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Recording

New York Encuentro: Blaise Siwula in Excellent Form with K. Itakura and R. Gilman-Opalsky

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
July 23, 2011

Now that what was once called the “new thing" is nearly 50 years young, we have a chance to assess what has gone on so far. Not today, however, since as I write this New Jersey is headed toward 100-plus-degree weather and my office is rapidly becoming an oven with yours truly as the tuna casserole. Nevertheless there are substyles in “free" improv that are well marked out and players are working within the various parameters with increasing economy of ...

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Recording

Neil Young and the International Harvesters - A Treasure (Reprise, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland
July 23, 2011

Rock and roll legend Neil Young was a bit of a journeyman in the 1980's, investigating several forms of music from proto-techno to sad-eyed balladry. This previously unreleased live album from 1985 with a group he called The International Harvesters was one of his most successful groups of the period. Country music had always played a part in Young's music from his early days in Buffalo Springfield through country tinged folk projects like Comes a Time. This album shows his ...

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Recording

Leo Ferguson Releases New Ensemble Album

Source: Leo Ferguson
July 22, 2011

Leo Ferguson's new self-titled album explores the intersection of modern composition and jazz, deep in the tradition of The New Thing, The Birth of The Cool and the most exciting moments of experimentation in our music. It features Stacy Dillard on tenor sax, a musician that Ben Ratliff of the New York Times called, “A young saxophonist of serious promise." Mr. Dillard is one of the stars of the New York scene—a heavyweight amongst heavyweights. His credits include Wycliffe Gordon, ...

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Recording

Gerry Mulligan "Watching and Waiting"

Source: Sound Insights by Doug Payne
July 22, 2011

Dave Grusin, like fellow Silver Age film composer Lalo Schifrin, has steadily slowed the pace of his movie scoring down over the last few years. Like Schifrin, Grusin—also a jazz pianist—has devoted more of his attention to other facets of his remarkable musicality. But even as Dave Grusin seems to have moved away from film, he thankfully remains an active force in music. Grusin, who turned 77 last month and has been quietly turning up in the most unexpected places ...

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Recording

John Coltrane - The Classic Quartet: Complete Impulse! Studio Recordings (Impulse, 1998)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland
July 22, 2011

The music on this large boxed set contains the studio recordings of one of the great jazz bands of the post-war era, John Coltrane's “Classic Quartet." Featuring Coltrane on tenor and soprano saxophones, McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums the group's towering influence continues to be felt to this day. The seven disc set covers the band's music from 1961-1965, and dramatically demonstrates how the their music evolved during the period. The collection ...

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Recording

Three from Trumpet Wunderkind Cuong Vu (2011)

Source: Something Else!
July 22, 2011

Cuong Vu is a Vietnamese-born, Seattle-raised trumpet player who can be considered a pretty damned impressive and forward thinking just by looking at the list of bandleaders who he impressed enough to have in their bands: Pat Metheny (Group), Dave Douglas, David Bowie and Satoko Fujii put him in their groups at one time or another [read about Vu's contributions to one of the Pat Metheny Group's best latter-day records The Way Up here]. Vu's career has consistently favored going ...

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Recording

Robert Randolph and the Family Band - Colorblind (2006)

Source: Something Else!
July 22, 2011

By Mark Saleski Inertia. Sure, it's a physics thing, but I like to apply it to music every once in a while. I'm not talking career inertia; the rising star thing. No. It's the music. You hear it and it has an energy that's impossible to resist. That perfectly describes the music of Robert Randolph and The Family Band. There are a few other attributes common to musical inertia. The first is that you'll begin to feel the urge to ...

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Recording

Wilco - A Ghost is Born (2004)

Source: Something Else!
July 22, 2011

By Tom Johnson Where I liken 2002's darkly beautiful, but depressing Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to the sound of a man about to hit bottom, 2004's A ghost is born is the sound of someone at the bottom, looking up: It's hopeful, in other words. This analogy seems fitting, as 2004 was the year when Wilco leader Jeff Tweedy checked himself into rehab to fight off a nagging addiction to painkillers he took to ward off the chronic migraines that can ...

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