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Denny Zeitlin: Live at Mezzrow
by Dan Bilawsky
Coming up on two decades of creative engagement and evolution, pianist Denny Zeitlin's group with bassist Buster Williams and drummer Matt Wilson remains one of the most bracing, sophisticated and creatively satisfying trios on the scene. In the best of times, a set like this, recorded live at Spike Wilner's New York piano room Mezzrow, can serve as a reminder of the virtues of camaraderie, depth of feeling, design strength and the art of living in the moment. Arriving at ...
Continue ReadingSvetlana Shmulyian: Night at the Movies
by C. Michael Bailey
Russian-American singer Svetlana Shmulyian has blended an East Europe/Russia combination of elegant determination and delicate grit into the American Songbook on her debut recording Night at the Speakeasy (AO2 Records, 2016), and then film music on Night at the Movies (Starr Records, 2020). The artist surprised listeners by dropping an outtake from Night at the Movies, “Young and Beautiful" from The Great Gatsby (Warner Bros., 2013) in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. “Young and Beautiful" was ...
Continue ReadingDave 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 ...
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