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Articles | Featured | Future

CD/LP/TRACK REVIEW

Oscar Peterson: Oscar Peterson Plays

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Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson (1925-2007) was just starting what turned out to be terrific career in 1951 when jazz impresario extraordinaire Norman Granz took him into the studio to record Plays Cole Porter (Clef Records, 1952). Granz had a grand plan: To have this then-promising jazz pianist record a number of albums under the Oscar Peterson Plays tag, each an immersion into a separate Great American Songbook tunesmith. It started with Cole Porter and ran through George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, ...

CD/LP/TRACK REVIEW

Anders Svanoe: State Of The Baritone Volume 2

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Some people see a baritone saxophone and think it an obtuse and blunt instrument. Not Anders Svanoe; he sees his baritone saxophone as a sharpened, yet subtle tool. Evidenced by State Of The Baritone Volume 2, he communicates everything from shuffling boogaloos to energized free-jazz, post-bop, and folk music with an uncanny naturalness. All of this is accomplished within the difficult framework of a trio format. That's no small feat, and one I don't believe had been attempted ...

CD/LP/TRACK REVIEW

Jon Hassell: Listening To Pictures (Pentimento Volume one)

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By the time even the most revolutionary musicians reach their ninth decade, few are any longer making edgy work. All too often, conservatism has kicked in or, if not that, a younger generation has come along and moved the goal posts. But on Listening To Pictures (Pentimento Volume One), Jon Hassell, the creator of fourth-world music in the 1970s and other innovations since, is as venturesome as ever. Listening To Pictures is Hassell's first new release since Last Night The ...

CD/LP/TRACK REVIEW

The Jason Klobnak Quartet/Quintet: Friends & Family

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Trumpeter/composer Jason Klobnak is one of those artists who creeps up on you. His debut recording, Mountain, Move (Self Produced, 2013), inauspiciously crossed my desk on its way beneath the laser, where it impressed me as just progressive enough to be interesting, but not so much to be a turn off. Klobnak takes the classic Miles Davis quintet format, shrinking it to a quartet by the using a Hammond B3 in place of piano and bass. The result is not ...

LIVE REVIEWS

Liberty Ellman Trio at Crescent Arts Centre

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Liberty Ellman Trio Crescent Arts Centre jny:Belfast, N. Ireland April 13, 2018 Liberty Ellman was short his pedals for this Moving On Music gig at Crescent Arts Centre--lost somewhere in transit--but he certainly wasn't short of musical ideas during a constantly engaging ninety-minute set. With four releases in twenty years Ellman maybe isn't the most prolific of leaders yet this only tells part of the story, for the New York-based guitarist--a cornerstone of ...

CD/LP/TRACK REVIEW

Francesco Turrisi: Northern Migrations

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For his fifth album as leader Dublin-based Italian pianist Francesco Turrisi strikes out on his own with his first solo piano recording--a format he's well used to in a live setting. These thirteen compositions/improvisations were inspired by his family's migration north from Sicily to Turin, and subsequently by his own northern migrations--first to The Netherlands where he graduated in jazz and baroque music and then to Ireland where he has made his home. As with Turrisi's outstanding debut Si Dolce ...

CD/LP/TRACK REVIEW

Dominic Lash & Seth Cooke: Egregore

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Making their Intonema debut here, the occasional duo of Dominic Lash and Seth Cooke dates back to 2013. Egregore is their third album release, following PACT (1000 füssler, 2014) and Canary (Hideous Replica, 2015). However, anyone familiar with those releases and/or Lash's other work may be surprised by this new album as he does not play double bass at all here, opting instead for electronics throughout while Cooke is heard on cymbals and microphones. Their new label may be the ...

CD/LP/TRACK REVIEW

Jeff Williams: Lifelike

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Sounding as real as real gets, Lifelike's forward thinking drummer/composer Jeff Williams' heady sextet sure sound like they're all sitting in on a late night, cramped back room cutting session, with each player challenging, coaxing the other to new heights and horizons. Williams, an alumni of such name drops as Stan Getz, Dave Liebman, Ted Curson, Lee Konitz and Joe Lovano, knows a thing or twenty about assembling and writing for hot bands and Lifelike, recorded live last ...

CD/LP/TRACK REVIEW

Michael Feinberg: Whatever Possessed Me

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Tribute bands are glowingly appreciated by fans of great rock acts; perhaps it's time jazz fans got with it! Michael Feinberg's Whatever Possessed Me is a dedication to the works and sound of John Coltrane and his classic quartet with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones. The performances on this album are so good, one can imagine Coltrane's ghost hovering overhead and nodding approvingly. Feinberg has chosen some prime selections from the bop lexicon to infuse with ...

CD/LP/TRACK REVIEW

The Who: Live At The Fillmore East 1968

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For long-time fans of the the Who acquainted with the less-than-stellar audio quality of bootlegs that have circulated over the years, this two-CD (and three-vinyl LP )fiftieth-anniversary set Live at the Fillmore East 1968 will no doubt be a revelation. Those more casual followers who may only know of the iconic British group as of their widespread commercial breakthrough in the form of Tommy (MCA, 1969) will quite possibly be more astonished-and on multiple fronts-hearing the quartet's stage show before ...