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Nels Cline: New Monastery: A View Into The Music of Andrew Hill
by John Kelman
The problem with tribute records is that they are often too literal, and artists mistake reverence for true appreciation. Not so with Nels Cline's New Monastery: A View into the Music of Andrew Hill. If the best way to honor a source is to demonstrate how it's altered one's own musical perspective in a deeply personal way, then Cline's homage is one that should please fans of both the aging pianist and the intrepid left coast guitarist. While there are ...
Continue ReadingMyra Melford Be Bread: The Image of Your Body
by Troy Collins
Pianist Myra Melford has an abiding interest in India. She cites the writings of the Sufi mystic poet Rumi, as well as her own harmonium studies there, as major influences on her writing, again borrowing from the subcontinent's traditions on this album. Many of these pieces were composed on melodica, enriching them with a strong harmonic foundation and lyric character that she transposes into a sumptuous group sound.
Melford's core trio of veteran bassist Stomu Takeishi (from two ...
Continue ReadingNels Cline: New Monastery: A View Into The Music of Andrew Hill
by Troy Collins
In his liner notes, Nels Cline claims that New Monastery is not a tribute record to iconic pianist Andrew Hill, but merely one view of the rich potential found in his multifaceted compositions. The guitarist assembled an unusual sextet to explore the bittersweet and occasionally turbulent world of Hill's music. Accordionist Andrea Parkins, clarinetist Ben Goldberg and cornetist Bobby Bradford were recruited to join Cline's ironically named trio with bassist Devin Hoff and drummer Scott Amendola, the Nels Cline Singers, ...
Continue ReadingWayne Peet Quartet: Live at Al’s Bar
by AAJ Italy Staff
La californiana pfMENTUM tira fuori dagli archivi tre quarti d’ora di musica piena di grinta e di suggestioni, registrata in un bar di Los Angeles alla fine di aprile del 1999. La leadership del gruppo è nominalmente accreditata all’organista Wayne Peet ma sul palco i due chitarristi Nels Cline e G.E. Stinson non si tirano certo indietro e anche il meno noto batterista Russell Bizzett dimostra di essere perfettamente a suo agio nella fase propulsiva, particolarmente importante per una musica ...
Continue ReadingNels Cline - Wally Shoup - Chris Corsano: Immolation / Immersion
by AAJ Italy Staff
La chiave di lettura che viene comodo utilizzare per interpretare il maelstrom sonico che ci troviamo di fronte all’ascolto di questo Immolation / Immersion arriva proprio dal titolo. C’è un senso di sacrificio appassionato che porta ad una completa compenetrazione della musica nelle menti e nei corpi dei tre musicisti che annaspano, boccheggiano, si dibattono nelle acque nerastre, livide di elettricità e riescono a sopravvivere proprio grazie al loro dinamismo, alla loro voglia di passare attraverso ogni esperienza, comprese quelle ...
Continue ReadingNels Cline/Wally Shoup/Chris Corsano: Immolation/Immersion
by Eyal Hareuveni
This meeting of three free-minded musicians promises a lot and delivers much more. Los Angeles-based guitarist Nels Cline is one of the most versatile players around--as the new lead guitarist for the alt-country-rock band Wilco; as a collaborator with such diverse improvisers as reedman Vinny Golia, electric bassist Devin Sarno, and Sonic Youth guitarists Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo; as a sideman for vocalists such as Rickie Lee Jones and his partner Carla Bozulich; and as a leader of his ...
Continue ReadingTodd Sickafoose Group: Blood Orange
by Nathan Haselby
The young composer and bassist Todd Sickafoose waited a full five years to put out his second release, Blood Orange, following his debut, Dogs Outside (2000). Considering the advances he has made as a composer and arranger, the wait is worth it. Sickafoose still writes pensive mainstream jazz enriched by free improvisation, but his tighter new group makes possible writing which demands no less from individual players and gets much more from the whole.
To be fair, Dogs Outside was ...
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