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Dave Glasser: Hypocrisy Democracy

by Dan Bilawsky
Something of a socio-political scythe--a title and tool cutting straight into the failing system that surrounds us--Hypocrisy Democracy is also a broad statement detailing the ceaselessly looping fallibility of man and his actions. It's saxophonist Dave Glasser's most probing work to date, bound to both our present state of affairs and the history it mirrors, and it's an album that, despite its bold conceit, actually needs no concept to latch itself onto. The music is that strong. ...
Continue ReadingSvetlana: Night at the Movies

by C. Michael Bailey
Russian-American singer-composer Svetlana (she has a last name, Schmulyian, but prefers the monomoniker) is onto something. Her debut recording, Night at the Speakeasy (OA2 Records, 2016) with her self-appointed Delancey Five, was a structured affair which concentrated on the music of the Jazz Age" (save for the Beach Boys' God Only Knows") performed in a Jazz Age fashion, featuring trombonist Wycliffe Gordon. Svetlana returns with another themed recording, Night At the Movies, again featuring Gordon, on a collection of film ...
Continue ReadingMatt Wilson: Honey And Salt

by Angelo Leonardi
Questo disco è talmente ricco di episodi e significati, denso di motivi e relazioni con la storia del connubio tra jazz e poesia, che una recensione dovrebbe trasformarsi in un saggio. Il nono album per la Palmetto di Matt Wilson è ispirato per intero dall'opera di Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) il grande poeta statunitense che è stato spesso presente nelle incisioni del batterista a partire dal suo esordio da leader in As Wave Follows Wave (Palmetto, 1996). Il progetto ...
Continue ReadingMark Sullivan's Best Releases of 2017

by Mark Sullivan
No genre breakdown this year. I've included every release that I rated at 4.5 stars or better, plus a number of 4 star reviews (that was the hard part, as there were lots of those). ECM had an exceptionally strong year, and I had trouble limiting my selection even this much. This is a chronological list, not a ranking. Club D'Elf Live at Club Helsinki Face Pelt Records Wingfield Reuter Stavi ...
Continue ReadingMatt Wilson: Honey And Salt

by Mark Sullivan
Drummer/composer Matt Wilson has a long-standing interest in Carl Sandburg's poetry: his debut as a leader, Wave Follows Wave (Palmetto, 1996), was named for a Sandburg poem; Humidity (Palmetto, 2003) included a Sandburg setting of Wall Shadows"; and An Attitude for Gratitude (Palmetto, 2012) featured the Sandburg-inspired Bubbles." But this project (begun in 2002 with the help of a Chamber Music America New Works grant) is entirely inspired by the poetry, and coincides with the 50th anniversary of Sandburg's death ...
Continue ReadingMatt Wilson: Honey And Salt

by Jerome Wilson
Drummer Matt Wilson has some personal connections to the great Midwestern poet Carl Sandburg in that they were both born in Knox County, Illinois and they are distantly related by marriage. Wilson has long been fascinated by Sandburg's writing and has done musical settings of his work for a long time but with Honey And Salt he finally devotes an entire CD to his poetry. He does this with the help of several musicians known for their own ...
Continue ReadingMatt Wilson: Honey And Salt

by Mark Corroto
We will forgive you if you believed drummer Matt Wilson's previous recording Beginning Of A Memory (Palmetto, 2016) was a summing-up of his career to date. On that recording he invited just about every musician he has worked with as a leader. The conspicuous absence was, of course, Dewey Redman, who had passed on in 2006. Nonetheless, his latest project,Honey And Salt, music inspired by the poetry of Carl Sandburg, is an album he has been making since he strode ...
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