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Randy Pingrey
Album Review
New England Jazz Collaborative: Tributaries
by Alberto Bazzurro
Tributaries segna l'esordio discografico del New England Jazz Collaborative, orchestra piuttosto poderosa (una ventina i musicisti coinvolti nell'album, inciso a Boston nel giugno 2025) con sede a Cambridge. Le atmosfere possiedono diverse tipicità proprie della letteratura di settore e relativo repertorio, peraltro lungo brani tutti originali, dovuti a Jeremy Cohen, deus ex machina del NEJC, Darryl Harper (due a testa), Matan Rubinstein e Sam Spear, che in effetti si rivelano in grado di esprimere un quid complessivo contrassegnato da alcuni ...
Continue Reading...Jason Robinson: Blue Salience: For Yusef Lateef
by Keith Flint
From a single note a song takes form. From a single seed a tree grows. Consider Yusef Lateef's own words from “Where Are The Goodies?" Spheres: Stories by Yusef Lateef (Fana Publishing, 1976), “To find out in a hurry whether the roots are where the rich dirt is, look up at the tree and see if the branches are soulful." His writing was as evocative of spirituality and human communication as it was given to compositional foundations and creative ideation. ...
Continue Reading...New England Jazz Collaborative: Tributaries
by Jack Bowers
Tributaries is the debut recording by the seventeen-member New England Jazz Collaborative whose origin and purpose are summed up as follows: “an artist-led non-profit collective dedicated to commissioning, presenting and documenting new music and expanding the audience for what remains a thrilling and vital musical form." The album consists of half a dozen fresh compositions by a quartet of talented composers and arrangers: NEJC founder Jeremy Cohen, Matan Rubinstein, Darryl Harper and Sam Spear, with the ensemble ably ...
Continue Reading...The Brian Martin Big Band: Old Home/New Home
by Jack Bowers
Brian Martin, who as a working musician wears many hats--trombonist, composer, arranger, educator and band leader among them--has taken those hats from his native Iowa and given them a new mailing address in the Boston, Massachusetts, area. Which is a big deal. Big enough, at least, for Martin to have devoted much of Old Home/New Home, the Brian Martin Big Band's debut recording, to the ins and outs and ups and downs of leaving one's friendly confines to plant new ...
Continue Reading...Mike Thompson: 6th Avenue
by Jack Bowers
Composer and arranger Mike Thompson was in his mid-twenties when 6th Avenue, his debut album as leader of a big band, was recorded (in the mid-2020s) at Q Division Studios in Cambridge, Massachusetts, enlisting for the most part veteran Boston-area musicians whom Thompson had met and befriended while studying at the Berklee School of Music, from which he was graduated in 2021. Although Thompson names Bob Brookmeyer, Maria Schneider and Igor Stravinsky as role models, you would be ...
Continue Reading...Album Review
Omar Thomas Large Ensemble: Griot Songs
by Alberto Bazzurro
Dopo una lunga gestazione, giunge a noi questo che è il terzo lavoro del Large Ensemble diretto dal compositore newyorchese Omar Thomas (incisione del maggio 2024), un doppio album ambizioso e di chiaro intento anche didascalico in cui l'orchestra appare eloquentemente come il naturale prolungamento del gesto autoriale, con risultati di notevole impatto, sette brani di ampio respiro (dai nove ai diciassette minuti) in cui la massa orchestrale tende a muoversi per lo più compatta, lungo partiture belle piene, solide, ...
Continue Reading...Bruno Raberg Tentet: Evolver
by Dan McClenaghan
Bassist Bruno Raberg released a nonet recording, Chrysalis (Orbis Music), in 2002--review here. That was his only foray into recording with a large-ish ensemble. Since Chrysalis he has primarily recorded in small ensembles. Evolver brings him back to the “almost a big band" format in more than twenty years. The disc features a first-rate tentet, with a pair of guest artist contributions which expand the voicings. As the opener “Peripeteia" spins, the first impression is Gil Evans, or ...
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Concerts
Music
Ol' Liminal
From: TributariesBy Randy Pingrey
Somewhere to Go
From: Old Home/New HomeBy Randy Pingrey
Obeah Woman
From: Griot SongsBy Randy Pingrey
Peripeteia
From: EvolverBy Randy Pingrey
Meridian 63
From: Home Is HereBy Randy Pingrey
Did You Eat?
From: The New Immigrant ExperienceBy Randy Pingrey
