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Reggie Quinerly: The Thousandth Scholar
by Chris May
The Thousandth Scholar is Los Angeles-based drummer and composer Reggie Quinerly's fifth album, each out on his Redefinition label. Quinerly themes his albums. His debut was Music Inspired By Freedmantown (2012), a tribute to the Houston neighborhood where he was born and raised. It was followed by Invictus (2015), a salute to hard bop, Words In Love (2018), which dealt with vocals, and New York Nowhere (2021), a portrait of life in the city (Quinerly studied at the New School ...
Continue ReadingTyshawn Sorey Trio: Continuing
by Karl Ackermann
Tyshawn Sorey listeners who were weaned on his Pi Recordings, The Inner Spectrum of Variables (2016), Verisimilitude (2017), and Pillars (2018), were probably unprepared for the swinging trio outing Mesmerism (Pi, 2022). With the multi-instrumentalist Sorey on drums, Aaron Diehl on piano and Matt Brewer on bass, the group delivered one of the best piano trio albums of the year. Later in 2022, they issued a live recording, The Off-Off Broadway Guide to Synergism (also on Pi), adding saxophonist Greg ...
Continue ReadingMike Moreno: Standards From Film
by Chris May
At last. An enjoyable alternative to the ghastly albums of “jazzed up" hymns and Christmas carols which spew forth every holiday season. There is nothing overtly Christmassy about guitarist Mike Moreno's Standards From Film, but it is appropriate that the album, recorded in New York in December 2021, was released in the UK in early December 2022 and came out in the US a month or so earlier. It nails the seasonal nostalgia spike and then some. ...
Continue ReadingTyshawn Sorey Trio: Mesmerism
by Hrayr Attarian
Composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey is an idiosyncratic and restless explorer. An accomplished percussionist, he is known for blurring, if not completely erasing, the boundaries between the pre-written and the improvised. This has led him to work in a modern, Western Classical, idiom, albeit one rooted in the jazz tradition. After conducting the twenty-piece Alarm Will Sound on his critically acclaimed For George Lewis / Autoschediasms (2021, Cantaloupe Music), Sorey returns to the piano trio format on the accessible yet ...
Continue ReadingTyshawn Sorey Trio: Mesmerism
by Jerome Wilson
In the '60s, it was common to criticize avant-garde jazz musicians by saying they could not swing. Drummer and composer Tyshawn Sorey has travelled far beyond mainstream jazz through his “new music" composing and collaborations with other cutting edge musicians such as Vijay Iyer and Roscoe Mitchell. Now he confounds expectations by leading a piano trio which definitely swings but with its own unique way of exploring rhythm and melody. The trio is filled out with Aaron Diehl ...
Continue ReadingTyshawn Sorey: Mesmerism
by Angelo Leonardi
«Ho sempre accolto con favore l'opportunità di suonare questa musica—dice Tyshawn Sorey-. Dopo essere stato etichettato come un cosiddetto “avanguardista" per quasi due decenni, ho deciso che era giunto il momento di realizzare questa session con musicisti che rispetto e ammiro profondamente». Un piano trio in omaggio alla tradizione può risultare sorprendente per chi ha seguito il batterista e compositore a capo di sue innovative formazioni e in partnership con Vijay Iyer, Steve Lehman, John Zorn, Steve ...
Continue ReadingTyshawn Sorey Trio: Mesmerism
by Mark Corroto
To say that Mesmerism by the Tyshawn Sorey Trio is a departure from the drummer's regular programming is an understatement. Rather than perform his own compositions, he has assembled this trio to perform some jazz classics and standards. Sorey only held a brief rehearsal before recording this studio session. Typically, he prefers intricate arrangements and repeated run-throughs before documenting his ensembles. Here he relies on pianist Aaron Diehl and bassist Matt Brewer's ingrained knowledge of standards and musical instincts. Diehl ...
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