Jazz Articles
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Anthony Braxton: Trio and Duet
by Hrayr Attarian
Multi reed player and composer Anthony Braxton has been called a genius by some and for very good reason. He is one of the most restlessly innovative and intelligently idiosyncratic contemporary musicians. He seamlessly erases the boundaries between the composed and the improvised and his works brim equally with fresh and progressive ideas as well as concepts rooted in both the modern classical and the early free jazz traditions.Delmark Records has reissued on CD his Trio and Duet ...
read moreBuddy Tate: Texas Tenor
by Hrayr Attarian
Saxophonist George “Buddy" Tate came to prominence in the 1930s with his hard swinging style and robust and resilient tone. His sound mellowed and matured like a fine spirit throughout a long and busy career but his approach did not veer far from his original fashion of playing, dubbed Texas Tenor. The 1978 Sackville record is named just that, one of three Tate discs to bear this title.The label's rhythm trio joins Tate on an intimate set of ...
read moreAnthony Braxton: Trio and Duet
by Troy Collins
Vanguard composer and multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton has long inspired debate among conservative critics as to whether or not his urbane contributions should be considered part of the jazz canon; oblique strategies notwithstanding, Braxton's abstruse efforts rarely swing in a conventional sense, forever fuelling the argument. Nonetheless, Arista Records signed Braxton to a six year contract late in 1974--an unprecedented move on the major label's behalf that brought widespread attention to the maverick conceptualist's heterogeneous artistry. Trio and Duet ...
read moreDon Pullen: Richard's Tune
by Hrayr Attarian
Idiosyncratic pianist Don Pullen's debut as a leader, Richard's Tune (Sackville, 1974) already bore marks of his unique style and singular improvisational approach. Delmark reissued this superb solo outing in 2014 augmenting it with previously unreleased material from the same session making it all the more satisfying.Pullen peppers “KaDiJi," one of the bonus works on the CD, with his signature circular phrases. Edgy dissonance and dulcet spirituality coexist as the tightly woven harmonic lines flow towards the ringing, ...
read moreRoscoe Mitchell Quartet: Live At "A Space" 1975
by Hrayr Attarian
The Canadian label Sackville released a series of exceptional albums throughout its forty plus year existence. A fair number of these document free-jazz concerts by American luminaries that took place in its hometown of Toronto. When the company folded, Chicago based Delmark purchased its Avant-Garde catalogue and has released expanded versions of these records on CD.One such gem is reedman Roscoe Mitchell's Live At 'A Space' 1975 now augmented with 20 minutes of previously unissued material. Mitchell, known ...
read moreDick Hyman: In Concert at the Old Mill Inn
by Ken Dryden
During his lengthy professional career, pianist Dick Hyman has been a first-call studio player for many kinds of music, in addition to being able to play any style in the history of jazz. As well as being a sideman with Benny Goodman, Hyman worked in a duo with the late cornetist Ruby Braff, played pipe, Hammond and theater organs, along with taking part leading various size jazz ensembles and creating soundtracks for several Woody Allen films. But Hyman's greatest strength ...
read moreJunior Mance: Groovin' with Junior
by Stuart Broomer
Nearing 80, Junior Mance is among the last still-vigorous performers of his generation, the master of a blues-drenched piano style that fuses bop harmony and block chords with tremolos and funky pentatonics. His biography is also his tradition, including stints with Gene Ammons, Cannonball Adderley, Dizzy Gillespie and Dinah Washington. Mance has visited Toronto for decades, frequently performing at jazz piano bars like Café des Copains and its successor, the recently closed Montreal Bistro. Since 1995 his Toronto ...
read moreHarry Allen and Joe Temperley: Cocktails For Two
by Joel Roberts
Swing is the thing on this enormously enjoyable outing by baritone saxophonist Joe Temperley and tenor saxophonist Harry Allen. The album features the 77-year-old Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra stalwart Temperley and the 40-year-old ex-wunderkind Allen leading a superbly sympathetic rhythm section (John Bunch on piano, Greg Cohen on bass and Jake Hanna on drums) in front of an appreciative audience at the Rocky Mountain Jazz Party in Denver. This isn't a take-no-prisoners saxophone battle in the mold ...
read moreKenny Davern: No One But Kenny
by George Kanzler
The album title could stand as a fitting epitaph for clarinetist Kenny Davern, who died of a heart attack in December, 2006 at seventy-one. For no one else played jazz quite like Davern, whose affection for old trad jazz tunes belied a quirky sense of time as singular as Thelonious Monk's and a cavalier attitude toward such traditions as chord changes, bar lines and conventional pitch. Like Sonny Rollins, another jazz musician fond of old tunes, Davern was a master ...
read morePhil Nimmons: Vintage Nimmons 'n Nine: CDB Air Checks 1959-64
by Jack Bowers
By the time the programs from which these air checks are taken were heard via the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, composer / arranger / bandleader / clarinetist Phil Nimmons was well–known in that country, having started his career with the CBC in the early 1940s and begun a twenty–year run of regular Jazz broadcasts in 1957. Even though the selections herein were transferred to disc from forty–year–and–older analog tapes, the over–all sound is remarkably clean, especially when compared to other air ...
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