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Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra: Mundoagua: Celebrating Carla Bley

by Angelo Leonardi
Scoperto da Carla Bley nel 1979, quand'era ancora studente diciannovenne, e rimasto nei suoi gruppi per tre anni, Arturo O'Farrill ne celebra la memoria con quest'album ambizioso, che raccoglie due sue suites ed una ("Blue Palestine") che lui stesso commissionò alla grande autrice e bandleader nel 2019, quattro anni prima della sua morte. Mundoagua" la composizione che apre il disco è stata scritta per commemorare l'Anno dell'acqua ed ha avuto la sua anteprima al Miller Theater di New ...
Continue ReadingArturo O'Farrill: Mundoagua: Celebrating Carla Bley

by Jack Bowers
Mundoagua, the latest album by composer and pianist Arturo O'Farrill's Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, is subdivided into three suites, the second of which is the four-movement Blue Palestine," written and arranged by another celebrated composer and pianist, Carla Bley, a leading light in the avant-garde free jazz movement of the mid-twentieth century, who died of cancer in October 2023. The opening suite, Mundoagua," commissioned by the Columbia University School of the Arts in 2018 to commemorate the ...
Continue ReadingMarta Sanchez: SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum)

by Alberto Bazzurro
La giovane pianista madrilena Marta Sanchez, ormai da tempo di stanza a New York, dirige in questo suo nuovo lavoro, inciso nel marzo 2021, un agguerrito quintetto con doppio sax che in un brano, Marivi," si allarga a ottetto con l'ingresso di tromba (e che tromba: Ambrose Akinmusire), voce/chitarra e synth, dando sempre la precisa impressione di riuscire a dire ciò che sta nelle sue attuali corde. Il dialogo--l'interscambio--è per lo più fitto, vitale, ma sempre dall'alto ...
Continue ReadingGabriel Vicéns: The Way We Are Created

by Mark Sullivan
Puerto Rican jazz guitarist & composer Gabriel Vicéns has been living in New York City since 2016 but, for this album, he chose to explore traditional Puerto Rican music (Bomba and Plenamusic and dance styles born from African slavery and Caribbean influences) blended with his own compositional style. He was also exposed to Cuban Changüí, and began incorporating some stylistic devices from it into his guitar playing. The title tune begins the program with an infectious ostinato pattern ...
Continue ReadingArturo O'Farrill: Virtual Birdland

by Jack Bowers
Whenever an obstacle presents itself--even one as devastating and disruptive as a global pandemic--it's a sure bet that musicians will find a way around it, a way to keep making music even in the most grievous circumstances. Jazz musicians have been especially creative during the Covid-19 scourge, using social media, the internet and any other means at their disposal to share their music with the world. True, the paychecks aren't as large or as regular as once they were, but ...
Continue ReadingJacob Garchik: Clear Line

by Dan Bilawsky
As strange as it may sound, sometimes the best way to break free is to simply box yourself in. Limitations obviously cut off certain possibilities entirely, but they open the mind to so many others in the process. Composer (and trombonist) Jacob Garchik has long subscribed to that line of thinking and he takes it to bold heights on this, the most original, least derivative big band recording to arrive in ages. Basically throwing out the rule ...
Continue ReadingDafnis Prieto Sextet: Transparency

by John Chacona
In Cuban music, emotional grandeur and extravagant virtuosity is built on a foundation of inexhaustible rhythm. So, it's no surprise to find an abundance of juicy melodies and breathtaking drumming on Transparency from drummer and MacArthur Genius" Fellow Dafnis Prieto. Yet for all the astonishing things he does behind the kit, what stands out on Transparency is the dazzling formal sophistication of Prieto's compositions. Eight of the nine composer credits are his and the outlier, an arrangement of ...
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