Home » Search Center » Results: Album Review
Results for "Album Review"
David Whitman: Ode To Joe
by Richard J Salvucci
Dipping into this fine recording is, to mix metaphors a bit, like opening a time capsule. That capsule is called One For All (A&M, 1990), perhaps the final studio recording of Art Blakey with The Jazz Messengers. It was not a perfect outing, but it was a memorable one. The lines got into the head and ...
Jonas Hellborg: The Concert of Europe
by John Eyles
Swedish bass guitarist Jonas Hellborg has the knack of being in the right place at the right time when it comes to meeting reputed musicians; in 1981, after he played solo bass at the Montreux Jazz festival in Switzerland, he was introduced to guitarist John McLaughlin and other fusion stars. He was soon asked to join ...
Bill Dixon: With Archie Shepp, 7-Tette & Orchestra Revisited
by Chris May
If Bill Dixon is today, in 2023, less widely remembered than other New Thing warriors such as Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor and Albert Ayler, it is partly because he had little desire for celebrity, devoting much of his energy to organizing on behalf of his fellow musicians and composers, and teaching. In 1964, midway ...
Matthew Halsall: An Ever Changing View
by Geno Thackara
Whatever view Matthew Halsall is sharing here, it is drawn from life and correspondingly picturesque--not just always changing, but always colorful and fascinating. This View comes partly from the sea-and-sky vistas he enjoyed while creating it, splitting time between England and Wales. Partly, it also comes from a couple of years collecting a trove of percussive ...
TechnoCats: The Music of Gregg Hill
by Jack Bowers
The TechnoCats are a group of five talented young musicians, each of whom has ties to Michigan State University in East Lansing, as does composer (and co-producer) Gregg Hill, whose music the TechnoCats perform on this delightful album. One of the quintet's more diverting features is that the only horn is Chris Glassman's bass trombone; another ...
Thermal: Ice In A Hot World
by John Sharpe
A group which played their first concert in a disused Brussels train station in the early 2000s shows it still knows how to unsettle on Ice In A Hot World. It is only the second album during this time from saxophonist John Butcher, analog synthesizer player Thomas Lehn and guitarist Andy Moor, who ply their trade ...
Vilhelm Bromander: In This Forever Unfolding Moment
by Chris May
Ornette Coleman's haunting Lonely Woman" is becoming something of a 2023 soundtrack. At the time of writing, we have had memorable versions from Kahil El'Zabar's Ethnic Heritage Ensemble on Spirit Gatherer (Spirit Muse), and Kurt Elling and Charlie Hunter on The Iridescent Spree (Edition), plus another couple of efforts about which the less said the better. ...
Sara Serpa & André Matos: Night Birds
by Katchie Cartwright
Night Birds, singer Sara Serpa and guitarist André Matos' third album together, offers an ethereal program of compositions written by the duo, separately and together. They are joined on various tracks by Brooklyn-based pianist-composer Dov Manski, South Korean avant-garde cellist Okkyung Lee, Swedish experimental singer Sofia Jernberg, Portuguese drummer João Pereira, and their young son Lourenço. ...
Pete McCann: Without Question
by Jack Bowers
Guitarist and composer Pete McCann pulls out all the stops on Without Question, his seventh album as leader, unveiling his singular talents on everything from burners ("Without Question," Trifecta") to ballads ("I Can Remember," January," Lost City"), blues ("Blues for O.M."), burlesque ("Conspiracy Theory"), biting commentary ("Erase the Hate") and borrowed themes ("Lovely Thing"). McCann, a ...
Antonio Flinta: Peripheral Songs
by Dan McClenaghan
In July 2021 Chilean-born, Italian-based pianist & composer Antonio Flinta went into a recording studio near Florence to record his first solo piano album. Spontaneity and freshness of expression were the goals. In two hours he had twenty pieces--improvisations, covers and originals. The initial result of this effort was Secrets of a Kiri Tree (Self Produced, ...


