Recording News

James Carter - Caribbean Rhapsody (Emarcy, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland
May 21, 2011

Saxophonist James Carter is a master improviser on several instruments and this album places him in a concert setting with Giancarlo Guerrara and the Sinfonia Varsovia and the Akua Dixon string quintet playing two compositions by Roberto Sierra along with two extended Carter improvisations. Carter and Sierra worked together for a lengthy period of time and the results were a well integrated suite of music where Carter is featured but doesn't overwhelm the music. “Concerto for Saxophones and Orchestra" and ...

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Marcin Wasilewski Trio - Faithful, ECM 2011 ***a1/2

Source: Free Jazz by Stef Gijssels
May 21, 2011

By Paul Acquaro When listening to the Marcin Wasilewski Trio's Faithful, I've begun developing a feeling that there is something that I'm not quite tuned in to. Having not heard this trio's music before but having read some laudatory write-ups online, I must I admit I was anticipating something, though what, I'm still not entirely sure. Wasilewski's approach to piano is strikingly lush but at the same time employs a great economy. The phrasing is exquisite and the atmosphere, light ...

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"To Eva, with Love," New Eva Cassidy Tribute CD by Bay Area Vocal Duo Amikaeyla & Trelawny Rose, Set for National Release June 14 by Patois Records

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity
May 20, 2011

For Bay Area jazz singers Amikaeyla and Trelawny Rose, the late Eva Cassidy is a potent source of inspiration, a shared passion, and a profound influence on their respective musical paths. They pay tribute to Cassidy on their new CD To Eva, With Love, which was recorded live at Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, California, and will be released nationally by Wayne Wallace's Patois Records on June 14. In the works for three years, the CD has been a ...

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First Impulse: The Creed Taylor Collection 50th Anniversary

Source: Sound Insights by Doug Payne
May 20, 2011

It was 50 years ago this year that ABC Records, having recent success with such pop acts as Paul Anka, Buddy Holly and others, decided to create a specialty label specifically designed for jazz music. One of the company's most successful producers, Creed Taylor, who had already brought the company a significant modicum of success creating some fairly profitable novelty records and jazz discs—notably Lambert, Hendricks and Ross's Sing A Song Of Basie, Quincy Jones's This Is How I Feel ...

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Brotzmann's Chicago Tentet, 2004, "Be Music, Night"

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
May 20, 2011

Peter Brotzmann's Chicago Tentet combines some of the finest avant improvisers out of Chicago and Europe. For a such a logistically and musically complex multi-member outfit they've had a rather long and significant life. And they still flourish today, as witnessed by their recent European tour. We turn the clock back to 2004, and a Tentet gig recorded at Wall to Wall in Chicago. It was auspicious and fortuitious that the mikes were in place, the “tapes" running that day, ...

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Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de Couleur Libre (Constellation, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland
May 20, 2011

Saxophonist and composer Matana Roberts has been involved in a lengthy genealogical exploration of her family's rich history, and in doing so has conceived of an ambitious twelve part experience of music, narrative and sound.

Part one is this album, subtitled Chapter One: Gens De Couleur Libres which is a fascinating mix of genres, ideas and song. There is the raw toned tenor saxophone that she has developed a unique tone on in instrumental pieces like the opening “Rise," which ...

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Woody Shaw: Ginseng People

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
May 20, 2011

Woody Shaw died 22 years ago this month. A trumpeter of power, taste, a subtle harmonic sense and admirable originality, Shaw was long burdened with critiques that described him as a disciple, if not a copy, of Freddie Hubbard, who was six years his senior. This recording they made together—out of print, expensive and worth says otherwise. Before becoming a leader in the late 1970s, Shaw worked with Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Joe Henderson, Max Roach, Dexter Gordon and Gil ...

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Elkano Browning Cream Releases Second Album "2"

Source: Chris M. Slawecki
May 19, 2011

Elkano Browning Cream is synonymous with hypnotic and contagious rhythms and a sound that evokes memories of the great Hammond Organ Trios from the glory years of Blue Note Records, personalized and realized through the filter of the nomadic and multicultural members of the trio. The project is headed up by Basque Mikel Azpiroz (Fermin Muguruza, Australian super band The Waifs), an expert of all types of keyboard instruments, concentrates his energies in the basic Hammond Organ Trio format, focusing ...

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