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Le French May Live Jazz Series in Hong Kong

By Rob Garratt

Samy Thiébault; Laïka and the Unit Hong Kong City Hall, Theatre Le French May Arts Festival: Live Jazz Series Hong Kong May 21-22, 2019 The now-annual Live Jazz Series of long-running Hong Kong arts fest Le French May might have slimmed in size and shifted from a primetime weekend to lukewarm midweek slot--yet the program's gaze has been refreshingly realigned. Where the three-day 2018 series saw visiting French jazz musicians ...

The Empress of the Blues

By Mary Foster Conklin

This broadcast opened with a celebration of the music of Bessie Smith, the Empress of the Blues in honor of her birthday, with new releases from saxophonist Melissa Aldana, vocalists Emma Larsson, Marc Jordan, Joanna Wallfisch and Claire Martin, plus more birthday shout outs to Dusty Springfield and Carline Ray (member of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm and mother of Catherine Russell), among others. Playlist Jen Hodge “Chocolate Magic Mushrooms" from All's Fair in Love and Jazz (Self ...

Kneebody at Blue Note in Milan

By Roberto Cifarelli

Patricia Barber: Higher

By Tyran Grillo

Patricia Barber is more than the sum of her talents. As a composer, she peels back the craft of song to expose its barest textures, cultivating each like a tree that, while holding its own shape above ground, makes apparent the roots below it. As a singer, she understands not only that we perform our voices but also that our voices perform us. Whether crooning through the Great American Songbook, as on Nightclub (Blue Note, 2000), or rowing through intensely ...

Keith Tippett: The Unlonely Raindancer

By Matt Parker

Some people find that solo piano albums, no matter how highly regarded they may be, struggle to hold their attention for a full listen. This can often be attributed to the relatively small timbral palette apparently available to pianists. However, nothing could be further from the truth regarding the extraordinary performances of Keith Tippett documented in this beautiful reissue of the seminal album The Unlonely Raindancer (Universe Productions, 1980). Tippett draws a seemingly limitless supply of hitherto unimaginable sounds from ...

JC Sanford's Triocracy: Pyramid Scheme

By Mark Sullivan

Trombonist / composer JC Sanford leads an unconventional chamber trio with Andy Laster and Chris Bacas on saxophones and clarinets. As the group name implies, it is a remarkably flexible and democratic small ensemble. Sanford is the main composer, but there are also collective improvisations, guided improvisations, and a few surprising covers. “Rip Tide" opens the set with a series of urgent, ripping passages, which also partake of the danger and aggressiveness of an actual rip tide. “Everything ...

Hadden Sayers: The Dopamine Dream

By C. Michael Bailey

Guitarist and composer Hadden Sayers took the 40th Annual Blues Music Awards by storm, riding the sonic wave created by this dual release of Dopamine Machine and Acoustic Dopamine. Sayers was nominated for the “Acoustic Blues Artist of the Year" for the latter recording. We are in the midst of a blues revolution and Hadden Sayers is a field general in the effort. Hadden Sayers Dopamine Machine Self Produced 2019 Just when ...

Ikarus: Mosaismic

By Mike Jurkovic

Like morse code lapping against the rampant stream of everything binary, the minimal groove of Germany's Ikarus—which is drummer Ramon Oliveras, pianist Lucca Fries double bassist Moritz Meyer and the wordless, gravity-free scat singing of Andreas Lareida and Anna Hirsch—makes for an edgy, compelling atmosphere. Economic to the point of sparseness, Ikarus, like its Ronin Rhythm Records label mate and co-producer Nik Bartsch, is obsessed with trickier-the-better time changes, colliding counterpoints and evocative duets of insistent pulse.

Caldera: Caldera / Sky Islands

By Jakob Baekgaard

Mention the word “fusion" and a list of familiar names often turns up: Miles Davis, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams' Lifetime, Return to Forever and Weather Report. But what about Caldera? Aficionados of the genre will probably know about them but, to many listeners, they will be a new discovery and, thanks to a BGO reissue of their first two albums on Capitol, it's now possible to take a deeper look at the group that emerged at the height ...

Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville 2019, Part 2-2

By Mike Chamberlain

Part 1 | Part 2 Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada May 16-19, 2019 The first two days of this year's FIMAV lived up to lofty expectations, and, if anything, Saturday's and Sunday's programs looked even more promising, with artists such as Roscoe Mitchell Vijay Iyer, Tyshawn Sorey, The Ex, and John Butcher on tap. Unfortunately, I had to miss Saturday's first concert by Thomas Korber with the ...

Spring 2019

By Doug Collette

Jazz Journal is a regular column consisting of pithy takes on recent jazz releases of note as well as spotlights on those titles in the genre that might otherwise go unnoticed under the cultural radar. Brandon Goldberg Let's Play Self Produced 2019 Brandon Goldberg's debut album offers proof positive that Joey Alexander is not the only piano prodigy working in the contemporary jazz field today. But the young man with his name ...

Jimmie Vaughan: Baby, Please Come Home

By Doug Collette

Jimmie Vaughan has never risen to the level of stardom his late brother Stevie Ray Vaughan attained, but the elder sibling hasn't been any less loyal to the blues during the course of his career. Founding and maintaining the Fabulous Thunderbirds since 1974 (quite a bit prior to the renaissance of the genre his younger and flashier relative ignited), Jimmie Vaughan has also continued a string of solo endeavors, the latest example of which is Baby, Please Come Home. Far ...