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Rez Abbasi: Django-shift
by Friedrich Kunzmann
Talking about shifting. American guitarist Rez Abbasi seems capable of shifting shape and changing form from one project to the next like a creature from a J.R.R. Tolkien adventure—almost beyond recognition. If it weren't for the guitarist's inspired fret fingerings and rushed scale runs giving him his utterly unique spark. Between much praised quintet recording Unfiltered Universe (Whirlwind Recordings, 2017) and the Indian-infused collaboration Indo-Pak Coalition comprised of himself, Dan Weiss and Rudresh Mahanthappa releasing Agrima (Self Produced, ...
Continue ReadingSusan Tobocman: Touch & Go
by Nicholas F. Mondello
A glance at the song list presented here--some rather unique choices, for sure--could lead one to assume that this album warrants a listen. What really slams things home, however, are Susan Tobocman's exceptionally slick arrangements of said selections, her excellent vocal skills, and some fine solo playing. With Touch & Go Tobocman—a Detroit native and now a New Yorker--offers five originals which are enveloped by a number of Top 40 re-imagined hits and a trio of standards ...
Continue ReadingRez Abbasi: Django-shift
by Karl Ackermann
Django Reinhardt's music is so ubiquitous that it's easy to forget his career was relatively brief. The gypsy guitarist/composer had recorded hundreds of 78s and acetates before he died of a stroke in 1953 at age forty-three. On many early sides, he played a six-string banjo-guitar hybrid tuned in the standard tuning of a guitar. Norman Granz produced the only full LP Reinhardt session two months before the artist passed. Along with over twenty posthumous compilation releases, Nuages (Verve, 1953) ...
Continue ReadingSusan Tobocman: Touch & Go
by Troy Dostert
A triple-threat musician with significant talent as a vocalist, composer and arranger, Susan Tobocman's path to jazz was an unconventional one. Her early interest in poetry led to a scholarship that took her from her hometown, Detroit, to New York, for study at Columbia University. That in turn led to an interest in musical theater, followed by a stint managing the Jimi Hendrix-founded Electric Lady Studios, and then some touring work with the Tom Tom Club. Only afterward, during her ...
Continue ReadingDaniel Hersog Jazz Orchestra: Night Devoid of Stars
by Jerome Wilson
Daniel Hersog is a Canadian trumpet player and composer, here presenting his first big band album, a set of sweeping and progressive orchestral jazz which reflects the current state of the world with shifting moods of unease and cautious optimism. Hersog has a expansive style of writing that draws as much from classical music as jazz. His compositions here are written to feature two main soloists, tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger and pianist Frank Carlberg, much as Gil Evans ...
Continue ReadingDaniel Hersog Jazz Orchestra: Night Devoid of Stars
by Jack Bowers
Daniel Hersog is the latest arrival in a long-running parade of world-class jazz composer-arrangers from Canada, albeit not in the image of Rob McConnell, Phil Nimmons or Rick Wilkins but more akin to some of his mentors including (but not limited to) John Hollenbeck, Ken Schaphorst and Dave Holland. Night Devoid of Stars (named for a premise by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.), Hersog's debut recording as leader of his Jazz Orchestra, consists of half a dozen of his original ...
Continue ReadingBen Allison & Medicine Wheel: Buzz
by Rob Cline
Despite its moderate tempo, “Respiration," the opening track on Buzz, sets an insistent tone that drives the album’s first three tracks. Bassist Ben Allison penned all three charts, which feature tight, energetic ensemble playing by the six-piece band as well as plenty of open space for improvisation, including a textured piano solo by Frank Kimbrough on “Respiration" and a blistering tenor solo by either Michael Blake or Ted Nash (the promo copy of the disc does not specify) on “Buzz." ...
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