Jazz Articles
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Kandinsky Trio: On Light Wings
by Glenn Astarita
Twenty-five years running, the Kandinsky Trio bridges many gaps and overlays numerous musical perimeters via a thoroughly hip stance. Here, the trio records two suite-like compositions by John D'Earth who is the University of Virginia's Director of Jazz Studies, and a contributor to 50 recordings, including stints with Buddy Rich, Tito Puente and the Kronos Quartet. They also perform one extended piece by fabled composer and New England Conservatory luminary, Gunther Schuller. Of particular note is the inclusion of jazz ...
read moreCameron Brown: Here and How! Volume 2!
by Florence Wetzel
Bassist Cameron Brown has had a long and illustrious career as a sideman. He has appeared on around 100 recordings, providing an anchor for luminaries such as Archie Shepp, Roswell Rudd and Beaver Harris, as well as the celebrated Don Pullen/George Adams Quartet. In 2003 Brown stepped out as a leader with Here and How!, culled from a 1997 Belgian tour with vocalist Sheila Jordan, trumpeter Dave Ballou, drummer Leon Parker, and legendary tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman guesting on three ...
read moreJoe Locke / Frank Kimbrough: Verrazano Moon
by John Kelman
With the now 37 year-old ongoing partnership of Chick Corea and Gary Burton, it might appear that the gold standard for piano/vibraphone duets has been set. But while they don't perform or record nearly as often, vibraphonist Joe Locke and pianist Frank Kimbrough have set their own standard for playing as a duo. Much like friends who, despite the passing of many years between encountering each other, pick up where they left off as if no time has passed, Verrazano ...
read moreDavid Liebman Group: Blues All Ways
by John Kelman
While the blues is one of the clearest roots of conventional jazz tradition, few but saxophonist Dave Liebman could release an album that covers as many stylistic bases as Blues All Ways.There's good reason why Liebman can create a blues homage ranging from the 7/4 Memphis shuffle of Elvis the Pelvis" and lithe, harmonically sophisticated swinger Down Time" to the ethereal Riz's Blues." With a quartet with this much shared history, the saxophonist has a lean but highly ...
read moreLee Konitz-Ohad Talmor Big Band: Portology
by Jerry D'Souza
Lee Konitz and Ohad Talmor first met in 1990, and then toured Europe in 1994 and 1995 with a large ensemble, playing Talmor's Suite for Lee Konitz. Konitz later performed with Talmor's septet. And now, as part of his eightieth birthday and fifty-year career celebrations, the alto saxophonist has recorded three CDs with composer, arranger and multi-reedist Talmor. In addition to Portology, Omnitone also released New Nonet and Inventions, both in 2006. The Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos--from ...
read moreLee Konitz-Ohad Talmor Big Band: Portology
by Dan McClenaghan
Portology is the third in a series of CDs featuring a fruitful collaboration between alto saxophonist Lee Konitz and saxophonist/composer/arranger Ohad Talmor. With a fifty year-plus career behind him--most of it involving small group work--it's hard to believe that tPortology is alto saxophonist Lee Konitz' first outing fronting a big band. Not that he hasn't played in the format before, with Stan Kenton early on, and with the not-quite-a-big-band 1949-50 Birth of the Cool (Capitol Records, 1957) sessions with Miles ...
read moreDan Willis: Velvet Gentlemen
by Jim Santella
Taking its title from a pet nickname that was applied to composer Erik Satie by children in his neighborhood, Velvet Gentlemen features multi-instrumentalist Dan Willis with a modern mainstream sextet, freely interpreting eleven original pieces. The band covers a lot of territory. The leader plays eleven woodwind instruments on the session, including tenor and soprano saxophones, as well as oboe, bass clarinet and English horn. He's joined by guitarist Pete McCann, trumpeter Chuck MacKinnon, bassist Kermit Driscoll, pianist Ron Oswanski ...
read moreDan Willis: Velvet Gentlemen
by Budd Kopman
Just like you need know nothing about cryptography to enjoy and be blown away by Rudresh Mahanthappa's Codebook, you need no knowledge of Erik Satie (his music, or his idiosyncratic dressing habits) or Werner Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle to appreciate and get lost in Velvet Gentlemen. (Both of the above ideas inspired Dan Willis in various ways during the creation of the music for this record.) To be honest, just listening to the record without attempting to look ...
read moreDan Willis: Velvet Gentlemen
by Michael P. Gladstone
File under: Eric Satie Jazz or Quantum Physics Jazz. I don't know f you have to intellectualize the music, only one of the above subjects is necessary for me.
On his third album, multi-reed player Dan Willis reports in the liner notes of Velvet Gentlemen that his writing for this album was influenced by the French classical composer Eric Satie as well as the theories of quantum physics, including what he refers to as the precision-randomness paradox." The ...
read moreDan Willis: Velvet Gentlemen
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
It's hard not to like a band that calls itself Velvet Gentlemen, even before learning that the moniker derives from a nickname given to the velvet-clad composer Erik Satie by children in his Parisian neighborhood. It's similarly easy to appreciate the sound of the compositions and arrangements on this record even before knowing that they are inspired by Satie's idiosyncratic music. Willis sees Satie not as a decorative impressionist composer, but as a proto-serialist, and accordingly draws upon some of ...
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