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Esther Lamneck, Tarogato; Roberto Fabbriciani, Hyperbass Flute
Source:
Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
Not everything musically is what you expect. So sometimes you come to expect the unexpected. And in the case of Winds of the Heart, the album of tarogato and hyperbass flute duets by Esther Lamneck and Roberto Fabbriciani (Innova 239), you most certainly get it. First let me just clarify that the tarogato is related to the soprano sax and has roots in ancient instruments used in Hungary, Romania and Turkey. The hyperbass flute is just that. If you've ever ...
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Ursel Schlicht and Reuben Radding: Einstein's Dreams
Source:
Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
Ursel Schlicht, pianist, composer, educator, we have seen via a number of postings here and on the guitar site; bassist Reuben Radding should also be no stranger to regular readers of my blogs. They both in their own way have strongly original approaches to improvisation, which their CD collaboration Einstein's Dreams (Konnex 5165) well attests. This is a full set of improvisations captured live at Location One, NYC, in 2004. The two run through an inspired series of freely improvised ...
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Luther Thomas's Probingly Incisive Alto in a Good Setting
Source:
Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
There are a number of the late Luther Thomas's recordings on Ayler records. One of the very best is the download digital release of Finally! Total Unity in 3 Phases (aylDL-041). It's a 2006 quartet date that brings some lucid Thomas alto sax within the context of the ubiquitous Jeffry Hayden Shurdut on guitar and drums, Ed Chang on computer electronics, home-made reeds and tenor, and Motoko Shimizu on toys, recorder and voice. The quartet sets up interesting textural clouds ...
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Christopher Campbell, Sound the All-Clear
Source:
Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
Composer Christopher Campbell and six other musicians do something on Sound the All Clear (Innova 750) that, while not being brand-spanking-new in concept, is done very musically and convincingly. They create 12 vignettes, some short, some in the ten-minute range, that use a variety of instruments to create a sound that incorporates world and home-made elements into an aesthetically vibrant whole. Alan Sondheim did something like this on several albums in the sixties and the DIY tradition continued with such ...
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Mac Gollehon's "Straight Ahead" Virtual Big Band
Source:
Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
Trumpeter-trombonist-arranger Mac Gollehon has done something that is far from easy to pull off. He's created big band charts and then realized all the trumpet and trombone parts by overdubbing (except for the bass trombone, which is in the capable hands of Sam Burtis). He's then fleshed out the rest of the group with some notably great players—Victor Lewis, Warren Smith, Ronny Cuber, Ron McClure (where has he been?) and others. The result is a swinging old-school big band date ...
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Eastern Boundary Quartet Melds Amerfree Improv with Hungarian Strains
Source:
Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
The Eastern Boundary Quartet joins a freely inspired Michael Jeffry Stevens on piano and Joe Fonda on bass with two Hungarian practitioners of the jazz arts: Mihaly Borbely on sax and tarogato; Balazs Bagyi on the drums. The group recorded Icicles (Konnex 5258) in Budapest at the end of 2009 and it is a widely encompassing set of band originals, freely stated. Michael Jeffry Stevens is one of the more accomplished and distinctive of the not-yet-household-name improvisatory pianists out there ...
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Shawn Bell and His Hard-Bopping Bone: "Things yet Unknown"
Source:
Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards
You don't need to be re-told this, but it is OK to revisit an historically older style if you are sincere, dedicated to it, have something to say in its idiom and do it convincingly. That would pretty much sum up Shawn Bell [on his recent Things Yet Unknown (self-released) album], his trombone, his compositions, his band and the Blue Note Classic Hard-Bop sound. It's a sextet with trombone, trumpet, fluegelhorn, piano, bass and drums. The three-horn front line lends ...
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John Surman - Flashpoint: NDR Jazz Workshop - April 1969 (Cuneiform, 2011)
Source:
Music and More by Tim Niland
Saxophonist and composer John Surman was at the beginning of a lengthy and successful career when this was taped with the star-studded British group which had the likes of Ronnie Scott, Kenny Wheeler and Mike Osbourne on board. The big band frames the music nicely, and Surman is featured as a soloist, playing soprano and baritone saxophone, and getting extensive solo space on four of the five tracks. “Mayflower" opens the album nicely with some blazing pinched soprano saxophone revolving ...
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