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Jazz Articles about Kanoa Mendenhall
Grand/Nebbia/Sánchez/Mendenhall/Fernández: Altered Visions
by Mark Corroto
In July 1967, The Beatles released the single “All You Need Is Love," with “Baby, You're a Rich Man" on the flip side. It's not that the quintet performing “Wild Marks," the 33-minute track comprising the entirety of Altered Visions, is covering that Lennon-McCartney anthem. But the music presented here embodies the spirit of the idea that love is all you need. Altered Visions is the inaugural release from Lilailia Records, a label founded by three artists: saxophonists ...
Continue ReadingDayna Stephens: Closer Than We Think
by Jack Bowers
A few brief observations: first, New York-based Dayna Stephens is an excellent saxophonist. Second, the other members of his quartet on Closer Than We Think, Stephens' twelfth album as a leader, are similarly proficient. Third, Stephens clearly had a specific plan in mind before entering GB's Juke Joint to record the album in May 2023, one whose purpose, he writes, was to nurture a spirit of togetherness as an answer to today's divisive and fractured landscape. While ...
Continue ReadingMicah Thomas: Mountains
by Stefano Merighi
La prima traccia di Mountains, “Life," potrebbe suggerire un equivoco di fondo: un bel disco di jazz elegante, sgargiante nei colori, brillante nell'alternanza tra incedere orchestrale e voci individuali. Ma invece è solo l'incipit di un'opera ad alto tasso dialettico, che offre talmente tante soluzioni da frastornare. Micah Thomas (28 anni, ricordiamolo) ha già tutta la storia del jazz--e non solo--sotto le sue dita. E' un altro tra i numerosi pianisti e pianiste in grado di sintetizzare ogni ...
Continue ReadingMicah Thomas: Mountains
by Mike Jurkovic
It can never not be exciting and enthralling to listen to a young artist come into his or her own as pianist/composer Micah Thomas does on the very live, very rollicking, very palpable Mountains. Thomas' fourth disc as captain of the ship chronicles four hot sets in June of 2023 commissioned by The Jazz Gallery Residency Fellowship at New York's Jazz Gallery. The pianist and company get right down to it as Thomas delves headlong into ...
Continue ReadingJune Yun: Enlightenment - Solid Waves
by Dan McClenaghan
South Korean vocalist June Yun's compositional debut, Enlightenment -Solid Waves, explores the feelings and emotions elicited by the concepts of light and dark. These things are difficult to describe in words but translate, with her music, into compelling, atmospheric soundscapes full of shadows, apparitions, angelic imagery and mystical moods. Vid Jamnic's resonant vibraphone murkiness lays a backdrop for Yun's emotive clarity of expression on the disc's opener, “Little Mighty Soul." The lyrics are cryptic and bring to mind mid-career Joni ...
Continue ReadingJoel Ross: Nublues
by Chris May
Planning this, his fourth album as leader on Blue Note, Joel Ross set out to connect with a wider audience, to make things a little easier for listeners. The vibraphonist and composer says that, with hindsight, his previous work for the label has been too focused on the musicians in his band and rife with devices such as time and tempo changes which may have limited appeal for lay listeners. Thinking about the album during pandemic-enforced social isolation, Ross says ...
Continue ReadingMaria Grand: Reciprocity
by Hrayr Attarian
In a mere decade composer and saxophonist Maria Grand established herself as a refreshingly singular voice on the creative music scene. Both as a side-woman and a leader, Grand has matured into an expressive artist with a fluid style and a warm tone. Her second full-length release, the enchanting Reciprocity, well demonstrates Grand's talents in a sparse trio setting. Inspired by motherhood, the recording brims with an exalted joy. “Creation, Ladder of Swords" has a deep spiritual aura ...
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