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Miho Hazama M_Unit: Beyond Orbits
by Angelo Leonardi
Uno degli eventi al Monterey Jazz Festival del 2021 è stato il concerto dell'M_Unit di Miho Hazama, la giovane compositrice e bandleader giapponese che s'è imposta tra le figure più innovative della sua generazione. In quell'occasione Hazama ha presentato la suite in tre movimenti “Exoplanet" che--incisa poi in studio--costituisce il fulcro del disco appena pubblicato dalla Edition Records. Chi conosce i suoi lavori di questi anni, sa quanto la scrittura della bandleader risulti coinvolgente per l'abilità di ...
Continue ReadingMiho Hazama's M_Unit: Beyond Orbits
by Chris May
Beyond Orbits is the fêted composer and conductor Miho Hazama's fourth album with M_Unit. She founded the band in 2012, two years after moving from Tokyo to New York and while she was still studying for a masters in jazz composition at the Manhattan School of Music. Hazama released M_Unit's first album in 2013. The band's third, Dancer In Nowhere (Sunnyside, 2019), was nominated for a Grammy. Among her other achievements, Hazama was in 2019 appointed chief ...
Continue ReadingTamil Rogeon: Son Of Nyx
by Chris May
An energetic, modal, fusion release coming out of the alternative jazz scene in Melbourne, Australia, Son of Nyx is a good album which almost succeeds in being more than that, but, frustratingly, does not achieve lift-off until the closing track, “Horns No Eyes." Tamil Rogeon first surfaced as co-leader of the jazz and hip hop-influenced, orchestral-electronic group The Raah Project, which debuted on disc in 2009 with Score (Knowfoowl Music), recorded with a cast of thousands (well, ...
Continue ReadingVanessa Perica: Love is a Temporary Madness
by Jack Bowers
Even as the year 2020 has slid ignobly into the dustbin of history, music-lovers have been buoyed by a number of encouraging signs that the future of big-band jazz is in capable hands. While splendid recordings by old hands Mike Barone, Steve Spiegl, Mark Masters and Maria Schneider have helped keep the flame burning brightly, their customary artistry has been rivaled if not surpassed this year by relative newcomers such as Jeremy Levy, Seth Weaver, Lisa Maxwell, Jon Schapiro, Dennis ...
Continue ReadingRajiv Jayaweera: Pistils
by Friedrich Kunzmann
New York-based drummer Rajiv Jayaweera had quite the international upbringing. Born in London to Sri Lankan parents, Jayaweera grew up in Melbourne, where he completed his Bachelor of Music at the Victorian College of the Arts before finishing his Masters in Jazz studies in New York in 2013. In the liner notes of his debut album Pistils, Jayaweera explains that the album is dedicated to his grandparents and the music on it draws inspiration from his Sri Lankan roots and ...
Continue ReadingJamie Pregnell: Sleepy Town
by Mark Sullivan
Australian jazz guitarist Jamie Pregnell leads a quartet through a program of original compositions. Joined by tenor saxophonist Julien Wilson, bassist Sam Anning and drummer Ben Vanderwal, Pregnell kicks the album off with the gentle loping swing of “Brightside." The title tune is a lovely ballad—introspective, maybe, but certainly not sleepy. It inspires lyrical solos from Pregnell, Wilson's saxophone and Anning's bass. “Rover" continues in a contemplative mood, this time with a more contemporary rubato feel. “Moon" is ...
Continue ReadingRajiv Jayaweera: Pistils
by Dan Bilawsky
While London-born, Melbourne-reared, New York-based drummer Rajiv Jayaweera's work is naturally colored by his experiences spanning those points on the map, it's his Sri Lankan heritage that most greatly informs and influences this debut. Drawing inspiration from memories of nature, sounds and scents surrounding his grandparents' garden there, Jayaweera creates a musical sanctuary and wonderland painted in vivid colors. Pistils, a title referencing the seed-bearing, reproductive portion of a flower, plays on blooming beauty at its first ...
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