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Andrew Rathbun: Atwood Suites
by Friedrich Kunzmann
In a way, the Atwood Suites have been in the works for almost two decades. When Kenny Wheeler approached Toronto native Andrew Rathbun in search for a band in 2001, the former furthermore inquired if the latter would like a composition of his own penning to be performed beside Wheeler's “Suite Time Suite." Consequently, the “Power Politics Suite," which makes for the second half of the first CD, was born, with Wheeler's and vocalist Luciana Souza's sound specifically in mind. ...
Continue ReadingAndrew Rathbun Large Ensemble: Atwood Suites
by Dan Bilawsky
The marriage between jazz and poetry is having a true moment in the present artistic sphere. The two have long mixed and mingled, oft proving sympathetic and symbiotic in their multidirectional moves, unique cadences, and improvisational capacities. But never before has the connection been so strong and centralized. With drummer Matt Wilson's triumphant encounter with the work of Carl Sandburg, soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom's exploration of Emily Dickinson's writing, saxophonist Benjamin Boone's collaboration with Philip Levine, and a handful ...
Continue ReadingRuss Johnson: Meeting Point
by Glenn Astarita
Trumpeter Russ Johnson has been all over the progressive jazz map. He's been an A-list performer for several years. A longtime resident of New York, he recently relocated to Chicago and has become a major contributor to its fertile improvisational scene. On this release, he utilizes the talents of the region's prominent artists who push the envelope when it comes to risk-taking and thinking outside the box. After listening to this album several times--and as anticipated--Johnson and his cohorts hit ...
Continue ReadingTommy Meier Root Down: The Master and the Rain
by AAJ Italy Staff
Se nello specchietto retrovisore si stagliano le sagome di Fela Kuti e Chris McGregor, se prima si tira in ballo l'Andrew Hill di Compulsion e poi si chiamano a raccolta i Masters Musicians of Jajouka, è chiaro che si sta parlando d'Africa. L'Africa vista dalla Svizzera, e raccontata dai Root Down, ovvero l'orchestra varata nel 2004 dal sassofonista-clarinettista Tommy Meier e giunta alla fatica numero due dopo l'omonimo esordio pubblicato, sempre dalla Intakt, nel 2007. I settanta minuti di The ...
Continue ReadingKomeda Project: Requiem
by AAJ Italy Staff
A tre anni dal debutto discografico con Crazy Girl, il Komeda Project del sassofonista Krzysztof Medyna e del pianista Andrzej Winnicki pubblica un secondo volume reinterpretando altre significative opere del compositore polacco. Com'è noto, quest'ultimo non è stato solo l'autore delle musiche dei film di Roman Polanski ma uno dei protagonisti della scena jazzistica europea a cavallo tra hard-bop e free, nonostante il forzato isolamento imposto alla Polonia dai tank sovietici. Pochi sanno che Komeda era uno pseudonimo assunto negli ...
Continue ReadingKomeda Project: Requiem
by Chris May
Despite the snowballing emergence of European jazz musicians on the world stage, relatively few European jazz composers have, in 2009, made it into the global repertory, which continues to be dominated by American voices. Perhaps it always will be, and perhaps local singularities--Italian or British or Scandinavian or whatever--are in any case better treasured, rather than absorbed into a single, universal body of work. But the fact remains that a cornucopia of great “foreign" compositions remains neglected in jazz's birth ...
Continue ReadingKomeda Project: Requiem
by Budd Kopman
With the magnificent Requiem, pianist Andrzej Winnicki and saxophonist Krzysztof Medyna solidify and enhance their reputations as the prime promoters of the essential music of the Polish pianist and composer Krzysztof Komeda (1931-1969). Komeda is widely recognized as the founder of modern Polish, and in a wider sense, European modern jazz. That he worked in Poland under Communist oppression is important. At its heart, jazz refuses to be pigeonholed, and it both allows and demands that its practitioners be utterly ...
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