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Claire DeBrunner / Ken Silverman / Daniel Carter / Tom Zlabinger: Macroscopia
by John Sharpe
Multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter may be the best known constituent part of NYC collective quartet Macroscopia, but based on its eponymous debut, he's not the only reason to listen. Although the bassoon hasn't figured largely in jazz history to date, an increasing number of able modern practitioners specializing in the large double reed woodwind seek to change that, including Sara Schoenbeck, and Katherine Young. Now, to that company, the name Claire DeBrunner must be added: her agile playing is one of ...
read moreDeBrunner / Silverman / Carter / Zlabinger: Macroscopia
by Hrayr Attarian
The theme of Macroscopia is the universality of music, expressed as group improvisation by four superlative musicians. The quartet includes classically trained bassoonist Claire DeBrunner, an alumna of the Lennie Tristano school of free jazz via her mentors Lee Konitz and Connie Crothers}}; guitarist/percussionist Ken Silverman, who is heavily influenced by world music; reedman and trumpeter Daniel Carter, a veteran of the avant-garde bands of Cecil Taylor and David S Ware; and ethnomusicologist/bassist Tom Zlabinger. The disc ...
read moreGeorge Mraz / Iva Bittova: Moravian Gems
by Kurt Gottschalk
Over some twenty years of recording, the Czech violinist and singer Iva Bittova has done folk, classical and new music, recording with guitarist Fred Frith among others. What she hadn't done, by her own admission, was venture into jazz. That changed when she began working with her countryman, bassist George Mraz. Mraz worked with both the Stan Getz quartet and Czech pianist Emil Viklicky in the 1970s, and has continued to be a sought-after player in the ...
read moreOndrej Pivec / Organic Quartet: Don't Get Ideas
by Budd Kopman
Ondrej Pivec and his Organic Quartet burn white hot on Don't Get Ideas, from the very first notes of the opening Mr. Littleroot's Green Room," by Jakob Dolezal, the group's tenorist. Living deeply within the R&B organ trio vibe, yet updating it with their personalities, these youngsters clearly live to play. The question of originality and derivativeness does not really apply here. Much like Scott Hamilton, who plays inside his chosen style with total honesty, these musicians--organist ...
read moreOndrej Pivec / Organic Quartet: Don't Get Ideas
by Nic Jones
The musicians who make up this classic" organ-led small combo have technique and ideas in abundance. The music they make is a considerable distance from the grits 'n' gravy circuit with which such groups might once have been associated, and Ondrej Pivec's harmonic and melodic senses, in particular, are more akin to Larry Young than, say, Baby Face Willette. To hear Pivec on McCoy Tyner's Inception," for example, is to witness a musician quite unselfconsciously mining a rich musical seam ...
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