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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 ReadingCaroline Davis: Portals, Volume 2: Returning

by Vincenzo Roggero
Il precedente Portals Volume 1: Mourning nasceva dalla necessità di rielaborare la morte improvvisa del padre attraverso una musica che curasse il dolore e conservasse i ricordi migliori. In quel disco, Caroline Davis, sassofonista, flautista, compositrice ed educatrice statunitense nata a Singapore da padre inglese e madre svedese, accostava al suo classico quintetto un quartetto d'archi. Portals vol.2 : Returning è invece un omaggio a Joan Anson-Weber, poetessa nonché nonna di Caroline, e farla da padrone sono in questo caso ...
Continue ReadingBen Monder: Planetarium

by Vic Albani
Ben Monder chi? In Italia è piuttosto difficile incontrare qualcuno che conosca bene il lavoro di questo sessantatreenne signore newyorchese. Inquadriamolo: chitarrista di spicco nell'area newyorkese da oltre un trentennio, Ben ha lavorato con importanti nomi della musica moderna come (tra i tanti) Marc Johnson, Lee Konitz, Andrew Cyrille, George Garzone, Paul Motian, Maria Schneider, ma forse il suo nome è noto per il fatto di essere stato chitarrista dell'ultimo album inciso da David Bowie Blackstar.
Continue ReadingMiguel Zenón: Golden City

by Alberto Bazzurro
La musica contenuta in questo album trae spunto da una commissione ricevuta da Miguel Zenón per la composizione di una suite basata sulla storia di San Francisco e della Bay Area, evidenziando in particolare i contributi offerti da parte delle comunità giapponese, cinese, messicana e, ovviamente, afroamericana. Ne è nata così questa Golden City, presentata in anteprima al San Francisco Jazz Center nel 2022 e incisa poi a fine novembre dell'anno seguente. Per l'occasione Zenón (portoricano, lo ricordiamo) ...
Continue ReadingCaroline Davis: Portals, Volume 2 : Returning

by Glenn Astarita
Alto saxophonist/composer Caroline Davis, a rising star in the jazz world, has unveiled her second installment of the Portals" series, titled Portals Vol. 2: Returning. This album serves as a sonic memoir, inspired by her grandmother, Joan Lady" Anson-Weber, and it represents a deeply personal journey of reflection and healing. As a gifted saxophonist and composer, Davis draws upon her grandmother's poetic legacy to craft a musical experience that is both moving and evocative. This album stands as ...
Continue ReadingMiguel Zenon: Golden City

by Dan McClenaghan
The alto saxophone rose to jazz prominence in the 1940s, under the influence of Charlie Parker and the birth of bebop. Important players such as Art Pepper, Lee Konitz and Ornette Coleman took the horn in their own directions, crafting distinctive alto saxophone voices. Moving ahead to the new millennium, no alto saxophonist has entered the tradition with more style and panache than Miguel Zenon. His Alma Aldentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook (Marsalis Music, 2011), Tipico (Miel Music, 2017) and ...
Continue ReadingJust Released: "Clockworks" (Songlines Recordings) Featuring Patrick Zimmerli Quartet with Ethan Iverson, Chris Tordini, John Hollenbeck

Source:
AMT Public Relations
Completing a 25-year compositional arc, saxophonist-composer Patrick Zimmerli releases his new jazz suite Clockworks (Songlines) following the release in 2016 of his first quartet’s 1992 recording Shores Against Silence (with Kevin Hays, Larry Grenadier and Tom Rainey). Both records feature rhythmically and melodically advanced composition largely inspired by Zimmerli’s love of serial composers such as Babbitt, Carter, Stockhausen and Boulez, though still grounded in a jazz ethos. Both explore a different third stream direction in jazz that Zimmerli made his ...
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