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Patricia Brennan: More Touch
by Mike Jurkovic
It's uncanny how More Touch, vibraphonist Patricia Brennan's scarily good follow-up to her head-turning debut Maquishti (Valley of Search, 2021) follows one around all day. Its essence is in the air, in the room, in the conversation. It sneaks around the corner and races down the stairs, out into the street, and breaks into any and all of the machinations that drive the day. Born of its own fevered animation, the music on More Touchis brazen. Atmospheric yet ...
Continue ReadingNoah Preminger: Thunda
by Mike Jurkovic
There's a fascinating, affirmative equilibrium coursing throughout Thunda that words may fall short of. It's a music of purity and wonder spoken by survivors of the oddest year. It's a broad, fearless conversation between two big thinkers and all who choose to listen in, either by accident or design. Simply stated, you'll find yourself easily lost in the tight, exquisite mazes created and crafted freely by fellow metropolitans saxophonist Noah Preminger and bassist Kim Cass. “Slaughter" is a ...
Continue ReadingNoah Preminger, Kim Cass: Thunda
by Alberto Bazzurro
Noah Preminger è uno di quei musicisti che amiamo definire sul crinale: molto rispettosi della tradizione, dotati di un solismo sfavillante, robusto, grammaticalmente impeccabile, rischiano di rimanere ingabbiati in un manierismo che la loro perizia strumentale e padronanza lessicale in senso lato possono arrivare persino a presupporre, trasformando il tutto in una prigione dorata quanto alla fine priva di sbocchi (quanto meno creativi). Preminger, in realtà, ci aveva regalato sempre, nei suoi svariati album ascoltati prima di ...
Continue ReadingNoah Preminger: Zigsaw: Music of Steve Lampert
by Neri Pollastri
Noah Preminger prosegue nella pubblicazione di lavori estremamente interessanti, stavolta dirigendo e interpretando un'opera non sua, ma da lui commissionata al trombettista e compositore Steve Lampert—esperienze vastissime a partire da quelle giovanili con Lionel Hampton e Gerry Mulligan, fino a maturare una personale concezione dell'improvvisazione. Si tratta di un singolare brano unico, lungo oltre quarantotto minuti, fittamente strutturato, ma al tempo stesso illuminato dalle improvvisazioni dei singoli. Il titolo, Zigsaw, rimanda da un lato all'andamento zigzagante della musica, ...
Continue ReadingNoah Preminger: Contemptment
by Mark Corroto
If you followed saxophonist Noah Preminger's early career you might have read an interview where he revealed his fascination with boxing. The fact that he trained in the sweet science for nearly a decade while making music is evident in the pugilistic blues heard on self-released albums Pivot: Live At The 55 Bar (2015) and Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground (2016). On those two recordings and Genuinity (Criss Cross, 2018), he had a perfect sparring partner in ...
Continue ReadingZack Clarke Trio: Vertical Shores
by Alberto Bazzurro
Ottime vibrazioni ci trasmette questo terzo album (più un paio di collaborazioni) a nome del giovane pianista texano (newyorchese d'adozione) Zack Clarke. Vivace, corporale, la partenza ("Foreign Waters"), con successivi momenti di stasi-ripiegamento, sospensioni, in un'alternanza di umori decisamente premiante sul piano delle dinamiche, la cui vivacità rappresenta a conti fatti l'elemento di maggior rilievo del disco. Un avvio più scuro, distillato, ci accoglie nel brano che segue, “Toward Helios," a sua volta in progressivo crescendo, pur ...
Continue ReadingNoah Preminger Group: Zigsaw: Music Of Steve Lampert
by Dan McClenaghan
With Zigsaw: The Music of Steve Lampert, saxophonist Noah Preminger presents his most ambitious album to date. Trumpeter-composer Lampert writes cerebral, avant-garde compositions. Preminger, rather than diving into a collection of Lampert tunes, takes on a single forty-nine minute magnum opus piece that zigzags back and forth between structure and openness, with an all-star septet that creates a sometimes brash, sometimes dreamy and rambling sound. Describing this sound: a sonic jigsaw stew comprised of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew ...
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