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Pedro Melo Alves: Conundrum Vol. 1 - Itself Through Disappearance
by Mark Corroto
Great rock drummers are often ignored. One never pays attention to them during a performance because they are excellent, like Rolling Stones stalwart {Charlie Watts. If, however, they are not up to scratch, one definitely will notice. The same and more so can be said for jazz and improvising drummers. Talent, imagination and creativity are at a premium in this domain. Pedro Melo Alves is an excellent example of what an inventive and expressive drummer can be. Alves can be ...
Continue ReadingLinda May Han Oh: The Glass Hours
by Angelo Leonardi
Cinque anni dopo la registrazione di Aventurine, il suo precedente album da leader, Linda May Han Oh torna con un nuovo progetto e un nuovo organico. Sappiamo ormai che ogni disco della contrabbassista e compositrice costituisce una tappa del suo percorso esistenziale e artistico, rappresenta il risultato di profonde riflessioni e assume le forme di un concept album. Gli accadimenti e le esperienze che stanno alla base di The Glass Hours riguardano soprattutto due “pause di riflessione" ...
Continue ReadingJamie Baum Septet+: What Times Are These
by Katchie Cartwright
Reading Marge Piercy's poem “To Be of Use" (track two onWhat Times Are These), Jamie Baum could be speaking of herself, one of those “who jump into work head first without dallying in the shadows, who swim off with sure strokes," knowing that “the thing worth doing has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident." What Times Are These is a satisfying form of this sort. Confined to her New York apartment during the Covid-19 lockdown, Baum responded ...
Continue ReadingSara Serpa & André Matos: Night Birds
by Katchie Cartwright
Night Birds, singer Sara Serpa and guitarist André Matos' third album together, offers an ethereal program of compositions written by the duo, separately and together. They are joined on various tracks by Brooklyn-based pianist-composer Dov Manski, South Korean avant-garde cellist Okkyung Lee, Swedish experimental singer Sofia Jernberg, Portuguese drummer João Pereira, and their young son Lourenço. The album concludes with a Béla Bartók bagatelle. To begin with the intriguing closer, the Bartók is performed quite simply, twice, with ...
Continue ReadingJazz Meets Folk, Folk Meets Jazz
by Jerome Wilson
This show looks at some of the many cross-pollinations between jazz and folk music. There are jazz musicians like Dave Brubeck and Dave Douglas dabbling in folk forms and folk musicians like Pentangle and Dave Van Ronk exercising their jazz chops. There are also pieces based on folk musics outside of the usual Anglo-American axis. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air ...
Continue ReadingJazz And Poetry Plus Notable 2021 Releases, Part 2
by Mary Foster Conklin
This broadcast presents new releases from Dee Bell and The Greenaway Group featuring vocalist Carla Cook, with a focus in the second hour on the heady combination of Jazz with spoken word featuring recent recordings by Sara Serpa, Jazzmeia Horn, a preview single from Javon Jackson's latest album plus part 2 of a look back to notable albums made in 2021 despite the disruption of the pandemic. Thanks for listening and please support the artists you hear by purchasing their ...
Continue ReadingSara Serpa: Recognition
by Jerome Wilson
A lot of people have started to come to grips with shameful parts of their national heritage in recent times. In America, that has meant protests against displays of the Confederate flag and monuments to Confederate Civil War generals. For Portuguese-born vocalist and composer Sara Serpa, dealing with her heritage has taken a more personal form with Recognition, a multi-media work dealing with Portugal's history of colonial oppression and subjugation of native peoples in Angola. The piece has ...
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