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Jazz Articles about Joëlle Léandre
Damon Smith, Peter Kowald, Joëlle Léandre & Bertram Turetzky: Bass Duos 2000-2007
by Jeff Schwartz
One function of recordings is to document a performer's development. Damon Smith's Bass Duos 2000-2007 not only captures his artistic and technical evolution, his choice of duet partners represents the expanded options for the bass in creative music since the 1960s. Two of the three discs in this set were previously released, but they have been remastered by Weasel Walter. The unreleased disc is excellent and, as Smith highlights in his liner notes, the combination of these ...
Continue ReadingJoëlle Léandre: Zurich Concert
by Mark Corroto
A solo concert by the double bassist Joëlle Léandre is a happening, an event of the highest order. She is very much like a writer or poet who starts with a blank sheet of paper, bringing to life characters and places seemingly drawn from thin air. Of course, like the writer, Léandre's alchemy is born out of years of study, practice, and performance. From her roots in the south of France, she studied classical music before training and performing in ...
Continue ReadingJoëlle Léandre / Evan Parker / Agustí Fernández / Zlatko Kaučič: A Uiš?
by John Sharpe
Though the instrumentation on A Uiš evokes the classic jazz quartet, the outcome resides a world away from that tradition. To celebrate 40 years as a professional musician, Slovenian drummer Zlatko Kaučič assembled a quartet of top drawer improvisers for a 45-minute collectively navigated journey, recorded live at the jazz festival in his home town of Cernko in 2018. Each boasts an unrivalled track record and the discography to prove it. Each is a groundbreaking leader. British saxophonist Evan Parker ...
Continue ReadingTiger Trio: Unleashed
by John Sharpe
Three leading exponents of their instruments unite on Unleashed. Since their first collaboration in Vancouver in 2009, French bassist Joëlle Léandre and American flutist Nicole Mitchell have enjoyed a simpatico outlook, as evidenced by a clutch of Rogue Art releases including Before After (2011) and Sisters Where (2014), as well as Flowing Stream (Leo, 2014). Joining them on this occasion, pianist Myra Melford fully buys in to the freewheeling collective approach aired in a Paris gallery in early 2016.
Continue ReadingJoëlle Léandre alla chiesa Saint-Eustache di Parigi
by Francesca Odilia Bellino
Joëlle Léandre Chiesa di Saint-Eustache Joëlle Léandre sur les routes. 40 ans de tribulations Parigi 28.11.2016 1976-2016. Joëlle Léandre fissa due coordinate storiche per celebrare la sua prima permanenza negli Stati Uniti (Buffalo), i successivi quarant'anni sulle strade del jazz, e il suo punto d'arrivo ideale, a casa, finalmente in Francia. Le tre etichette storiche con cui la Léandre ha inciso negli ultimi anni--Nato, Fou Records e Rogue Art--festeggiano insieme a lei i ...
Continue ReadingJoëlle Léandre: A Woman's Work...
by Mark Corroto
How do you sum up the career of an improvising artist like Joëlle Léandre? Do you reissue a package of recordings from her 40 years of performance? That is probably not possible, given the multiple labels and the location and ownership of the masters. Besides, free improvisation, almost by definition, dissipates (or probably should dissipate) upon performance. Recordings contain only a fraction of the whole experience. When it comes to Léandre's oeuvre, total immersion in her music is the only ...
Continue ReadingHrayr Attarian's Best Releases of 2016
by Hrayr Attarian
Many other writers have submitted superb Best of/End of year lists, so another similar one would be redundant. As women instrumentalists in jazz have been historically underrepresented to great degree and remain a minority even today, below is a list with a feminist bent. These 12 exquisite albums are either by women or prominently feature women. An example of the latter is cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum's Enter the Plustet that showcases, among other masterful improvisers, guitarist Mary Halvorson, cellist Tomeka ...
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