Jazz Articles
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Rami Atassi: Dancing Together
by Gareth Thompson
The Chicago-based guitarist Rami Atassi went on a south American journey with his wife to explore Mexico and Colombia. Amid the daily background music, he heard different styles and rhythmic foundations than those he was used to and took percussion lessons locally. All this later began seeping into his solo work. A Syrian-American, Atassi founded the Cosmic Dance Band in 2022, blending sounds of the Middle East with jazz harmony and modern sonics. This group and its combined ...
read moreJacques Schwarz-Bart: The Harlem Suite
by John Chacona
Tenor saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart has lived in jny: Paris, Senegal, and Switzerland as well as his native island of Guadeloupe, but his 18 years in jny: Harlem were crucial to his life and career. It was there that he found himself at an inflection point in the dynamic music scene of the late '90s, playing with such transformative visionaries as Roy Hargrove, D'Angelo and Meshell Ndegeocello. With The Harlem Suite, Schwarz-Bart nods affectionately to that time and those ...
read moreThe Pacific Jazz Group: Pacific Jazz Group
by Jack Bowers
West Coast jazz from the mid-twentieth century makes a comeback on this earnest album by the Pacific Jazz Group, whose music owes its genesis to the Pacific Jazz label, which recorded many of the Coast's best and brightest stars during that historic and bounteous era. The idea was set in motion by pianist Dred Scott, one of the music's and the label's ardent fans, who assembled a group built to some extent along the lines of the legendary Gerry Mulligan/Chet ...
read moreDuncan Eagles: Narrations
by Neil Duggan
Duncan Eagles, perhaps best known as the tenor saxophonist in Partikel, is also in high demand as a sideman to high fliers including Zara McFarlane, Shabaka Hutchings, Janek Gwizdala, Gary Husband and Ola Onabule. Recorded with minimal editing and featuring seven original compositions, Narrations, is his second album as leader, following on from Citizen (Ropeadope, 2019). He explores a wide range of musical styles and states: “This is a collection of individual pieces that stand together which is how the ...
read moreAdam Larson: Listen With Your Eyes
by Dan Bilawsky
Listen with your eyes. Open your ears and look. What tenor saxophonist Adam Larson has to offer here is something truly extraordinary. With horn in hand he takes us on a journey, an unforgettable trip through his wiring that's as daring as it is direct, as complex as it is approachable, and as dynamic as can be. To see and hear is to believe.Serving as Larson's debut for Ropeadope and his fifth record to date, Listen With Your ...
read moreLisa Marie Simmons: Notespeak 12
by Chris May
Poetry & Jazz has a checkered history. When combined, the two art forms are not so much a marriage made in heaven as an obstacle course. The biggest danger is that one of them is verbal and the other is non-verbal and at its best transcends words. The second danger is that the better the poetry and/or the jazz in question, the more intrusive may be their competing demands for the listener's attention. Notespeak 12 is top-end poetry ...
read moreThe Headhunters: Speakers In The House
by Doug Collette
Herbie Hancock's Headhunters (Columbia, 1973) remains one of the seminal works of the jazz fusion era. The group's heavy emphasis on rhythm not only separated it from its guitar-oriented peers of the era, the Mahavishnu Orchestra and the middle-period Return to Forever, but also from Weather Report: grooves became increasingly more prominent as that band evolved, but never to the depth of Hancock and company's all-encompassing funk. That solid foundation is more than enough distinction for the first ...
read moreThe Headhunters: Speakers In The House
by Chris May
Although it appears to have been self-released in limited numbers in 2019, this Ropeadope release of Speakers In The House is effectively the Headhunters's first album since Platinum (Owl) in 2011. The band continues to be led and produced by its two Herbie Hancock-era members, percussionist Bill Summers and drummer Mike Clark, who together have kept the outfit intermittently active since Hancock moved on to other things in the mid 1970s. Summers played on the band's debut, ...
read moreChance Hayden: Shag Bag
by Geno Thackara
Warm springtime, sunshine, good friends—it must be time for a party. Chance Hayden is certainly feeling the joy and ready to kick off something fun. Working around pandemic restrictions left him and his colleagues ready to bounce and blow off some steam, and bagging (sorry) the iconic Ronnie Foster on keys made the perfect funk-fusion topping. The standalone single “Shag Bag" packs a drum-and-conga groove to get the backyard shaking, slathers on a dash of bright horns, then ties it ...
read moreZela Margossian Quintet: The Road
by Barry O'Sullivan
The Road is the extremely dexterous pianist Zela Margossian's much anticipated second album. It follows her critically acclaimed and ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) nominated debut album, Transition (Art As Catharsis, 2018), and once again delivers rich instrumental textures, a distinct compositional voice, and the narrative and thematic depth that Margossian is now known for. The Beirut-born pianist draws upon her Armenian heritage and classical music training to create a variety of moods, by blending folk-inspired and jazz-influenced ...
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