Home » Search Center » Results: Album Review
Results for "Album Review"
Yes! Trio: Spring Sings
by Mike Jurkovic
With over twenty albums as leaders between them and two previous trio recordings including the widely acclaimed Groove Du Jour (jazz&people, 2019) the Yes! Trio--drummer Ali Jackson, bassist Omer Avital, and pianist Aaron Goldberg--light it up bright on Spring Sings!. An old school trio session, Spring Sings! is a jumpy (in a non-anxiety ridden ...
Fire!: Testament
by Chris May
Recorded and then played back at reduced speed, even a seemingly simple two-note bird call reveals elaborate complexity and detail. It is worth hanging on to that thought when approaching the deceptively straightforward Testament. On a cursory listening, most of the album--an amalgam of Mats Gustafsson's slow-and-deliberate long-held low-end baritone notes and Johan Berthling and Andreas ...
Justin Chart: Keep The Blue
by Hrayr Attarian
Not all entirely improvised music necessarily embraces dissonance and atonality, however stimulating that may be. Saxophonist Justin Chart is famous for spontaneously creating entire sets, whether in the studio or in live settings, that are firmly rooted in mainstream sounds. His output is consistently cinematic and absorbing with a mysterious aura. His Keep the Blue is ...
Lucien Johnson: Ancient Relics
by Chris May
The astral jazz of Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane is among the most mimicked jazz to be heard in 2024. Mimicked as in superficial, cynical, clichéd, travesty. So it is a rare pleasure to come across an album as singular and substantial as New Zealand-based tenor saxophonist Lucien Johnson's Ancient Relics. The album is ...
Chris Mondak: Blank With Colour
by Richard J Salvucci
Chris Mondak is a fine, NEC-trained bassist who works in a variety of genres. But this recording really has him in a secondary role, as part of the rhythm section of what must be a version of his working band. The band is good; funky from soft to shout, turn up the volume. Dan Hitchcock's lead ...
George Winstone: Odysseus
by Neil Duggan
Surprisingly, George Winstone's album Odysseus has no connection with Greek Mythology, the Trojan War or Homer's epic poem. For Winstone, the title just seemed to fit. Indeed, it does seem apt; the soundscapes and moods that Winstone, together with guitarist Ben Monder, create would be suitable for the arc of many a journey narrative.
Bill Evans: The Legendary Trio At Birdland 1960 Revisited
by Glenn Astarita
Bill Evans' The Legendary Trio at Birdland 1960 is a seminal recording that captures a fleeting moment of jazz brilliance, immortalizing the profound synergy of Evans with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian. Recorded live at the iconic Birdland Jazz Club in New York City, this album is a vivid snapshot of a group at ...
Myra Melford's Fire And Water Quintet: Hear The Light Singing
by John Sharpe
Pianist Myra Melford's blue chip Fire And Water quintet assuredly sidesteps second album syndrome. Hear The Light Singing stands very much the equal of the band's superlative eponymous debut. The only change is that Lesley Mok takes Susie Ibarra's place behind the trapset, otherwise the triumvirate completing the starry squad remains Ingrid Laubrock on saxophones, Tomeka ...
Rodger Fox Big Band Featuring King Kapisi: The Brotherman Project
by Jack Bowers
If nothing--no matter how peculiar or aberrant--is undertaken without a reason, trombonist Rodger Fox, whose big band is the finest New Zealand has to offer, must have had his reasons for recording the band's newest album with the country's leading hip-hop artist, King Kapisi. As jazz, like hip-hop, is an acquired taste, it ...
Francois Carrier Ensemble featuring Mat Maneri /Tomasz Stańko / Gary Peacock / Michel Lambert: Openness
by Mark Corroto
Openness waited nearly two decades on a shelf (ok, probably on a hard drive) before being released for our listening pleasure. Recorded on May 5 & 6, 2006 at the Théâtre La Chapelle in Montréal, Canada, these three precious discs document a meeting between Canadian saxophonist François Carrier and Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stańko. It is the ...


