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Karl Ackermann’s Top Albums 2019
2019 was the year when one couldn't turn an ear without hearing a release that featured either Kris Davis or Matthew Shipp. Between the two pianist/composer/improvisers, listeners have been treated to more than a dozen recordings, each noteworthy. Then there is Satoko Fujii. On the heels of her 2018, twelve-album birthday celebration, the pianist issued another five in 2019. In 2019 jazz recognized the four-hundred-year anniversary of slavery in the US, documented in multiple albums from their descendants. And it ...
read moreYazz Ahmed: Polyhymnia
The British-Bahraini trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer Yazz Ahmed went clear in 2017 with La Saboteuse (Naim). The album is an otherworldly mix of jazz, electronics and Arabic folk music which carries traces of Miles Davis' In A Silent Way (Columbia, 1969) and Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1970) and Jon Hassell's Dream Theory In Malaya: Fourth World Volume 2 (E.G., 1981), all wrapped in a modern sensibility. With it, Ahmed outstripped Ibrahim Maalouf as the high priest of psychedelic Arabic jazz.
read moreCharu Suri: The Book Of Ragas
Charu Suri takes piano jazz and combines it with the sounds of her native India on The Book Of Ragas. The set is a freshening of the format, with vocalist Apoorva Mudgal, a performer of ghazals (lyric poems) and Sufi music, contributing. Suri first recording, 2019's Lollipops For For Breakfast (Amala Records), took its inspiration, in part (the title tune) from her daughter's unconventional first meal of the day request. It also offered up a beautiful cover of ...
read moreJane Monheit at The American Theatre
Vocalist Jane Monheit surprised both the audience and the management at The American Theatre in Hampton, Virginia with her first holiday show of the season on November 30. Though her interpretations of the Great American Songbook and torch songs were missed, Monheit and her trio— pianist Michael Kanan, bassist Neal Miner, and drummer Joe Strasser—still moved the room. Monheit is known for pulling the audience into sad songs of unrequited love. That evening, she threw her head back in joy ...
read moreYuriy Galkin: ...For Its Beauty Alone
There has to be a term for recordings you listen to for the sidemen, but repeat for its leader. Let's call it 'bait and swing.' A perfect example is ...For Its Beauty Alone by Yuriy Galkin. The bassist's second release pares down the nonet heard on Nine Of A Kind (F-IRE, 2012) to just four. But this quartet is quite special, with saxophonist David Binney, pianist Matt Mitchell, and drummer Rudy Royston. If assembling this all-star cast says anything, it ...
read moreJoshua Redman, Marc Copland and more
This week we open the show with a very seasoned jazz saxophonist that recently moved to Kansas City, Adam Larson. From there we move to the UK scena and dig into new sounds from the Black Lab Beats and put a focus on great new jazz being released from the likes of Hendrik Meurkens, Peter Hand and Marc Copland. We round out this hour of music with a look into new material from Australian-born jazz guitarist Nic Vardanega and Poet/Singer ...
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