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The Heavy Hitters: The Heavy Hitters
by Jack Bowers
The Heavy Hitters. Hyperbole? A matter of fact? Or simply the name given by co-leaders Mike LeDonne and Eric Alexander to their newly minted sextet. The third statement is true--but so is the second. From pianist LeDonne and tenor saxophonist Alexander to fellow front-liners Jeremy Pelt (trumpet) and Vincent Herring (alto sax) and the Washingtons, Peter ...
Hans Koch / Frantz Loriot / Jonas Kocher: Stranger Becoming
by Mark Corroto
The title says it all, Stranger Becoming. Not becoming stranger," but Stranger Becoming as in unusual yet attractive or tasteful. That certainly is a perfect descriptor for the music generated by the trio of Hans Koch(clarinet), Frantz Loriot (viola), and Jonas Kocher (accordion). All three have a background in classical music which serves as the foundation ...
Manzanita Quintet: Osmosis
by Dan McClenaghan
The tried and true quintet formation, set in stone by alto saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie in the late 1940s, is back in 2022 with the Reno, Nevada-based Manzanita Quintet. So how do they give a fresh shine to a sound that could be considered done to death?" On Osmosis the ...
Joe McPhee & Evan Parker: Sweet Nothings For Milford Graves
by John Sharpe
Two soprano saxophones loosely harmonize. They finish each other's lines, languidly intertwine, pause for air at the same moment. And simultaneously end on a dime. Musical twins. In the wrong hands such empathy might become soporific; but with two of the planet's foremost improvisers on hand in the persons of Evan Parker and Joe McPhee, instead ...
Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra: Voices: A Musical Heritage
by Jack Bowers
No matter where in the world one looks, there is musical history worth exploring and celebrating--which is what the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra sets out to affirm on its sixth album, Voices: A Musical Heritage. Winnipeg is the capital of Canada's Manitoba Province, and Voices pays tribute to the area's rich and expansive musical fabric via a ...
Art Ensemble of Chicago: The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris
by Mike Jurkovic
Recorded live in Paris in February 2020, The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris. presents Art Ensemble Of Chicagoas defiantly daring avant-garde as that first night in Paris, 1969 giving no quarter whatsoever in their lifelong, diasporic pursuit of creation unbound. Breaking at the pace of a dream, surviving co-founders saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and ...
Leon Foster Thomas: Calasanitus
by Chris May
Born in Trinidad and in 2023 based in London, steel-pan virtuoso Leon Foster Thomas surprised and delighted many in the jazz world with Metamorphosis (Ropeadope, 2016). It was his third album but the first to receive widespread distribution in the US and Europe. The disc proved the steel pan to be serious and sophisticated, sitting comfortably ...
Seppe Gebruers: Playing With Standards
by Mark Corroto
Pianist Seppe Gebruers with his Playing With Standards follows in the footsteps of visual artists who work in xerography, a type of Situationists' détournement that construct art via a photocopier. While the 42 tracks presented over three discs reproduce jazz and pop standards, Gebruers' 'copies' are not reproductions as much as they are the products of ...
Phil Markowitz: Solo Piano Live in Rome
by Alberto Bazzurro
Newyorchese, settant'anni compiuti da pochi mesi, Phil Markowitz si è fatto le ossa accanto a Chet Baker per poi legare il suo nome soprattutto a Dave Liebman. Il classico pianista accompagnatore? Sì e no, perché se è vero che, come molti colleghi di strumento, eccelle nel far risaltare le doti del solista che occupa il centro ...
The Heavy Hitters: Heavy Hitters
by Troy Dostert
The self-titled debut from the Heavy Hitters, pianist Mike LeDonne's latest sextet, has the feel of a tribute album. However, unlike most recordings of that nature, there is no classic repertoire present, as all nine tracks are penned either by LeDonne or his colleague, tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander. Instead, it is a tribute to a sound ...


