Jazz Articles
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Nick Mazzarella and Tomeka Reid: Signaling
by Troy Dostert
On this captivating, fully-improvised duo recording by alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella and cellist Tomeka Reid, we find a superlative example of two leading-edge musicians who continue to draw vital inspiration from their forbears. Reid, a contributing member of the hugely influential Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), has previously paid tribute to some of the titans of that organization--figures such as Muhal Richard Abrams, Leroy Jenkins, Roscoe Mitchell, and Fred Anderson--with Artifacts, her superb 2015 trio release with ...
read moreWadada Leo Smith: Spirit Catcher
by Clifford Allen
Wadada Leo Smith Spirit Catcher Nessa Records 2009
Certainly, composition in jazz has gone well beyond head arrangements that bracket solos and group playing--sometimes approaching areas that sound so open as to seem free-form. Multi-instrumentalist, trumpeter and composer Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith is one of a number of figures in this music whose work has long sought to explore and expand the blurred lines between composition and improvisation; one of the structural/notational ...
read moreCharles Tyler: Saga of the Outlaws
by Clifford Allen
Charles Tyler Saga of the Outlaws Nessa Records 2009
Saga of the Outlaws is just about the most fitting title one could expect for saxophonist Charles Tyler's fifth LP under his own name. Tyler was more than an outlaw (or a gladiator, to paraphrase Stanley Crouch), but unfortunately his name crops up rather rarely in discussions of jazz's historical vanguard. He traversed the Midwest, from Kentucky to Indiana to Cleveland, Ohio where ...
read moreRoscoe Mitchell: Nonaah
by Clifford Allen
Roscoe Mitchell Nonaah Nessa Records 2008
One of the significant things that set AACM music apart from its brethren in New York in the 1960s and early 1970s was its use of space, of opening up the music so that things could occur within broad, environmental relationships. That sense of space was very important. In an entirely different take on "energy" music, the challenge of discerning what could be perceived ... read more
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