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About Ralph Alessi
Ralph Alessi: Baida
by John Kelman
With 2013 heading into fall, it's a good time to take stock of a label that has all too often been (falsely) accused of minimizing the country where jazz began. Excluding reissues, this year's ECM regular series releases represent about thirty percent American leadership; given jazz's increasingly global nature, hardly a bad number--and better still, when considering ECM's qualitative consistency. From Chris Potter's impressive label debut as a leader, The Sirens, to Craig Taborn's boundary-stretching Chants, and Steve Swallow's career-defining ...
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Michaël Attias: Spun Tree
by AAJ Italy Staff
Michaël Attias è sassofonista di origini israeliane che, stabilitosi a New York nei primi anni novanta, ne è diventato voce tra le più originali e musicista tra i più richiesti da personaggi come Tim Berne, Paul Motian, Mark Helias, Jason Moran per citarne alcuni. Se innumerevoli sono le partecipazioni a progetti altrui, i dischi licenziati a suo nome si contano sulle dita di una mano e ci mostrano un sassofonista dalla grande irruenza improvvisativa, dalla spiccata sensibilità interpretativa esaltata principalmente ...
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Ralph Alessi & This Against That: Wiry Strong
by AAJ Italy Staff
Musicista atipico, Ralph Alessi. Fuoriuscito dalla fucina M-Base negli anni novanta e coinvolto in diversi tra i gruppi più innovativi del downtown newyorchese nel decennio successivo (Uri Caine, Don Byron, Jason Moran, etc), Alessi difficilmente viene etichettato come musicista d'avanguardia. Perché nella sua continua ricerca di una musica che vada oltre i confini di etichette e catalogazioni il trombettista di San Francisco non dimentica mai la lezione del bebop e di tutte le sue successive declinazioni così come interpreta in ...
Continue ReadingRalph Alessi and This Against That: Wiry Strong
by Mark Corroto
Born out of the jazz laboratory of Brooklyn's M-Base experiments of the 1990s, trumpeter Ralph Alessi has always seemed to be a farouche player. Never hankering for the spotlight, he always seems satisfied to turn in solid deliberate efforts that don't court flattery. Maybe it is his subtle nature, but what some might have missed has always been picked up by his fellow musicians. He has been called upon by the likes of Fred Hersch, Uri Caine, Jason Moran, Don ...
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Lucian Ban - John Hébert: Enesco Re-Imagined
by AAJ Italy Staff
È dedicato al violinista e compositore romeno George Enescu [qui Enesco secondo il nome alla francese] questo interessante progetto condiviso dal pianista Lucian Ban - connazionale del compositore - e dal contrabbassista John Hébert [che molti ricorderanno con Andrew Hill e ora, tra gli altri, con Mary Halvorson]. Registrato al festival che ogni due anni viene dedicato a Enescu, il disco mette in pista una formazione davvero ragguardevole, con Albrecht Maurer al violino, l'esperto Badal Roy a tabla e percussioni ...
Continue ReadingRalph Alessi: Cognitive Dissonance
by Glenn Astarita
The jazz community welcomes trumpeter Ralph Alessi's keen compositional and superior technical skills. As a solo artist and first-call session ace, Alessi is adept at fusing disparate jazz-related styles into a singular voice. With his Cam Jazz debut, the trumpeter executes a diverse, polytonal environ, featuring laudable and like-minded jazz instrumentalists--a band that spins a symmetrical panorama, touched with rhythmic complexities and memorable hooks.“Duel" is underpinned with a loping funk-rock groove, augmented by Alessi's off-kilter and, at times, ...
Continue ReadingRalph Alessi: Cognitive Dissonance
by John Kelman
For his Cam Jazz debut, trumpeter Ralph Alessi recruits two key players from his sadly overlooked Look (Between the Lines, 2007). But while ubiquitous bassist Drew Gress (Marc Copland, Claudia Quintet) is a mainstay of Cognitive Dissonance, pianist Andy Milne only guests on the knottily themed but swinging “Sir" and a quirkily, near-unrecognizable version of Stevie Wonder's “Same Old Story." The rest of the album's fifteen tracks--eleven by Alessi, in addition to a free-spirited yet surprisingly lyrical version of Sam ...
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