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Jazz Articles about Peter Erskine
Dewa Budjana: Joged Kahyangan
by John Kelman
Dewa Budjana may not be a household name outside of his native country, Indonesia, but with MoonJune Records picking up this exciting guitarist and composer, all that could be about to change. He's already garnered some serious attention with his first recording for the label, Dawai in Paradise, released earlier this year (2013), but at home, he's nothing short of a pop star. Lead guitarist and songwriter for the multi-platinum, million-selling Indonesian pop/rock group Gigi, the fifty year-old Budjana has ...
Continue ReadingPeter Erskine Trio: As It Was
by John Kelman
The box set you hold in your hands features three players who came together in an exceptional group to play some of the most compelling and exploratory piano trio music of the 20th Century's final decade. This threesome, led by Peter Erskine, released four albums recorded between July 1991 and July 1997: 1993's You Never Know, 1994's Time Being, 1996's As It Is and 1999's Juni. That the drummer's critically acclaimed piano trio, also featuring Swedish double bassist Palle Danielsson, ...
Continue ReadingAlan Pasqua, Peter Erskine, Darek Oles: Live In Italy
by Jim Worsley
Pianist Alan Pasqua and drummer Peter Erskine have been playing together for over fifty years now. For over twenty years Darek Oles has completed the trio on double bass. While brilliant upper-echelon musicians in their own right, the magic that ensues in this trio is remarkable. Could playing together for so long, performing thousands of shows over the years lead to burnout or it becoming “old hat?" Not for these three true jazz cats. The conversations just get deeper, their ...
Continue ReadingMassimo Colombo, Peter Erskine, Chuck Berghofer: Electric Parker
by Jim Worsley
While mostly under the radar, Massimo Colombo is surely one of Europe's finest talents. The Italian pianist and arranger has many works to his credit, including his exceptional tributes to Bud Powell and Weather Report, Powell To The People (Jazzland DZ, 2018) and Acoustic Weather (Self-produced, 2019). Colombo now reimagines the genius of Charlie Parker with drummer Peter Erskine and double bassist Chuck Berghofer. Having recorded together previously, the trio's chemistry flows easily. It is indeed electric as ...
Continue ReadingFranco Ambrosetti: Nora
by Dan McClenaghan
Franco Ambrosetti's album is called simply Nora. Short and sweet, four letters, two syllables. But it could easily have been called “Franco Ambrosetti with Strings," as the Swiss flugelhornist & trumpeter follows the orchestral path of alto saxophonist Charlie Parker and his groundbreaking Charlie Parker With Strings (Verve, 1950), trumpeter Chet Baker's Chet Baker with Strings (Columbia, 1953) or trumpeter Clifford Brown's Clifford Brown with String (Verve, 1955). Those early forays into orchestral jazz set the template of ...
Continue ReadingDave Slonaker: Convergency
by Richard J Salvucci
In December 1910, Virginia Woolf once observed, human character changed and, along with it, so did everything else. Politics, society, religion, sex, all of it, she thought, would leave the ancien regime behind. And, to a point, she was correct. Within a few years, the old world was gone, swept away by war and revolution. It was not coming back. Ever. Somehow, listening to the marvelous musical products of modern big bands, Woolf seems oddly relevant. The level ...
Continue ReadingDave Slonaker Big Band: Convergency
by Jack Bowers
While big-band albums generally differ, sometimes widely, in tone and temperament, there are definitive criteria by which every one may be evaluated--arrangements, performers, sound quality, sequencing and, above all, the elusive but imperative swing quotient. Dave Slonaker checks all those boxes and more on Convergency, a superlative successor to his excellent Grammy-nominated debut album, Intrada, released in 2013. To begin with, Slonaker, best known as a film and television composer, is an excellent big-band writer and arranger, ...
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