Recording News

One Track Mind: Holdsworth/Pasqua/Haslip/Wackerman "Fred" (2010)

Source: Something Else!
May 23, 2010

By PicoFusion guitar big dog Allan Holdsworth has been in a number of notable bands: The Soft Machine, Gong, UK, Level 42...but the brief, mid-seventies stint he had in Tony Williams' reconstituted Lifetime band have made up some of the fondest memories for him. About a decade ago, he honored his old boss and late drummer with a stupefying performance on “The Drums Were Yellow." Going a step further with the tribute in 2006, both he ...

Continue Reading...

John Zorn George Lewis Bill Frisell - More News for Lulu (Hatology)

Source: Master of a Small House
May 23, 2010

Altoist John Zorn still takes it on the chin from certain critics when it comes to his cavalier claims of minimal practice on his instrument. Fortunately, he's got something an iron jaw and comparable chops to contradict any charges of dilettantism or rampant drollery. This set and its earlier companion still serve as figurative bandoliers of ammo when a defensive position is required. Zorn plays more than convincing hardbop saxophone over the course of fifteen tracks pulled from a pair ...

Continue Reading...

John Skillman's Barb City Stompers - Dekalb Blues (Delmark)

Source: Master of a Small House
May 23, 2010

Based in DeKalb, Illinois, the birth-place of barbed wire, John Skillman's jazz quintet operates just a figurative hop, skip and jump from Delmark HQ That geographical proximity explains, in part, producer Bob Koester's close affinity for their efforts. The other, even more immediate, explanation rests in the ensemble's populist blend of Hot, Trad and Swing jazz styles. Clarinetist John Skillman, the leader of the crew, takes his instrumental cues directly from Crescent City doyens like Edmund Hall and Johnny Dodds. ...

Continue Reading...

Sonny Simmons - Staying on the Watch (Esp)

Source: Master of a Small House
May 23, 2010

Themes of urgency and vigilance embedded in the title to Sonny Simmons' ESP debut would dictate his music up through the present day. Simmons isn't one to suffer fools lightly and that intolerance for incompetence and hypocrisy cost him dearly at various times in his career. This auspicious set harkens to a stage prior to most of those setbacks when he was fronting a working group of like-minded peers and garnering praise as a member of the music's New Thing ...

Continue Reading...

Ellen Rowe Quartet - Wishing Well (Pko)

Source: Master of a Small House
May 23, 2010

Despite a surfeit of originals and uniformly strong musicianship, pianist Ellen Rowe's latest offering exudes a disconcerting air of familiarity. Postbop is a signifier applied to a wide swathe of new-millennial jazz. Rowe's music fits easily within the broad framework, but to my ears it's also emblematic of the term. The opening track, featuring guest flugelhornist Ingrid Jensen who also sits in on “Longing" later in the set, unfolds in lush dream-like fashion. Jensen sounds akin to Kenny Wheeler in ...

Continue Reading...

Violin Jazz Perform "The Music of Eddie South" on Dorian Sono Luminus - Now Available

Source: Michael Bloom Media Relations
May 23, 2010

On “The Music of Eddie South", Jeremy Cohen and his ensemble Violin Jazz shine new light on the music of one of the earliest great jazz violinists. Born in 1904, Eddie South was one of the most highly regarded jazz violinists of his time. A classical violin prodigy, he switched to jazz because of limited opportunities for African-American musicians and began his career playing in vaudeville and jazz orchestras with Freddie Keppard, Jimmy Wade, Charles Elgar, and Erskine Tate in ...

Continue Reading...

'Otis Redding: Live on the Sunset Strip'

Source: Michael Ricci
May 21, 2010

Soul great Otis Redding's 1966 performances at the Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood were a revelation in many respects for Southland music fans who caught those shows, which are the focal point of “Otis Redding Live on the Sunset Strip" double CD released this week.

The set expands on a 10-song single LP originally released two years after Redding's performances, and about a year after his death in 1967 at age 26 in a plane crash. The new CDs ...

Continue Reading...

Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert (1975)

Source: Something Else!
May 19, 2010

By PicoIf blogs had been around in the late 70s or the 80s I wouldn't have thought for a second to write about Keith Jarrett's watershed album The Koln Concert, because every jazz enthusiast with a computer keyboard and a Blogger account would have already been flooding the internets with praise about this record. Three and a half decades after its 1975 recording and subsequent release, it remains the record people most identify with Jarrett, and in all ...

Continue Reading...