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Miles Okazaki: The Sky Below
by Glenn Astarita
Electric guitarist Miles Okazaki—also using electronics—and his rhythm section comprise three-fifths of alto sax great Steve Coleman's current band, as keyboardist Matt Mitchell rounds out this quartet for the leader's second release for Pi Recrodings, but his fifth album overall. And while the album length is a little over 39-minutes, many artists are cutting back some to accommodate the resurgence of LPs. However, quality is the key as Okazaki's idiosyncratic playing and multitiered compositions yield the knockout punch, framed on ...
Continue ReadingTim Berne's Snakeoil: The Fantastic Mrs. 10
by Mark Corroto
Imagine Tim Berne as the lead in the 1980's' American television series The A-Team, declaring: “I love it when a plan comes together!" He must return to that catchphrase every time his ensemble Snakeoil finishes a recording. After four outings on Manfred Eicher's ECM Records, the previous being Incidentals (2017), he moves his A-Team to Intakt Records. The Fantastic Mrs. 10 confirms this ensemble is on par with the saxophonist's other great band, Bloodcount, with Chris Speed, Jim Black, Michael ...
Continue ReadingMatt Mitchell: Phalanx Ambassadors
by Vincenzo Roggero
Partiamo da “Phasic Haze Ramps." Perché con i suoi sedici minuti è il brano più lungo e occupa praticamente un terzo dell'intero album. Perché è il fulcro dell'incisione, l'esaltazione del modus operandi di Matt Mitchell, il centro nevralgico dal quale tutto parte e tutto ritorna. Sin dall'inizio sono coinvolti tutti gli strumenti. Che avanzano in punta di piedi, perlustrano lo spazio, intraprendono percorsi che a loro volta si aprono a nuove prospettive e a nuove esplorazioni. La ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii, Angles 9, Here’s to Us & More
by Maurice Hogue
I would never presume to know enough about music to compare two of the most brilliant pianists in jazz today: Matt Mitchell and Satoko Fujii. Feel free to go ahead and do that yourself. All I'll say is that they are both amazing and worthy of all the recognition that comes their way. Each has a new recording out and those get sampled in this episode. Mitchell's Phalanx Ambassador is as complicated and challenging (for his musicians as well as ...
Continue ReadingMatt Mitchell: Phalanx Ambassadors
by Troy Dostert
Pianist Matt Mitchell's music can be appreciated on a number of levels. It's remarkably cerebral, on the one hand, with a conceptual apparatus that sometimes verges on the impenetrable; yet there are also moments in which the many moving parts of his compositions come together in ways that are quite emotionally powerful. And then there's simply the element of wonder: the “how does he do it?" factor. Mitchell himself asserts that the music on Phalanx Ambassadors, his latest release, is ...
Continue ReadingDustin Carlson: Air Ceremony
by Vincenzo Roggero
Dando un'occhiata alla formazione troviamo Kate Gentile, batterista sempre più assidua in dischi e in gruppi importanti, Matt Mitchell, nome ormai affermato nel jazz che conta, qui impegnato al mitico Prophet 6, Nathaniel Morgan ed Eric Trudel ai sassofoni, Danny Gouker alla tromba, abituali frequentatori del jazz meno canonico, il bassista Adam Hopkins presenza attiva della nuova scena newyorchese e infine Dustin Carlson, chitarrista e compositore (tutti i brani portano la sua firma) dalla idee in perenne movimento. Come la ...
Continue ReadingMatt Mitchell, un pianoforte declinato al futuro
by Luca Canini
Se da un lato c'è Tim Berne che ti affida le chiavi del suo quartetto, e dall'altro Steve Coleman che al momento di mettere qualcuno davanti a una tastiera non esita a comporre il tuo numero, vuol dire che qualcosa di buono al pianoforte lo sai fare. Certo, poi serve anche altro per uscire definitivamente allo scoperto; servono idee, talento, c'è bisogno di una visione e di conferme. Magari sotto forma di un paio di dischi a tuo nome, di ...
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