Jazz Articles about Kim Cass

About Kim Cass

Album Review

Noah Preminger, Kim Cass: Thunda

Read "Thunda" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
April 19, 2021

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 ...

Album Review

Noah Preminger: Zigsaw: Music of Steve Lampert

Read "Zigsaw: Music of Steve Lampert" reviewed by Neri Pollastri

by Neri Pollastri
January 18, 2021

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, ...

Album Review

Noah Preminger: Contemptment

Read "Contemptment" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
November 14, 2020

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 ...

Album Review

Zack Clarke Trio: Vertical Shores

Read "Vertical Shores" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
March 9, 2020

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 ...

Album Review

Noah Preminger Group: Zigsaw: Music Of Steve Lampert

Read "Zigsaw: Music Of Steve Lampert" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
September 25, 2019

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 ...

Album Review

Noah Preminger Group: Zigsaw: Music Of Steve Lampert

Read "Zigsaw: Music Of Steve Lampert" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
September 18, 2019

Tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger has dedicated considerable effort into his imprint on jazz variations of the delta blues with Some Other Time (Newvelle, 2016), Pivot: Live At The 55 Bar (Self-Produced, 2016) and Meditations on Freedom (Self-Produced, 2017). Zigsaw: Music of Steve Lampert is a departure in concept and content with a single extended track composed by Steve Lampert. With this album, Preminger hits a new peak with the fourteenth album in his prolific career. Steve Lampert is ...