Jazz Articles about Matt Mitchell

About Matt Mitchell

Album Review

La musica contenuta in questo album trae spunto da una commissione ricevuta da Miguel Zenón per la composizione di una suite basata sulla storia di San Francisco e della Bay Area, evidenziando in particolare i contributi offerti da parte delle comunità giapponese, cinese, messicana e, ovviamente, afroamericana. Ne è nata così questa Golden City, presentata in anteprima al San Francisco Jazz Center nel 2022 e incisa poi a fine novembre dell'anno seguente. Per l'occasione Zenón (portoricano, lo ricordiamo) ...

Radio & Podcasts

Matt Mitchell, Josephine Davies & Francisco Andrade

by Maurice Hogue
September 30, 2024

Several dynamic album debuts in this episode, highlighted by brilliant pianist Matt Mitchell with his long-standing trio of bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Dan Weiss. Despite the countless hours of rehearsals and gigs, Zealous Angles is the first recording by the three. Portuguese saxophonist Francisco Andrade brings a fresh new approach with his new Linhas E Formas, while his English counterpart, Josephine Davies, continues to document her trio, Satori. German bassist Robert Landfermann brings his robust sound and composing skills ...

Album Review

Miguel Zenon: Golden City

Read "Golden City" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
September 22, 2024

The alto saxophone rose to jazz prominence in the 1940s, under the influence of Charlie Parker and the birth of bebop. Important players such as Art Pepper, Lee Konitz and Ornette Coleman took the horn in their own directions, crafting distinctive alto saxophone voices. Moving ahead to the new millennium, no alto saxophonist has entered the tradition with more style and panache than Miguel Zenon. His Alma Aldentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook (Marsalis Music, 2011), Tipico (Miel Music, 2017) and ...

Album Review

Kim Cass: Levs

Read "Levs" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
August 22, 2024

Cosa c'entrano Karlheinz Stockhausen, Arnold Schoenberg e Pierre Boulez con l'arte visiva e con l'inchiostro delle partiture? Ce lo spiega nelle sintetiche e un po' enigmatiche note di copertina lo stesso Kim Cass, bassista dalle frequentazioni eccellenti e dalla mente aperta. Poi, si sa, quello che conta è il risultato finale, dove la miscela degli ingredienti utilizzati deve risultare perfettamente amalgamata e cotta a puntino. Ed è quello che succede in Levs. A proposito di menti aperte, Kass ...

Album Review

Matt Mitchell: Zealous Angles

Read "Zealous Angles" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
August 15, 2024

Among 2024's contenders for the most tireless and ambitious pianists in creative music, one has to put Matt Mitchell near the top of the list. When he is not working as a sideman alongside other pathbreaking musicians like Miles Okazaki, Ches Smith, Darius Jones or Kim Cass, he is busy crafting his own idiosyncratic compositions and assembling the uniquely capable ensembles required to bring them into being. Earlier standout efforts included 2017's A Pouting Grimace (Pi Recordings) and 2019's Phalanx ...

Album Review

Miles Okazaki: Miniature America

Read "Miniature America" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
July 31, 2024

Ventidue miniature svarianti da uno a sei minuti, con impegnati sottoinsiemi (o microgruppi, se preferite) estrapolati dal totale dei dieci elementi, sette strumentisti e tre cantanti, coinvolti nell'operazione, è quanto ci offre questo nuovo lavoro discografico (il dodicesimo, ci viene detto) a nome del cinquantenne chitarrista Miles Okazaki, con la partecipazione di svariati musicisti di punta dell'attuale scena newyorchese (e non). Ogni episodio possiede--fisiologicamente, verrebbe da dire--un aplomb cameristico di sicuro fascino, anche se è inevitabile che il ...

Album Review

Dan Weiss: Even Odds

Read "Even Odds" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
April 25, 2024

Drummer and composer Dan Weiss turns his experiments and percussion exercises into compositions on this trio recording Even Odds. In other words, he composes, not on a piano, but with his drum kit for the twenty tracks heard here. That fact may not be groundbreaking except that Weiss recorded those tracks and sent the music to alto saxophonist Miguel Zénon and pianist Matt Mitchell to contemplate before gathering in the studio to improvise in this overdubbed recording. Weiss' ...