Jazz Articles

Dewa Budjana: Zentuary

by Chris M. Slawecki
June 5, 2017

Indonesian composer, guitarist and bandleader Dewa Budjana's tenth release (and his first on guitarist Steve Vai's label Favored Nations in association with Budjana's usual label, MoonJune) reviews, consolidates and advances his sound. Budjana's three decades of performing and recording, including collaborations with jazz A-listers as Peter Erskine, Joe Locke and Larry Goldings, are worth the retrospective. Even better, Budjana celebrates this milestone release with most likely his best band ever--drummer Jack DeJohnette, bassist/stickman Tony Levin and drummer and keyboardist Gary ...

Dewa Budjana: Zentuary

by John Kelman
December 25, 2016

In retrospect, all paths have truly led to this. Four increasingly impressive recordings for Moonjune Records have brought Dewa Budjana together with a variety of high profile, top-drawer jazz musicians from the American west and east coasts. Each successive album, from 2013's Dawai in Paradise through to 2015's Hasta Karma, have found the Indonesian guitarist raising an already high bar with challenging yet eminently accessible compositions that, once the initial tracks were recorded, Budjana subsequently expanded in post-production with contributions ...

Vernon Reid & Masque: Other True Self

by John Kelman
August 11, 2006

Vernon Reid has been always been a stylistic chameleon. Straddling many musical worlds, he's just as likely to record with Public Enemy as James Blood Ulmer, Jack Bruce or Lafayette Gilchrist. With a general approach best described as metal-edged reckless abandon, he proves on Other True Self that, as always, he's still capable of much more.

Reid's previous album with Masque, Known Unknown (Favored Nations, 2004), sported a completely different lineup than the group's debut, Mistaken Identity (Sony, 1996). This ...

Terry Bozzio + Metropole Orkest: Chamber Works

by John Kelman
September 16, 2005

Terry Bozzio is perhaps best known as a chops-laden drummer who's more at home in the pop/rock and fusion worlds. Chamber Works, which teams him with Netherlands' Metropole Orkest--like guitarist Mike Keneally's similar collaboration on last year's The Universe Will Provide--demonstrates that Bozzio is about much, much more. A member of the late Frank Zappa's band from 1976 onwards, Bozzio was required to deal with complex compositions that were at times almost classical in their orchestral complexity: no surprise, given ...

Peppino D'Agostino & Stef Burns: Bayshore Road

by John Kelman
June 11, 2005

Acoustic guitarist Peppino D'Agostino and electric guitarist Stef Burns couldn't have come from two more different musical worlds. D'Agostino, a self-taught player who left Italy for the United States in '93, has fashioned a career around an organic approach. Despite his admirable technique, he favours substance over style and lyricism over complexity. No less accomplished and certainly capable of elegant melodicism, Burns has worked with a swath of rock and pop artists--including Alice Cooper, Jesse Colin Young, Huey Lewis and ...

Pierre Bensusan: Altiplanos

by Jerry D'Souza
May 12, 2005

Among several facets Pierre Bensusan brings into play on the guitar are the influences he has absorbed and the technical skills he brings to bear. The latter sees him use fingertapping and harmonics, a chunky fleshing of the chords, overdubbing, and a creativity that opens a wide pasture in which he lets his melodies roam without losing control. As well, he tunes his guitar in the nonstandard DADGAD tuning.

Benusan wraps himself comfortably in the cocoon of a ...

Pierre Bensusan: Altiplanos

by John Kelman
April 29, 2005

Sometimes it's all in the fingers. Give a guitar to two players, ask them to play an identical phrase and there will be a difference. It's about physiology--the physical characteristics of the fingers and how they touch the strings. It's about phrasing--the emphasis of some notes over others and the subtle nuances between those notes. And it's about personality--a more assertive player may sound harsher, or more rushed, than someone who has a generally more relaxed approach to life.

And ...

Pierre Bensusan: Altiplanos

by Jim Santella
April 27, 2005

Guitarist Pierre Bensusan creates a gentle mood on this, his tenth solo album. Applying fingerstyle technique to soft ballads and lyrical ramblings, he sets his original compositions on the table for casual contemplation. Each piece flows smoothly with emotion, as a treasured folk song would carry out its purpose on its listening audience.

Singing in French, he tosses off a timeless message that carries its meaning to all corners of the world. All nations have this one experience ...

Mike Keneally + Metropole Orkest: The Universe Will Provide

by John Kelman
September 5, 2004

An incredibly talented multi-instrumentalist whose style knows no boundaries, Mike Keneally first gained notoriety as a member of Frank Zappa's last touring band from '87 onwards, contributing guitar, keyboards and vocals. Also a fine percussionist, Keneally has since gone on to record a number of solo albums that demonstrated a similar penchant for the absurd, even playing simultaneous guitar and keyboard solos with his group Beer for Dolphins. For his first effort with Favored Nations, Keneally hooked up with Holland's ...

Larry Coryell: Tricycles

by John Kelman
June 14, 2004

Why guitarist Larry Coryell isn’t a bigger name is a mystery. Emerging in the ‘60s around the same time as John McLaughlin, Coryell’s forays into fusion actually predate McLaughlin’s, first fusing jazz with rock and country sensibilities in Gary Burton’s quartet, most notably on ‘67’s Duster and Lofty Fake Anagram. McLaughlin and Coryell even duked it out on Coryell’s Spaces , considered by many to be a classic fusion record. But Coryell’s career has strangely existed just below the radar, ...