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Michael Rabinowitz: Next Chapter
by Jack Bowers
The title “world's best jazz bassoonist" is akin to “world's best tap dancer on hot coals," meaning there simply is not much competition for the honor. Even if there were, however, Michael Rabinowitz would no doubt outdistance any challengers and handily earn the blue ribbon for bassoon excellence. One reason is that, unlike others who have dabbled with the instrument, Rabinowitz is a full-time bassoonist who has spent years honing his craft, and a jazz musician who can improvise with ...
Continue ReadingReza Khan: Imaginary Road
by Jack Bowers
To impartially assess Imaginary Road, Bangladeshi-raised, New York-based guitarist Reza Khan's sixth album, it is best to lay aside as best one can his disposition for or against what could reasonably be labeled “smooth jazz" and start from there. Is the music melodically and rhythmically likeable? Yes, it is. Are the musicians technically able? Yes, they are. Beyond that, what can be said? Well, the ten songs are essentially atmospheric, depicting the sort of aural landscapes that ...
Continue ReadingMike Neer: Steelonious
by C. Michael Bailey
Early in his musical career, pianist and composer Thelonious Monk was ordained the “Hight Priest of Bebop." This sounds more like a disingenuous pronouncement by an overeager period critic than any credible music reportage. Monk's essential musical approach owed more to stride, blues, and swing than to Charlie Parker's and Dizzy Gillespie's bebop. Monk's technical brilliance, if one could call it that, was not geared toward the “technique" of rapid and complexly rendered chord changes. Monk's brilliance lay somewhere much ...
Continue ReadingThe Mike Kaplan Nonet: How's That?
by Jack Bowers
Saxophonist Mike Kaplan and his New York City-based nonet play contemporary jazz; that is to say, jazz that is emphatically modern but neither purposely bland nor maddeningly incomprehensible.Kaplan’s debut album contains a number of tasty musical surprises, and it's one of only a handful to leave me wishing the leader had soloed more often (Kaplan does so at length only on his entrancing “Melody for My Mom”). Even so, his fingerprints are conspicuous throughout, as Kaplan wrote five ...
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Waiting for the Sky
From: Imaginary RoadBy Matt King
