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Sean Rickman
Steve Coleman and Five Elements: PolyTropos / Of Many Turns
by Troy Dostert
Perpetually churning rhythms, telepathic detours, unexpected juxtapositions: these are the stock-in-trade of Steve Coleman's Five Elements. And once again the intrepid alto saxophonist's inimitable approach surfaces on PolyTropos / Of Many Turns, a generous, two-disc helping of music that manages to be both intricately complex and fundamentally accessible at the same time. With two live dates captured in France in March of 2024, one can easily appreciate the infectious energy Coleman's group can generate, with rhythmic and melodic permutations galore, ...
Continue ReadingTrickster: Live in Brooklyn
by Troy Dostert
If one is looking for an artist whose ambition and indefatigable spirit seemed destined to withstand the rigors of the Covid pandemic and its deleterious impact on the jazz community, guitarist Miles Okazaki could be near the top of the list. A prolific and well-recorded musician before 2020, he maintained a rigorously creative schedule after it as well, with four albums released between 2020 and 2022, not the least of which was Trickster's Dream (Pi Recordings, 2020), Okazaki's resilient reclamation ...
Continue ReadingMiles Okazaki: Thisness
by Vincenzo Roggero
Potremmo farci guidare dalle stimolanti note di copertina che evocano simbolismi, sogni, correnti di pensiero tirando in ballo John Cage, Marcel Duchamp e André Breton, in un viaggio surrealista dove immagini (meravigliosi gli acquerelli di Linda Okazaki), versi dal poema di Sun Ra “The Far Off Place" e procedimenti compositivi interagiscono in maniera stimolante. Oppure potremmo lasciarsi trasportare dal flusso della musica senza condizionamenti, in una sorta di tabula rasa cognitiva che favorisca un assorbimento sensoriale privo di ...
Continue ReadingMiles Okazaki: Thisness
by Troy Dostert
A guitarist as freakishly talented as Miles Okazaki demands a listener's full attention. This is the case whether one is parsing his fiendishly complex compositions, or beholding his astonishing technique, or simply taking in all the shifting meters and grooves that permeate his music. From the remarkably ambitious Work (Volumes 1-6), his self-released solo document in 2018 of the complete works of Thelonious Monk, to his recent albums with his Trickster quartet, like Trickster (Pi Recordings, 2017) or The Sky ...
Continue ReadingSteve Coleman and Five Elements: Live at the Village Vanguard Volume II (MDW NTR)
by Vincenzo Roggero
Circa un anno dopo i due set incendiari confluiti nel meraviglioso Live at Village Vanguard Vol. I (PI Recordings, 2018), Steve Coleman e i suoi fidi Five Elements ritornano sul luogo del delitto e danno vita ad un doppio set, se possibile, ancora più entusiasmante. L'ennesimo aggiustamento di formazione, al chitarrista Miles Okazaki succede il fuoriclasse dello freestyle Kokayi, fornisce un ulteriore impulso alla musica di Coleman, dove la voce e le metriche del rapper sembrano andare a nozze con ...
Continue ReadingMiles Okazaki: The Sky Below
by Vincenzo Roggero
Tre quinti dei Five Elements di Steve Coleman più il pianista dei Snakeoil di Tim Berne sono roba da spellarsi le mani e The Sky Below, a tre anni di distanza da Trickster -acclamato debutto del quartetto con Craig Taborn al pianoforte, qui rimpiazzato per l'appunto da Matt Mitchell—non delude le attese. L'avvicendamento tra due fuoriclasse delle tastiere non mina gli equilibri della formazione guidata da Miles Okazaki ma l'utilizzo da parte di Mitchell di fender rhodes e sintetizzatore Prophet ...
Continue ReadingMiles Okazaki: The Sky Below
by Glenn Astarita
Electric guitarist Miles Okazaki—also using electronics—and his rhythm section comprise three-fifths of alto sax great Steve Coleman's current band, as keyboardist Matt Mitchell rounds out this quartet for the leader's second release for Pi Recrodings, but his fifth album overall. And while the album length is a little over 39-minutes, many artists are cutting back some to accommodate the resurgence of LPs. However, quality is the key as Okazaki's idiosyncratic playing and multitiered compositions yield the knockout punch, framed on ...
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