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The Bix Centennial All Stars: Celebrating Bix!
by Jack Bowers
Here's a new album by the Bix Centennial All Stars honoring the legacy of the renowned cornetist Bix Beiderbecke. Sort of. Actually, most of the music on Celebrating Bix! was recorded and released in March 2003, the actual centenary of Beiderbecke's birth in Davenport, Iowa. This expanded twentieth anniversary edition includes a trio of songs not ...
Ivan Lins: My Heart Speaks
by Katchie Cartwright
My Heart Speaks opens with Renata Maria," the song of a ravishing woman who emerges from the sea then disappears, leaving her would-be lover to yearn eternally. Ivan Lins composed the piece in 2004 with Chico Buarque in mind (punningly calling it a Buarquiana brasileira"). Buarque invented the narrative later, presenting his lyric to Lins as ...
John Coltrane: Sun Ship
by Mark Corroto
Why is a 180-gram vinyl reissue of John Coltrane's Sun Ship, remastered from the original tapes, important? If you are old enough, you'll remember the advent of the compact disc. After the CD was introduced in the 1980s, listeners abandoned their vinyl collections in favor of the promise of this new technology which was free from ...
Joe Pass: In Hamburg
by Jack Bowers
Blues, ballads, bossas, burners--it made no difference to the late Joe Pass, an uncompromising perfectionist who took them all in stride and was, if anything, almost too flawless to arouse in the listener an earnest emotional response. Listening to Pass, one quickly gains the impression that there wasn't anything he couldn't do--an impression that is borne ...
Veronica Swift: Veronica Swift
by Mike Jurkovic
Leave it to the irascibly spirited and octane-charged Veronica Swift to release the party record of the year! From the pure joy scatting of the blast-off opener I Am What I Am" (from Broadway's grand musical La Cage aux Folles) to the rabble rousing, mad-cap Joan Jett jam with The Ramones finale Don't Rain On My ...
Maddie Vogler: While We Have Time
by Jack Bowers
Regardless of one's opinion of the music (from this vantage point, quite favorable), it is always a pleasure to welcome a jazz group led by a woman whose talents reach beyond voice or piano. Maddie Vogler, who presides over an admirable sextet on While We Have Time (and wrote all the music therein), plays alto saxophone, ...
Frank Gratkowski, Simon Nabatov: Tender Mercies
by John Sharpe
This collection of seven duets from pianist Simon Nabatov and reedman Frank Gratkowski stands as one of those times when the late Misha Mengelberg's term instant composition" for a series of seat-of-the-pants encounters makes absolute sense. Perhaps that should not be a surprise, considering the protagonists histories and shared base in the German city of Cologne. ...
Christian Artmann: The Middle of Life
by Troy Dostert
As he continues to do his part in maintaining the relevance of the flute in contemporary jazz, Christian Artmann also provides plenty of food for thought in his wide-ranging, thoughtfully constructed compositions. There is a contemplative dimension to his vision, evident on Our Story (Sunnyside, 2018), which explored the interdependency of human relationships through the lens ...
Aline Homzy: éclipse
by Pierre Giroux
An adage goes: Patience Is A Virtue." That saying may be perfectly exemplified with the release of violin virtuoso Aline Homzy's recording Éclipse, which has been ten years in the making. This Canadian-American artist's long-awaited debut combines the jazz violin tradition into the contemporary world with improvisation and subtle composition. Joining Homzy under the rubric of ...
Jahari Stampley: Still Listening
by Hrayr Attarian
Chicago-based pianist Jahari Stampley is a definite prodigy. Raised in a musical family, Stampley, like his mother, also composes and plays other instruments. His debut Still Listening is a mix of four solo and five ensemble tracks, all his originals, which also showcase his leadership skills. The unaccompanied pieces are gems of musical virtuosity. ...


