Jazz Articles
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Mendoza - Hoff - Revels: Echolocation
by Glenn Astarita
In the ever-evolving landscape of contemporary jazz, Echolocation emerges as a bold exploration of sonic frontiers. Crafted through the collaborative virtuosity of Ava Mendoza on guitar and Devin Hoff on bass, this project embarks on a musical journey which delves deep into the avant-garde jazz realm, blending experimental rock, electric jazz, and the limitless creativity of neo-psychedelia. The album commences with “Dyscalculia," a track which weaves the raw energy of metal with the intricate layers of free jazz, ...
read moreMendoza / Hoff / Revels: Echolocation
by Troy Dostert
Among today's leading guitarists fusing the power of rock and avant-garde jazz--a list that has to include Nels Cline, Marc Ribot, Mary Halvorson and Brandon Seabrook--Ava Mendoza may be the one with the strongest link to the punk tradition. All the evidence one needs is on Echolocation, a project by Revels, her close collaboration with bassist Devin Hoff, on which the pair are joined by saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and drummer Ches Smith. With eight deviously crafted songs expertly navigating ...
read moreWilliam Parker: Mayan Space Station
by Mark Corroto
The immediate impact of the recording Mayan Space Station is that of a sheer out-and-out physicality presented by this music. While it is obvious the musicians—guitarist Ava Mendoza, bassist William Parker and drummer Gerald Cleaver—are engaged in the nonautomatic operation of their respective musical instruments, their Herculean efforts are conspicuous. While rarely recognized, credit must be given to engineer Jim Clouse who recorded, mixed and mastered this session to center the listening experience on the band's energy. ...
read moreEri Yamamoto Trio & Choral Chameleon: Goshu Ondo Suite
by Glenn Astarita
Modern jazz combined with choral vocals has not been in vogue during the genre's varied history. Some notable recordings such as drummer Max Roach's It's Time (Impulse, 1962) and trumpeter Donald Byrd's melding of jazz with spiritual vocals on A New Perspective (Blue Note, 1964) were prolific outings of this ilk. And on Byrd's album, the piece titled “Cristo Redentor" received a fair amount of jazz radio play for decades. But New York-based pianist Eri Yamamoto's new venture, featuring a ...
read moreDavid S. Ware Quartet: Théâtre Garonne, 2008
by Mark Corroto
In 2008, when this live concert was recorded, saxophonist David S. Ware was ill, but concert goers would have no idea of this fact. He has been suffering, since 1999 from kidney failure and eventually had a kidney transplant in 2009. Ware and the latest configuration of his quartet traveled to Toulouse, France, just a few weeks after recording the studio album Shakti (AUM Fidelity, 2008) in Brooklyn. By the same token, listeners of that release had no idea of ...
read moreWhit Dickey/Tao Quartets: Peace Planet & Box of Light
by Don Phipps
Shimmering contrasts and flights of fancy await the listener of these fine sets of free playing put together by primary composer and drummer extraordinaire Whit Dickey. Available as a double album, Dickey's Tao Quartets' Peace Planet & Box of Light is really two separate albums. One, (Peace Planet ), features a quartet of Dickey, Matthew Shipp on piano, Rob Brown on alto saxophone, and William Parker on bass. The other, (Box of Light ), replaces Shipp's piano with Steve Swell's ...
read moreWilliam Parker/In Order to Survive: Live/Shapeshifter
by Don Phipps
Another stellar effort from the genius known as William Parker, Live/Shapeshifter uses the immense talents of his “In Order To Survive" group -which consists of long time collaborators Cooper-Moore on piano, Hamid Drake on drums, and Rob Brown on alto sax--to craft a statement of free-wheeling dynamism at play. One of the top composers and bass players to ever take up the art form known as jazz, Parker offers up a double album's worth of material, all of it recorded ...
read moreDaniel Carter / William Parker / Matthew Shipp: Seraphic Light [Live At Tufts University]
![Read "Seraphic Light [Live At Tufts University]" reviewed by Mark Corroto](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/coverart/large/05387448c9d6fbd80ce60f933835b5f2.jpg)
by Mark Corroto
Do you remember the film The Thomas Crowne Affair? The original--not the 1999 remake--starred Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, and contained the 1968 Academy Award-winning song “Windmills of Your Mind" by Dusty Springfield. I bring that up because this live performance by Daniel Carter, William Parker, and Matthew Shipp brings to mind the lyrics: “Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel / Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel / As the images ...
read moreWhit Dickey: Vessel in Orbit
by Don Phipps
From the first chord struck on “Spaceship 9" by pianist Matthew Shipp, Vessel in Orbit demonstrates the epitome of seasoned and extremely talented musicians improvising together. This trio, led by drummer Whit Dickey, provides musical compositions and improvisations that are at once eerie, dark, foreboding, yet hauntingly beautiful. The recording (engineered admirably by Jim Clouse) offers up a fascinating portrait of Dickey's colorful prowess across the trap set, violist Mat Maneri's abstract lyricism, and Shipp's constant accents, plucks, ...
read moreDavid S. Ware Trio: Live in New York, 2010
by Jakob Baekgaard
One night on earth David S. Ware was here. Blowing at the Blue Note on October 4, 2010, but it could have been October 4, 2090. Years ahead of his time or perhaps just outside of it, he took his alto saxophone and played. Fully formed compositions never named, but caught eternally on tape. David S. Ware was known as a tenor saxophonist with a big, earthshaking sound of fragile beauty, but this time he took the ...
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