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John Bailey: Time Bandits
by Jack Bowers
After working and recording for decades with some of the jazz world's best and brightest talents, trumpeter John Bailey released his first album as leader of his own group in 2018, the second in 2020 and, in 2023, his third, Time Bandits, which shares a name but nothing more with Terry Gilliam's 1981 film fantasy. Bailey leads an all-star quartet on this one, firmly anchored by drummer Victor Lewis (the timekeeper on all of Bailey's albums) and ...
Continue ReadingChris Potter: Got The Keys To The Kingdom (Live At The Village Vanguard)
by Chris May
There is a lot of heavy ordnance going off during this album. Indeed, the incoming only lets up once, and then briefly, during a performance of Billy Strayhorn's “Blood Count" at the halfway point. For the rest of the sixty-one minutes playing time, the watchword is eruptive. But no PPE is required. The barrage is benign. This is the third album Chris Potter has recorded live at the Vanguard. The attraction is no surprise. Saxophonists, especially those ...
Continue ReadingFranco Ambrosetti: Nora
by Dan McClenaghan
Franco Ambrosetti's album is called simply Nora. Short and sweet, four letters, two syllables. But it could easily have been called “Franco Ambrosetti with Strings," as the Swiss flugelhornist & trumpeter follows the orchestral path of alto saxophonist Charlie Parker and his groundbreaking Charlie Parker With Strings (Verve, 1950), trumpeter Chet Baker's Chet Baker with Strings (Columbia, 1953) or trumpeter Clifford Brown's Clifford Brown with String (Verve, 1955). Those early forays into orchestral jazz set the template of ...
Continue ReadingAnders Koppel: Mulberry Street Symphony
by Doug Collette
A father-son collaboration at its most sublime, Mulberry Street Symphony is a natural and logical extension of saxophonist/composer Benjamin Koppel's eclectic sets of funk and free improvisation The Ultimate Soul & Jazz Revue (Cowbell Music, 2020) and The Art of the Quartet (Cowbell Music, 2020). The prolific Dane wisely aligns himself here with redoubtable counterparts in the persons of bassist Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade to form the core of a larger musical aggregation including the Odense Symphony Orchestra ...
Continue ReadingFranco Ambrosetti: Lost Within You
by Chris M. Slawecki
Lost Within You is a masterpiece of smoldering passion and beauty ignited by the exquisite trumpet and flugelhorn melodies of Franco Ambrosetti. Ambrosetti assembled an enviable ensemble: bassist Scott Colley and drummer Jack DeJohnette in the rhythm section, plus guitarist John Scofield, and Renee Rosnes and Uri Caine switching turns as pianist. But the star of Lost Within You is Ambrosetti's haunting, delicate and graceful sound, revealed in one masterful ballad after another. “Miles Davis was ...
Continue ReadingBenjamin Koppel: The Ultimate Soul & Jazz Revue
by Chris M. Slawecki
Listen to music long enough, and it's almost bound to happen: You're not sure exactly what you want to listen to, but you know that whatever you listen to needs must bump and groove. The Ultimate Soul & Jazz Revue, an anthology of American jazz, soul and R&B recorded live at a Copenhagen music festival by Danish saxophonist Benjamin Koppel and his big band, is some first-rate scratch for that itch. Ultimate Soul & Jazz neatly packages Koppel's ...
Continue ReadingDiego Pinera: Odd Wisdom
by Phillip Woolever
In certain musical occasions the essence of time is more vividly pronounced than others. That equation is often pronounced clearly in the technique of how a drummer applies various rhythms, and the resulting effect those metrics have on a song or project. Drummer Diego Pinera is a widely travelled percussionist from Uruguay, currently based in Berlin. His second release on the German-based ACT label demonstrates a vast range of compositional skills recorded during one brief, extremely productive session ...
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