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Jo-Yu Chen: Rendezvous - Jazz Meets Beethoven, Tchaikovsky & More
by Frank Housh
New York-based pianist and composer Jo-Yu Chen treats the great composers like most jazz musicians treat the Great American Songbook: a familiar musical foundation upon which to build a musical style. Chen trained at Juilliard but was seduced by jazz's siren song. Her first four albums: Obsession (Sony Music, 2011), Incomplete Soul (Sony Music, 2012), Stranger (Sony Music, 2014) and Savage Beauty (Sony Music, 2019) featured her compositions before she engaged the classical canon with Schubert & Mozart: ...
Continue ReadingJo-Yu Chen: Rendezvous: Jazz Meets Beethoven, Tchaikovsky & More
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Jo-Yu Chen's artistic mission can be described in her words: “When the music is right, it brings us back to the true essence of music, beyond labels and boundaries." But a discussion of labels and boundaries is necessary when addressing her album Rendezvous: Jazz Meets Beethoven, Tchaikovsky & More. First, some background: Chen has established a top-level jazz career since moving from her native Taiwan to New York City at age 16 to study at ...
Continue ReadingAngell & Crane: Angell & Crane
by Dan McClenaghan
Montreal-based artists Simon Angell and Tommy Crane make what they call “jazz-adjacent improvised music." Angell plays bass and guitars, along with synths. Crane crafts his sounds with drums and percussion, programming synths and a vibraphone. Mix in some vocalese by Sarah Rossy and alto sax and flute from Charlotte Greve and we have Angell & Crane, the debut album from the two leaders, culled from hours of taped sessions that have been curated, molded and pared down to an album's ...
Continue ReadingAaron Parks: Little Big II: Dreams of a Mechanical Man
by Pat Youngspiel
Back with his second effort under the Little Big moniker, Aaron Parks stretches out the concepts that had been established on the group's debut recording and presents an even tighter display of original jazz meets pop blended instrumentals. As on predecessor Little Big (Ropeadope Records, 2018), each bar and every measure of each track have been carefully conceived, logically constructed and unwound to form a complete picture. The foundations are through-composed, the band's interplay however is as dynamic and lively ...
Continue ReadingAaron Parks: Little Big II: Dreams of a Mechanical Man
by Mike Jurkovic
Upon initial listening, there is a deceptive lightness-of-being borne throughout Little Big II: Dreams of A Mechanical Man that may or may not come off to some, or most, as slightly too poppy a venture. But pianist Aaron Parks and his road-running cohorts, rock toned guitarist Greg Tuohey, bassist David Ginyard, Jr and drummer/percussionist Tommy Crane, are intuitive dealers with aces high up their collective sleeve. Hewn from the same lithe, exploratory spirit which sparked his communicative 2008 ...
Continue ReadingMelissa Aldana: Visions
by Serena Antinucci
L'ultimo progetto della sassofonista cilena Melissa Aldana, governato da invasioni e tensioni musicali, è il ritratto schietto della vita nel suo continuo divenire, fatto di stacchi improvvisi, passi indietro e sguardi critici sulla realtà. In Visions (Motéma Music, 2019) ci sono architetture sonore difficili da verbalizzare e, a volte, le parole scompaiono timidamente sommerse dai suoni. Gli undici brani del disco sono il risultato di un profondo studio, di una vitalità trascinante, a volte mista al dolore. Aldana, ...
Continue ReadingMelissa Aldana: Visions
by Friedrich Kunzmann
Compositional and instrumental virtuosity always walks along a razor's edge between self-indulgence and purposeful accomplishment. On Visions, sought after saxophonist Melissa Aldana proves that she doesn't only master balancing this edge but that she can also go beyond the complexities of structure, scales and improvisation and naturally create her very own musical aesthetic. In interplay with an all-star cast of equally dynamic sidemen—Sam Harris on keys, Pablo Menares on bass, as well as drummer Tommy Crane and Joel Ross adding ...
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