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Eric Doob
Milton Nascimento / Esperanza Spalding: Milton + esperanza
by Chris May
Sometimes the semiology around an album can tell you more about it than any amount of words attempting to describe the music itself. And the semiology around Milton + esperanza is eloquent. It begins with the overlap with another summer 2024 release, Wayne Shorter's magical double-album Celebration Volume 1 (Blue Note), a previously unreleased recording of Shorter's Quartet in concert in 2014, with liner notes written by Shorter's wife Carolina. Now consider the overlap. Wayne Shorter recorded with ...
Continue ReadingChet Doxas: Rich in Symbols II
by Troy Dostert
One of Chet Doxas' more distinctive projects, Rich in Symbols (Ropeadope, 2017), involved the saxophonist/clarinetist engaging the 1980s art movement of New York's Lower East Side, composing pieces that reflected his deep interactions with some of those iconic paintings. Now he has done the same with artists from his native Canada: specifically, the Group of Seven, a movement of landscape artists who were active from the early 1910s through the first years of the 1930s. By selecting several of their ...
Continue ReadingAlex Brown: The Dark Fire Sessions
by Edward Blanco
Pianist, composer and multi-instrumentalist Alex Brown delivers his second solo album and follow up to his amazing debut album, Pianist (Sunny Side, 2010), with the audacious The Dark Fire Sessions comprised of nine superb original compositions of all rhythm-based music without horns or brass. The album contains a delicious taste of the Latin, Afro-Cuban and south American rhythms Brown has come to appreciate strongly, though it is not an entirely Latin recording, as evidenced by the various mainstream sounds on ...
Continue ReadingDiego Urcola Quartet: El Duelo
by Mark Sullivan
The cover of this album shows Diego Urcola (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Paquito D'Rivera (alto saxophone, clarinet) back-to-back, as if about to engage in the titular duel. But the sound is that of two veteran players jointly taking a leap into the unknown. A quartet without piano is an unusual setting for both of them. D'Rivera's liner notes mention Gerry Mulligan's quartet with Chet Baker (represented by “ I Know, Don't Know How"), but Ornette Coleman's quartet is another, more surprising ...
Continue ReadingAlex Brown: Pianist
by Edward Blanco
With a little help from Cuban-born saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera the jazz world heralds the entrance of 22 year-old Alex Brown, capturing but a glimpse of his talents on a monster recording debut simply entitled Pianist. It was actually D'Rivera's bassist, Oscar Stagnaro,who began to gig with pianist around the Boston area, ultimately introducing Brown to D'Rivera, and the rest is history. Taken with Brown's skills on the instrument and his understanding of Latin music beyond Afro-Cuban rhythms, D'Rivera took him ...
Continue ReadingAlex Brown: Pianist
by Raul d'Gama Rose
Even for a pianist with as prodigious a talent as Alex Brown, having a heavyweight in the music pantheon such as Paquito D'Rivera produce the debut album, must have largely been a dream. However, to pull off a debut as fine as this is a feat in itself. As a pianist, Brown has remarkable technique. Although he may still be searching for his true voice and that may take time, he appears to be closer than most. He is truly ...
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