una big band con aggiunta di archi, percussioni e corni francesi e presenta un omaggio a Duke Ellington così forte, denso, logico e coinvolgente. Dopo una breve ricerca si scopre che ha un curriculum di lungo corso e tutto rispetto: all’inizio sassofonista r&b, poi in collettivi d’avanguardia come il Black Artists Group of St Louis, ma senza ...
Continue ReadingJD Parran & Mark Deutsch: Omegathorp: Living City
by Jeff Stockton
JD Parran is a consummate musician's musician, a multi-reedist who has performed in a wide variety of settings, most notably with Julius Hemphill and members of St. Louis' Black Artists Group, as well as Anthony Braxton's ensembles; he was also a member of the horn section Robbie Robertson introduces at the start of The Band's Rock of Ages. Recorded live at NYC's Merkin Concert Hall on September 12, 2002, Parran and bassist Mark Deutsch co-lead a group that includes pianist ...
Continue ReadingAndrew Hill: A Beautiful Day
by C. Michael Bailey
Dusk was only the beginning to this part of the story...I cannot listen to Andrew Hill’s new big band recording without thinking of him and his band as a relatively well-behaved Sam Rivers and the Rivbea Big Band. Of course, that horribly shortchanges the 65 year-old Chicago native who’s Palmetto debut, Dusk, was considered by many critics as the best jazz recording on the year. Add to that that Blue Note’s Alfred Lion considered Hill his last great ...
Continue ReadingAndrew Hill: A Beautiful Day
by Jack Bowers
"There is plenty going on," designated cheerleader Stanley Crouch informs the reader, on composer / pianist Andrew Hill's latest album, A Beautiful Day, which showcases Hill's sixteen-piece big band in a concert performance last January at New York's famed Birdland nightclub. “With a vision given to great plasticity," Crouch writes, “[Hill] has found his own ways to reinterpret 4/4 swing, the blues, the romantic or meditative ballad, and the Afro-Hispanic rhythms that have almost invariably connected one generation of Jazz ...
Continue ReadingAndrew Hill: A Beautiful Day
by Jon Wagner
Sometimes a live recording captures the dynamism and vibe of a band that's really “on." In ideal situations, the musical energy is obvious right off the bat, continues throughout the set, and winds up on a disc. The listener thinks: “Man, I would love to have been at that gig." Andrew Hill's new release A Beautiful Day is one of those recordings. Hill is a pianist who's been around for a long time and played in many different ...
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