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Vijay Iyer: Historicity
by Chris Kompanek
Pianist Vijay Iyer's compositions are ferociously paced and fractured with a sense of urgency that informs each note he plays. Historicity's title track opens the record, grabbing the listener immediately with the pianist's unique touch, carrying through on other original compositions such as “Helix"--a ballad on the surface that explodes midway through with frenetic energy. This ...
Helge Sunde Ensemble Denada: Finding Nymo
by John Kelman
Its official CD release may have been on October 23, but trombonist/composer Helge Sunde's 2009 Enjoy Jazz performance on October 21 was an equally rare opportunity to hear his Ensemble Denada, a Norwegian big band that, not surprisingly, blends a healthy respect for the jazz tradition with more contemporary concerns. Performing the entire Finding Nymo CD, ...
Vijay Iyer Trio: Historicity
by AAJ Italy Staff
"But if Coltrane can do 'My Favorite Things,' I can do 'Somewhere.'" Dietro questa affermazione ironicamente presuntuosa e irriverente, si cela il volto, anzi la mente, di quel geniaccio, termine abusato ma che ci sentiamo di attribuire senza tentennamenti, di Vijay Iyer. Non più di primissimo pelo, va per i trentasei, nato negli Stati Uniti da ...
Vijay Iyer Trio: Historicity
by Chris May
There is much that is exciting about pianist Vijay Iyer and almost as much that is irritating. The excitement is in the music and the irritation in the miasma of cerebralization that surrounds it. The most recent instance of the latter comes with the packaging for Historicity. Any album title which requires a fairly lengthy liner ...
Vijay Iyer Trio: Historicity
by Troy Collins
The art of the piano trio has enjoyed a healthy renaissance over the past two decades, as a plethora of new stars have ascended the ranks to uphold and advance the tradition. Ethan Iverson, Brad Mehldau, Jason Moran, and Matthew Shipp are just a few of the adventurous younger artists whose notion of the trio is ...
e.s.t.: Retrospective: The Very Best of e.s.t.
by John Kelman
Swedish pianist Esbjörn Svensson's accidental death in 2008 shook the jazz world, with AAJ news items surrounding his passing garnering tens of thousands of reads. Already jazz superstars in Europe, Svensson and e.s.t. were still building a North American audience, touring regularly to gradually grow its fan base; clearly it was working. All the more tragic, ...
Joachim Kuhn / Majid Bekkas / Ramon Lopez: Out Of The Desert
by Chris May
Boundary busting and inventive though it was, Kalimba (ACT, 2007)--the first album by German pianist Joachim Kuhn, Moroccan vocalist and guembri player Majid Bekkas, and Spanish drummer Ramon Lopez--ultimately felt like Kuhn's album more than a fully integrated, cross-cultural group exercise. Two years on, the trio's second outing, Out Of The Desert, offers a deeper mix--and ...
Joachim Kuhn - Michael Wollny: Live at Schloss Elmau
by AAJ Italy Staff
Figura centrale del pianismo jazz europeo, Joachim Kuhn si impone ancora una volta con questa ragguardevole incisione, non relegabile ai confini del jazz. Un disco davvero importante per maestria solistica ed arguzia interpretativa, dove ad imperare è la musica con la M maiuscola. Al suo fianco il giovane collega (classe '78) Michael Wollny, diplomato al conservatorio ...
Vince Mendoza / The Metropole Orchestra: El Viento: The Garcia Lorca Project
by John Kelman
After nearly a ten-year break, composer/arranger/conductor Vince Mendoza returned with the Grammy-nominated Blauklang (ACT, 2008). As if intuiting that another decade-long gap would be excessive, he's back a year later with El Viento: The García Lorca Project--this time focusing primarily on conducting a group of guests alongside Holland's Metropole Orchestra, for whom he's been chief conductor ...
Jan Lundgren Trio: European Standards
by John Kelman
While purists continue to debate and defend a by now non-existent demarcator between American jazz and that from everywhere else around the globe, most musicians have dispensed with such meaningless delineators and embraced music from all cultures within jazz's broad continuum. That needn't suggest that there's no place for the tradition where the music began, and ...
