Recording News

Danjam Orchestra in Toronto for CD Release Party

Source: Rolling Thunder PR
March 25, 2011

DANIEL JAMIESON'S DANJAM ORCHESTRA CELEBRATE THE RELEASE OF SUDDEN APPEARANCE THEIR DEBUT RECORDING ON THE OA2 LABEL SPECIAL PRE-RELEASE PERFORMANCES MARCH 30, 31 at the REX HOTEL IN TORONTO New York based, Canada native Daniel Jamieson will release his debut recording SUDDEN APPEARANCE in May on Origin Arts' OA2 imprint. Produced by Jim McNeely and featuring drumming great John Riley, the album spotlights Jamieson's ambitious compositions and arrangements including the track “Song for Anna" for which he was awarded the ...

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Brotzmann's Chicago Tentet at Molde, 2007: Ten Years

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
March 25, 2011

Peter Brotzmann's Chicago Tentet combines some of the finest avant improvisers from the Chicago area (and the USA in general) with a select crew of European out virtuosi. The Chicago Tentet has been a kind of smaller outside big band that continues to thrive (they are touring Europe this April) through the over-the-top excellence of its members and the well-executed routines that keep textural variety and energy levels high. In 2007 the Tentet appeared at Molde. The recording of that ...

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Grant Stewart - Plays the Music of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn (Sharp Nine, 2009)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland
March 25, 2011

Saxophonist Grant Stewart leads a subtle and swinging tribute to the music of pianists and composers Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn on this solid mainstream jazz recording. While he can only touch the tip of the iceberg of these composers voluminous output, the band hits a few high points along the way. Accompanied by Tardo Hammer on piano, Paul Gill on bass and Joe Farnsworth on drums, the group works through a series of compositions from their canonical songbook, beginning ...

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Monty Alexander - Uplift (2011)

Source: Something Else!
March 25, 2011

By S. Victor Aaron

Kingston, Jamaica's own Monty Alexander looms as large a figure in Jamaica's jazz world as Bob Marley does for its homegrown reggae. A virtuosic pianist in the Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson tradition, Alexander often melds Tatum and Peterson with the dancehall, calypso and reggae idioms from his homeland, and nobody does it better. Regardless of the particular style of jazz he chooses, his piano playing lies at the heart of his artistry. He's truly a ...

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One Track Mind: Orrin Evans, "Jena 6 " (2011)

Source: Something Else!
March 25, 2011

By Nick DeRiso Turns out, it actually does mean a thing, even if it ain't got that swing. For something like 80 years now, that old Duke Ellington cliche worked as the clarion call of big band music, but its mantra has also become its curse. Subsequent generations moved on to genres with more complexity, a challenge that Orrin Evans' new Captain Black Big Band accepts, and then inhabits. In fact, the album defiantly shucks off the bow-tied fox-trotting boilerplate ...

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One Track Mind: Arild Andersen with Bill Frisell, "Dual Mr. Anthony Tillmon Williams" (1981)

Source: Something Else!
March 25, 2011

By S. Victor Aaron Some time ago...two years and three months ago to be more precise...we raved on the double-bass mastery of the Norwegian ECM Records mainstay Arild Andersen, and noted then that he “may not be the first name that comes up when one thinks of the greatest living acoustic bassists, but he's at least earned the right to be considered somewhere on that list." This is a One Track Mind where you might say that little-known genius is ...

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Aretha Franklin: Columbia Years

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 25, 2011

Two weeks ago I wrote an advance review of Take a Look: Aretha Franklin Complete on Columbia for the Wall Street Journall (here). It's an 11-CD box plus one DVD from Sony/Legacy that covers Franklin's entire 1960-65 output for the Columbia label. The mega box tells two stories concurrently. One details the singer's development as a singer who combined the American Songbook with the thump of the Holy Bible. The other story is about a label that at the time ...

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ECM March 29th Releases!

Source: ECM Records
March 24, 2011

Don't miss these two new March 29th releases! Julia Hülsmann Trio Imprint Julia Hülsmann: piano Marc Muellbauer: bass Heinrich Köbberling: drums On the second ECM disc from the popular Berlin-based Julia Hülsmann Trio, the leader's themes stand out in stark relief, as if stamped or printed into the surrounding improvisation. “Imprint" offers highly communicative jazz in which melody, clearly-etched melody, is paramount. Hülsmann is a gifted jazz-composer and there are surprises amongst her pieces ...

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