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Jongkuk Kim
Jun Iida: Bellflower
by Jack Bowers
Bellflower, trumpeter Jun Iida's second recording, is a cordial and even-tempered survey of nine of his original compositions and one by the late Japanese composer Nujabes, ably performed by Iida's talented sextet with spoken word by Zelda Harris on Iida's heartfelt response to warfare and its anguish, “Will They Remember?" While Iida is a technically precise soloist, his repertoire does little to separate him from the legion of proficient trumpeters in his peer group. He plays (and writes) ...
Continue Reading...Jun Iida: Bellflower
by Paul Rauch
Jun Iida is a stylish trumpeter who has moved around a bit, in the process taking interpretive fragments of the jazz culture in each city he has inhabited. From his native Pittsburgh, to stops in Los Angeles, Seattle and New York City, he has remained connected to each through personal relationships with the local jazz communities he has embraced. An aerospace engineer who set his career aside to pursue his craft as a jazz trumpeter, Iida has along the way ...
Continue Reading...Alex Hitchcock: Letters From Afar
by Don Ball
Alex Hitchcock made his name as an emerging talent in London when he decided to move to New York City to, as he put it, “engage with the music being made here, because as a white British musician playing Black American music, engaging with the context in which that music is made is important." Letters from Afar is his first shot across the bow from America, putting together a stellar band from the city's local jazz scene. The songs are all ...
Continue Reading...Tony Tixier: Poems Never End
by Neil Duggan
Serendipity is the art of everything being in the right place at the right time, and so it proved for Tony Tixier on a whirlwind trip to New York City. Recorded during a single afternoon and without a predetermined plan for the session, the album Poems Never End was recorded in one take, with nothing added, taken away, or otherwise embellished in post-production. Frenchman Tixier is a highly versatile pianist who has worked in most small group formats ...
Continue Reading...Album Review
Ines Velasco: A Flash of Cobalt Blue
by Angelo Leonardi
Dopo la laurea con lode al Berklee College in composizione e varie esperienze di orchestrazione nell'ultimo decennio (Snarky Puppy, Metropole Orkest, Gregory Porter, Avenged Sevenfold, NY Philharmonic String Quartet, la National Jazz Orchestra of México), la messicana Ines Velasco debutta con un proprio album in veste di compositrice e bandleader. Il lavoro è stato ispirato ed è strettamente connesso alle poesie di Jorge Esquinca (tratte dal volume Un brillo azul cobalto) che le recita in ogni brano dell'album. ...
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Ludovica Burtone: Migration Tales
by Angelo Leonardi
Dopo il debutto del 2020 con Sparks, la violinista friulana attiva a New York presenta un album ampiamente rinnovato nell'organico strumentale e nei suoi componenti. Non c'è più il quartetto d'archi ma un sestetto d'impronta jazzistica e prevalenza femminile, in cui resta solo la pianista Marta Sánchez. I nuovi partner sono Milena Casado al flicorno, Julieta Eugenio al sax tenore, Tyrone Allen II al contrabbasso e Jongkuk Kim alla batteria. Ludovica Burtone spesso interviene come vocalist in unisono al violino. ...
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Vanisha Gould: She's Not Shiny, She's Not Smooth
by Angelo Leonardi
Vanisha Gould ha molte cose da dire, e lo fa con arguzia e vivacità. Dal suo arrivo a New York nel 2015 ha atteso quasi un decennio per un debutto discografico da leader, facendosi le ossa nei locali e in qualche incisione con altri. Quelle più significative sono state con la cantante Lucy Yeghiazaryan (nel ricercato progetto In Her Words) e con il pianista Chris McCarthy (Life's a Gig), dove si mette in luce tanto come autrice quanto come interprete ...
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Marco the Phoenix
From: BellflowerBy Jongkuk Kim
Inner Light
From: Inner LightBy Jongkuk Kim
O.C.T (Oda to the Crazy Times)
From: Reflection Of Another SelfBy Jongkuk Kim
Lilac Hill
From: Lilac HillBy Jongkuk Kim
