Recording News

CDs: Michael Weiss, Ryan Kisor

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
August 28, 2008

Michael Weiss, Soul Journey (Sintra). Michael Weiss has been a pianist to follow since his impressive 1986 debut recording, Presenting Michael Weiss. As his career rolled out in work with Art Farmer, Johnny Griffin, Lou Donaldson, Tom Harrell and other major leaguers, Weiss's talent as a composer became increasingly apparent. His writing received high-profile recognition when he won the 2000 BMI/Monk Institute Composers Competition grand prize for “El Camino." That is one of the pieces in Weiss's Soul Journey CD, ...

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Topaz and Mudphonic:music for Dorothy

Source: JamBase
August 28, 2008

By: Sarah Hagerman

This album is fuckin' murky, hip shakey and a little bit dirty, and I like it.

Topaz McGarrigle and his sax (among other instrumental) chops has returned to his Texas roots and his band Topaz & Mudphonic is assembled from veterans of some of Austin's finest, with Bobby Perkins (bass, Carolyn Wonderland), Alex Marrero (drums, lead singer of Ghandaia) and John Branch (guitar). Together they have cooked a down-home record, Music for Dorothy (released August 26 by ...

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Bassist Todd Sickafoose Walks the Line Between Pitchfork and Down Beat

Source: All About Jazz
August 27, 2008

It seems telling that Todd Sickafoose describes his new CD, Tiny Resistors (Cryptogramophone), as “instrumental music." Despite his years leading jazz units, first in his native California and more recently in his adopted home of Brooklyn, Sickafoose is best known as Ani DiFranco's regular bassist, and also tours with folk-jazz violinist Jenny Scheinman. Those generic strands weave together in his own music, resulting in a decidedly modern sound that would fit in amid the reviews at Pitchfork as well as ...

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Wolfgang Schalk New CD Release "Wanted"

Source: All About Jazz
August 27, 2008

A new recording by guitarist Wolfgang Schalk Wanted Frame Up Music Street Date: September 2nd 2008 Wolfgang Schalk: guitar Geoffrey Keezer: piano Dave Carpenter: bass Marvin “Smitty" Smith: drums Recorded at Encore/Paramount Studios, Los Angeles, CA “Schalk creates impressive structures for improvisation, and he fits each and every structure with a hip, catchy melody. If other musicians pick up on these tunes, every single one of them has the potential to become a jazz ...

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Kayhan Kalhor Master Iranian Musician Plays Cultural Ambassador

Source: Michael Ricci
August 27, 2008

In Silent City, a hypnotic work commemorating Halabjah, a Kurdish village annihilated by Saddam Hussein, the kamancheh, an upright four-stringed Persian fiddle, breaks out in a lamenting wail based on a traditional Turkish melody.

“Silent City" is included on a new disc of the same name on the World Village label, which Kayhan Kalhor, a virtuoso kamancheh player, recorded with the young string quartet Brooklyn Rider. The work opens with a desolate murmuring improvised by the strings, eerily evoking the ...

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Olenka's "Rhythms of Another Life" Brings Funky World Grooves In A Pop-Friendly Sound

Source: All About Jazz
August 27, 2008

Multiple music arts grant-award winner Alexandra “Olenka" Gadzik emigrated from the Carpathian Mountains of Poland with her parents and sister in 1977. Growing up in multi-cultural New York City nurtured in her a love and affinity for world music. Now with Olenka's second fully orchestrated release, Rhythms of Another Life, her world fusion rhythms and spiraling Euro-fringe melodies, sing the stories of women, foreigners, and belonging in a global culture. The CD is receiving heavy airplay on radio and is ...

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Music Taste Releases Chris Minh Doky's Listen Up!

Source: All About Jazz
August 27, 2008

Traditionally, jazz bassists act as the wingmen for the leading musician. Establishing a steady beat so the other instruments can fall back to the original structure of the song, the bass serves as the backbone of the group. Its soft and persistent reverberations keep the other instruments tethered to the ground as they each explore their respective flights of fancy. Chris Minh Doky is one such jazz bassist, but in lieu of backing his group, he leads them, proving that ...

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Music Taste Releases Dori Caymmi's Cinema: A Romantic Vision

Source: All About Jazz
August 27, 2008

Although his name is not as well known as some of the contemporary artists receiving constant airplay today, Dori Caymmi has a unique ability in drawing in any unsuspecting listener's immediate attention. This is not to say that the great Caymmi is an unknown artist, he was nominated for a Grammy award for his definitive album Cinema: A Romantic Vision which is also the focus of this article. The album showcases Caymmi's expert arrangement and improvisation at its arguably finest, ...

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