Recording News

Palmer, Garramone and Fisher's Organ Trio: Permutations

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
March 31, 2011

Organist Jeff Palmer and his sidekicks Devin Garramone (alto) and John Fisher (drums) demonstrate that to do a good thing in jazz doesn't always involve taking a long leap into the future of music. On Permutation (Rank 604) they take the organ trio format and place it in a contemporary funk-jazz context. Jeff Palmer plays a compelling modern Hammond style that owes something to Larry Young, Charles Earland and John Medeski in that he has advanced harmonic line development going ...

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John Coltrane and Archie Shepp - New Thing at Newport (Impulse, 1965)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland
March 31, 2011

Jazz was evolving at a fast pace when these two short sets were recorded at the Newport Jazz Festival during the summer of 1965. Saxophonist and composer John Coltrane's “classic quartet" was on its last legs, soon to fracture over Coltrane's embrace of free jazz, the so called “New Thing."

But for the time being, Coltrane was still accompanied by McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. It's hard to believe that the band ...

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Mark Knopfler - Get Lucky (2009)

Source: Something Else!
March 31, 2011

By Mark Saleski So I was bored the other night and decided to flip through the on-demand offerings on the cable, and came across a short concert segment of Deep Purple doing “Space Truckin." This was mid-1970s excess at its purest: long hair, satin pants, platform shoes, banks of amplifiers, explosions. Yeah, Ritchie Blackmore sure did know his way around the fretboard, yet I couldn't help but giggle at the spectacle of the Stratocaster being played with the heel of ...

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One Track Mind: Al Di Meola, "Strawberry Fields" (2011)

Source: Something Else!
March 31, 2011

By Nick DeRiso Jazz guitarist Al Di Meola, the former teen prodigy in Return to Forever, accomplishes an uncommon thing here, making something out of a cover attempt at the Beatles' “Strawberry Fields Forever." The song has such an interior nature, thanks in no small way to John Lennon's brilliant Lewis Carroll-inspired word-play, but also because of its of-the-moment doob-rock pastiche. Sure, the Beatles had done many of these tricks before—strange chord progressions, the use of non-rock instrumentation (four trumpets, ...

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Twelves - The Adding Machine (Babel Label 2011) ****

Source: Free Jazz by Stef Gijssels
March 31, 2011

By Joe Higham The UK has probably one of the most interesting and diverse jazz scenes in Europe. New bands such as Polar Bear, Trianglehead, Outhouse, Nostalgia 77, MA, Led Bib or Troyka (to name just a few) are constantly coming out with music that blurs the lines between jazz, rock, free jazz and pop. One band that has been around for a few years is the Twelves, originally known as Twelves Trio. In 2008 the group (then a trio) ...

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Urbie Green in 1954

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 31, 2011

In August 1954, trombonist Urbie Green was offered a record date by Vanguard Records. Founded by Maynard and Seymour Solomon as a blues and folk label, Vanguard also recorded jazz, thanks to John Hammond, who had begun serving as the label's de factor jazz a&r man in 1953. Green's four-song session for the 10-inch Vanguard LP is positively remarkable. How perfect was this ensemble? See for yourself: Ruby Braff (tp), Urbie Green (tb), Med Flory (as), Frank Wess (ts,fl), Sir ...

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Linley Weir finds bittersweet spot between jazz and blues on debut album

Source: Lauren Rogers
March 31, 2011

Desires, the debut album from the Linley Weir Quartet, may introduce a new voice in jazz, but it's one rooted in the classic influences of Nina Simone and Cassandra Wilson. Like those legendary vocalists, Weir's singing finds that bittersweet spot between jazz and blues. Born and raised in West London, England, Weir's future was cemented at the age of 10 when a piano was brought into her house. For Weir, it was only the beginning. “I had piano lessons and ...

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Jakko Jakszyk, Robert Fripp and Mel Collins to release new King Crimson ProjeKct

Source: Lori Hehr Public Relations
March 31, 2011

DGM/Inner Knot Records announce the upcoming release of A Scarcity of Miracles, a new release in the King Crimson ProjeKct series. The ProjeKct features Robert Fripp, Jakko Jakszyk and Mel Collins with a rhythm section of Tony Levin and Gavin Harrison. A Scarcity of Miracles will be released on May 30, 2011. Information and merchandise for the release can be found at dgmlive.com. When Fripp (King Crimson founder and guitarist) and Jakszyk (Level 42) got together in February 2009 neither ...

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