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Jazz Articles about Matt Pavolka

Album Review

Russ Lossing: Alternative Side Parking Music

Read "Alternative Side Parking Music" reviewed by Maurizio Zerbo


Oltre a riflettere la musica del proprio tempo, i progetti dei jazzisti sono direttamente collegati alla quotidianità delle loro esistenze. Paradigmatica è in tal senso la scrittura per questo CD, pensata durante le ore impiegate da Russ Lossing per parcheggiare la propria automobile nei giorni in cui la sosta è consentita in un solo lato della strada. E non è un caso se lo spigoloso brano d'apertura, quasi monkiano, evoca con il suo andamento asimmetrico la strada percorsa ...

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Album Review

Pete McCann: Without Question

Read "Without Question" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Guitarist and composer Pete McCann pulls out all the stops on Without Question, his seventh album as leader, unveiling his singular talents on everything from burners ("Without Question," “Trifecta") to ballads ("I Can Remember," “January," “Lost City"), blues ("Blues for O.M."), burlesque ("Conspiracy Theory"), biting commentary ("Erase the Hate") and borrowed themes ("Lovely Thing"). McCann, a native of Wisconsin who has been a fixture on the New York scene for more than thirty years, is also smart--smart enough, that is, ...

4
Album Review

Russ Lossing: Alternate Side Parking Music

Read "Alternate Side Parking Music" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Pianist Russ Lossing is not one to let imposed downtime go to waste. The imposition comes from New York City's regulations concerning alternate side parking which requires, only one day per week, that cars park on one side of the street, for street cleaning purposes. The evening car-moving causes jostling. Sometimes open spots are not readily available. Parallel parking is often required, as is (temporary, we can assume) double parking. Time in the driver's seat results. Lossing put this time ...

1
Album Review

Michael Sarian: New Aurora

Read "New Aurora" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Giunto al quarto album da leader, Michael Sarian esplora una direzione espressiva diversa da quanto evidenziato col settetto Michel Sarian & the Chabones e con la big band The Big Chabones. Ispirandosi allo stile di trombettisti come Kenny Wheeler, Tomasz Stanko ed Enrico Rava, il trombettista—di famiglia armena, canadese di nascita, argentino di formazione e newyorchese da una decina d'anni—accentua l'estetica impressionista già evidente in Leon con brani lenti ed evocativi, talvolta legati alla tradizione musicale armena. ...

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Album Review

Ohad Talmor: Long Forms

Read "Long Forms" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


New York City-based tenor saxophonist, composer, arranger Ohad Talmor and associates provide all the 'jazz' news fit to hear on this superb effort, comprised of thorny time signatures, shifting detours and offbeat mini-grooves, enamored with the leader's whizzing solos and more goodness. Acclaimed due to his arrangements for the late sax great Lee Konitz and affiliations with top-shelf musicians on a global basis, Talmor's multidirectional works often proceed with a semblance of micro-suites, embedded with simmering, odd-metered passages, and fluctuating ...

9
Album Review

Michael Sarian: New Aurora

Read "New Aurora" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Trumpeter Michael Sarian leads two large-sized groups, The Chabones and The Big Chabones, that utilize multiple horns and electronic sounds in high energy arrangements. This quartet recording is a different story. Sarian is the lone horn here, playing trumpet on the first track and flugelhorn on the rest, while the music itself is strictly acoustic. Much of it has a gentle, folkish presence, although the leader's wilder impulses also make their presence known. The music's quiet side emerges ...

9
Album Review

Michael Sarian: New Aurora

Read "New Aurora" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann


With New Aurora, Canadian trumpeter Michael Sarian takes a few steps down a different path to his past projects, leaving bigger ensembles and electric instrumentations behind to focus on ten arrangements carried out in an acoustic quartet setting. In this more dynamic light, the trumpeter is given space to unfold and spread his melodic voice and personal language. Sarian takes advantage of this in a minimal way. A heightened sense of sophistication can be heard as a result, leaving the ...


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