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Robert Glasper: Canvas
by Jim Santella
As the paintbrush of modern mainstream jazz takes broader strokes across the canvas of contemporary music, Robert Glasper folds elements from several areas into his art. And that's what makes his performances so interesting.
His first album, Mood (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2004), introduced the pianist as an eclectic artist who takes jazz and blues to heart. The 26-year-old Houston native has made numerous connections in contemporary music circles, and has worked in different modes.
Canvas, however, places ...
Continue ReadingRobert Glasper: Canvas
by Chris May
Hallelujah! Another exciting young pianist emerges to take the classic piano trio tradition forward. This is Robert Glasper's second album--the first was Mood (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2003)--and at just 26, he is already cooking.
The marketing thrust which accompanies this album makes much of Glasper's supposed membership of the hip-hop massive. Truth is, he's got the locks, and he's the right age, but his music is firmly--gloriously--in the Tyner/Hancock/Jarrett tradition: harmonically and melodically rich, rhythmically virile, and ...
Continue ReadingMark Turner: Dharma Days
by David Adler
It took four Warner Bros. albums for Mark Turner to nail down his prodigiously advanced concept and find a dream band to help him do it. Dharma Days is the studio debut of Turner’s regular working quartet, with Kurt Rosenwinkel on guitar, Reid Anderson on bass, and Nasheet Waits on drums. This is a live band to the core, as was evident during its triumphant return to the Village Vanguard stage in late May, timed to coincide with the album ...
Continue ReadingMark Turner: Dharma Days
by C. Andrew Hovan
Jazz has its share of famous duos; names that just seem to go together. For example, let’s consider Al Cohn and Zoot Sims, Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and Johnny Griffin, Elvin Jones and John Coltrane, and the list goes on and on. Now we can add to this unofficial inventory the names of tenor saxophonist Mark Turner and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. These two go way back, from Mark’s first record as a leader ( Yam Yam ...
Continue ReadingMark Turner/Tad Shull: Two Tenor Ballads
by C. Andrew Hovan
The two tenor battle is not a new idea, with predecessors ranging from Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray to Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and Johnny Griffin. However, what we have here is not so much a competition but a complimentary pairing that makes the most of the individualistic styles of Mark Turner (a distinguished disciple of Lester Young and Warne Marsh) and Tad Shull (straight out of the Webster/Hawkins school of deep-throated tenors). It’s the contrast that makes for provocative listening, ...
Continue ReadingMark Turner: Ballad Session
by Mike Neely
Mark Turner’s Ballad Session presents a tenor saxophonist of extraordinary poise and emotional attunement. Throughout this recording Turner deftly maintains his balance, avoiding sentimentality, presenting a consistently direct emotional response to the compositions and to his fellow musicians. This disc reveals Mark Turner to be a young musician to watch carefully.
Pianist Kevin Hays is an especially attentive accompanist whose solos add to the emotional focus of this recording. Bassist Larry Grenadier plays a spare, loping bass that allows plenty ...
Continue ReadingM.T.B.: MTB - Consenting Adults
by C. Andrew Hovan
One has to wonder why it took over five years for this 1994 recording to make its debut. Certainly the quality is up to Criss Cross standards and the spirit of the session is unquestionably robust. Still, now that Brad Mehldau, Mark Turner, and Peter Bernstein (the first letters of their last names gives us M.T.B.) have become more established artists, this peek at an earlier effort is sure to initiate some lively discussion. In the cases of Turner and ...
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