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Javier Enrique
Technocats: Passionata
by Jack Bowers
The Technocats are a Michigan-based co-op septet devoted for the most part to performing the music of fellow Michigander Gregg Hill, who composed every number on the group's 2026 recording, Passionata, including its sure-to-please “bonus" track, “Double Play." The first of Hill's compositions, “Normality," sets the enterprise in motion but in so doing lands slightly on the wrong foot. After that lone misstep, however, Passionata easily qualifies as Comeback Album of the Year, as everything else is beyond ...
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Margherita Fava: Tatatu
by Neri Pollastri
Ventottenne veneta di formazione classica, la pianista Margherita Fava è stata fulminata dal jazz nel 2013, quasi per caso, e da allora ha coltivato la sua formazione in quella direzione, trasferendosi negli U.S.A. prima con una borsa di studio, poi stabilmente, insegnando. Ed è negli Stati Uniti, nell'Ohio, che ha registrato questo suo primo disco, prodotto dal bassista Rodney Whitaker, poi missato a New York ed edito in Italia da Caligola. I tre quarti d'ora di musica di ...
Continue ReadingTechnoCats: The Music of Gregg Hill
by Jack Bowers
The TechnoCats are a group of five talented young musicians, each of whom has ties to Michigan State University in East Lansing, as does composer (and co-producer) Gregg Hill, whose music the TechnoCats perform on this delightful album. One of the quintet's more diverting features is that the only horn is Chris Glassman's bass trombone; another is how seamlessly Glassman's axe blends with those of guitarist Nathan Borton and pianist Xavier Davis. That is made clear from the ...
Continue ReadingMargherita Fava: Tatatu
by Hrayr Attarian
Italian pianist Margherita Fava comes across as a mature composer and a sensitive performer on her captivating debut Tatatu. Based in Knoxville Tennessee, USA, Fava is a consummate musician and educator whose unique set of talents is on full display here as she leads a quartet on two covers and six of her poetic originals. For instance, her “Tidal Waves" has a mystical atmosphere. Over the rhythm trio's percolating refrains saxophonist Greg Tardy lets loose a lyrical melody ...
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