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Vicenza Jazz - New Conversations 2025
by Libero Farnè
Vicenza Jazz 2025 Varie sedi Vicenza 15--25 maggio 2025 Vicenza Jazz--New Conversations ha sempre portato un sottotitolo che mettesse in evidenza il tema su cui di anno in anno si concentrava prevalentemente. Questa ventinovesima edizione ha evitato di celebrare anniversari o di puntare i riflettori su uno strumento principe, ...anche se, come vedremo, un anniversario importante è stato ricordato, quello del comportamento generatore di eventi storici da parte di Rosa Parks nel 1955 a Montgomery; ...
Continue ReadingSimon Nabatov Quartet featuring Ralph Alessi: Lovely Music
by John Sharpe
An alternative title for Lovely Music by Russian-born, German -based pianist Simon Nabatov might be Greatest Hits. He has selected some of his most tuneful works from across his career for interpretation by a quintet which includes American trumpeter Ralph Alessi in a one-off performance. Completing the lineup of this 2021 live date from Nabatov's home from home, Loft in Cologne, are more regular colleagues saxophonist Sebastian Gille, bassist David Helm and drummer Leif Berger. However, it presents not as ...
Continue ReadingLucian Ban, Mat Maneri: Oedipe Redux
by Neri Pollastri
Pur se da venticinque anni residente negli U.S.A., il pianista Lucian Ban non ha mai smesso di coltivare le sue radici rumene, che spesso anzi caratterizzano sottilmente la sua prolifica produzione artistica. In particolare, assieme al violista Mat Maneri --con il quale collabora assai spesso, contribuendo recentemente al suo album Ash --ha più volte proposto apprezzati lavori ispirati alla tradizione popolare rumena (Transilvanian Dance (ECM 2013), Transilvanian Folk Songs (Sunnyside 2020), mentre già nel 2010 aveva presentato sempre per Sunnyside ...
Continue ReadingFire! Orchestra, Ralph Alessi, Ron Caines & Karl Evangelista
by Maurice Hogue
Putting this episode together was a most enjoyable time; there was so much to choose out of a whack of new releases with a few “memories" too. On the new release side, you'll hear music from The Netherlands (saxophonist Hristo Goleminov, guitarist Ella Zirina and Tale Tellers From A Timeless Tribe), English free jazz saxophonist Ron Caines with the Raines-Archer Axis, California guitarist Karl Evangelista, the great trumpeter Ralph Alessi, drummer Jochen Rueckert, and the eclectic and usually- unpredictable Fire! ...
Continue ReadingYelena Eckemoff: I Am a Stranger in This World
by Mark Sullivan
Russian-born pianist/composer Yelena Eckemoff began setting verses from the Bible's Book of Psalms shortly after her conversion to Christianity, even before her emigration to the United States. But she waited until she had considerable experience working with jazz musicians before producing her jazz arrangements. They were first recorded on her album Better Than Gold and Silver [L&H Production, 2018], which presented ten Psalm settings in both vocal and instrumental versions. The detailed story of how Yelena Eckemoff came to set ...
Continue ReadingFrancesca Han & Ralph Alessi: Exude
by Ian Patterson
The first duo recording from pianist Francesca Han and trumpeter Ralph Alessi has been a while coming, the pair first having met in New York in 2011. Shortly thereafter, Han left the Big Apple—closing the book on an eight-year sojourn--though not before recording the highly impressive Illusion (NatSat Music, 2012), which featured Alessi, Drew Gress, Corcoran Holt and Justin Brown. A decade on, Han and Alessi reunite on Exude. This joint effort is aptly named as neither holds back, though ...
Continue ReadingTomas Fujiwara's Triple Double: March
by Jerome Wilson
This is the second release by drummer and vibraphonist Tomas Fujiwara's unique double trio with himself and Gerald Cleaver on drums, Mary Halvorson and Brandon Seabrook on guitar and Taylor Ho Bynum and Ralph Alessi on brass, a group that can be configured as two trios, three pairs of instruments or something in between. The sound of the resulting combinations can come out ambient or raucous, but tends towards an angular prog-jazz fusion sound, that can pack the punch of ...
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