Content by tag "New Artists Records"

Jessica Jones Quartet: Moxie

By DAN BILAWSKY

Moxie is both an extension of tenor saxophonist Jessica Jones' previous work and a glimpse back to an earlier point in her career: she continues to explore the possibilities inherent in a piano-less quartet with a two-tenor front line while reuniting with a rhythm duo that she worked with in the '80s--bassist Stomu Takeishi and drummer ...

Connie Crothers: Concert In Paris

By JOHN EPHLAND

Connie Crothers' piano sounds like nothing you've heard before. Sure, it's acoustic, she plays melodies, she can be inside or outside the music. One thing she isn't, though, is wishy-washy. One of her latest, Concert In Paris, is a solo effort. And for anyone who loves the intimacy of a solo-piano recital, this one more jazz ...

Jessica Jones & Mark Taylor: Live at the Freight

By JEFF DAYTON-JOHNSON

Live at the Freight chronicles a June 2011 date at the venerable Freight & Salvage coffeehouse in Berkeley, California, co-led by tenor saxophonist Jessica Jones and French horn and mellophone player Mark Taylor. The compositions, all originals and mostly quite good, are split between the two leaders.

The first slightly unusual twist to the quartet ...

Tony Jones: Pitch, Rhythm, and Consciousness

By MATT MARSHALL

On this ruminative record--and, indeed, it is a record, released primarily on vinyl, with MP3 downloads available--saxophonist Tony Jones, violinist Charles Burnham and percussionist Kenny Wollesen show themselves wholly comfortable within the quiet sonic space about them. Jones is the lead voice--the lead traveler, as it were--working his way across a terrain that is at once ...

New Artists Records

By MARC MEDWIN

"We prize individuality," states pianist Connie Crothers emphatically of New Artists Records. “It's an integral part of our label identity and we have always safeguarded the individuality of each musician."

New Artists being a cooperative, such a statement may contain an element of contradiction, but it stands at the heart of a label that has ...

Connie Crothers / Bill Payne: Conversations

By MARC MEDWIN

Connie Crothers is one of the most versatile pianists on a scene that is so often mislabeled free jazz. Her pianism has been cultivated through long years of study and deep listening, evident in each tone, chord and gesture. Overwhelming intensity, at whatever volume, is juxtaposed with transparent beauty in a style that is as unique ...

Jessica Jones Quartet: Word

By MICHAEL P. GLADSTONE

The provocative Word takes a few bites from different pies, making it quite an interesting album. This is a Jones family project--leader, pianist and saxophonist Jessica is joined by husband Tony (saxophone), daughter Candace (vocals) and son Levi (bass).

Jessica Jones, Bay Area native, is now a resident of Brooklyn. Both she and her ...

Jessica Jones Quartet: Word

By MARK CORROTO

Jazz has always had its own poetry. Not just the music, but the language. Recall hearing Cab Calloway or Louis Armstrong give an introduction from the bandstand or the cadence of Lester Young and Slim Gaillard's words. Jazz has always had its own idiom. It is poetry, and it is easy enough to understand that poetry ...

Connie Crothers Quartet: Music Is A Place

By TOM GREENLAND

With Music Is A Place pianist Connie Crothers has created an enduring work, a crystallization and clarification of her musical aesthetic. Featuring longtime colleagues Richard Tabnik (alto) and Roger Mancuso (drums) along with veteran bassist Ratzo Harris, the disc contains a set of originals that explore the interzone between pre- and free composition, a mix of ...

Jessica Jones Quartet: Nod

By MARK SABBATINI

Jessica Jones Quartet
Nod
New Artists Records
2004

One of the first things apparent about this album is that it doesn't dwell in any particular time zone.

Jessica Jones' third quartet album, Nod , opens with an ensemble that sounds deliberately muffled like a 1950s bebop ...