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Michael Musillami Trio: Block Party
by Troy Dostert
A relentlessly active and inventive guitarist whose first recordings date back to the '80s, Michael Musillami began to hit his stride in the '90s alongside veterans of the New York downtown scene such as bassist Mario Pavone, drummer Michael Sarin and saxophonist Thomas Chapin. But one of his foremost partnerships took shape in the early 2000s, ...
Gaea Schell: In Your Own Sweet Way
by Pierre Giroux
Gaea Schell's In Your Own Sweet Way is a captivating journey through the realm of jazz that delivers a fresh perspective on a variety of compositional forms, including Latin-tinged originals to innovative interpretations of songs from the Great American Songbook. Although Schell originally grew up in Alberta, Canada and received her formal education in the piano-jazz ...
Steve Lehman: Ex Machina
by Karl Ackermann
When native New Yorker Steve Lehman releases an album, the odds are it will turn up at the top of year-end polls. If the composer & saxophonist has a formula for success, a listener would be unlikely to discern a methodology across his previous sixteen leader releases. What sets Lehman apart is a hunger for knowledge ...
Terell Stafford: Between Two Worlds
by Neil Duggan
Family is a major theme on Terell Stafford's Between Two Worlds, with compositions dedicated to his daughter, mother and wife. His band has been playing with him so long they must feel like family too. They include tenor and soprano saxophonist Tim Warfield, pianist Bruce Barth, drummer Johnathan Blake and bassist David Wong. In fact, Wong ...
Matthew Shipp Trio: Circular Temple
by Mike Jurkovic
On a good day it is strenuous to stay current with pianist Matthew Shipp's imposing and voluminous output. On an even better day it is a fool's hardy errand to say the least. Now with the planned re-issuing of some of his great early deconstructions of musical thought and theory, starting here with 1990's daringly incongruous ...
Daniel Hersog: Open Spaces
by Jack Bowers
Locked down and socially distanced during the pandemic, composer-arranger Daniel Hersog had an interesting idea: rearrange some well-known and well-loved folk songs, most with Canadian roots, for jazz orchestra and throw in a handful of his own original compositions with a folk-tune ambience. The result is Open Spaces: Folk Songs Reimagined, the sophomore album by Hersog's ...
Dario Cecchini: Echoes
by Neri Pollastri
Il sassofonista toscano Dario Cecchini, reso celebre dai Funk Off --marching band di ottoni, da lui fondata e diretta --, sta da qualche tempo proponendo in vari luoghi che ne permettano la realizzazione una singolare performance: si tratta di un solo di baritono, su temi in prevalenza originali o improvvisati, che sfrutta rumori, riverberi ed eco ...
Darcy James Argue's Secret Society: Dynamic Maximum Tension
by Katchie Cartwright
Darcy James Argue's superb double-album Nonesuch debut offers compositions written throughout his career. He turns to twentieth-century thinkers for ideas that can help us in the present, that we can reexamine and reconfigure for our own purposes." These include futurist designer Buckminster Fuller, cryptanalyst-computer scientist Alan Turing, composer-arranger Bob Brookmeyer, actress-screenwriter Mae West, trumpeter-mentor Laurie Frink, ...
John Butcher: The Very Fabric
by John Eyles
Recorded in Copenhagen, Denmark, on June 17th 2022, John Butcher's The Very Fabric is welcome and notable for several reasons. Firstly, it is the first release on which he is the sole musician since Nigemizu (Uchimizu Records, 2015), recorded in August 2013. Secondly, at the invitation of Thomas Buhl-Wiggers of the Cejoro festival and label, Butcher ...
Shalosh: Tales of Utopia
by Mike Jurkovic
If we are the sum of the stories we riff to ourselves then podcast to others, then Tales of Utopia is a grand narrative by the Israeli trio of pianist/keyboardist Gadi Stern, double bassist David Michaeli and drummer Matan Assayag. Tales of Utopia, like the young, agile trio's 2020 album Broken Balance (ACT Records), ...


