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Adam Shulman: Just The Contrafacts
by Pierre Giroux
For those who may be scratching their heads about the word contrafact, in the jazz medium it designates a musical composition in which a new melody is overlaid on a familiar harmonic structure. This form really became prominent in the bebop era, where the artists (who were generally short of financial resources) could create new compositions ...
Sarah Wilson: Kaleidoscope
by Angelo Leonardi
Il percorso musicale di Sarah Wilsonmolto diverso da quello dei colleghi trombettistiha formato una personalità eclettica, che il suo terzo disco mostra con chiarezza e fa della singolarità una ricchezza. Come sintetizza il titolo, il percorso musicale è un caleidoscopio di situazioni diverse, che ruotano attraverso alcune costanti: delicate folk ballad, estroversi quadri calypso o brani ...
Betty Accorsi Quartet: Growing Roots
by Chris May
The second album from Italian born, British based soprano saxophonist Betty (Elisabetta) Accorsi's quartet confirms what was already apparent on her debut, The Cutty Sark Suite (Betty Accorsi Music, 2020). That is, here is a young musician and composer of outstanding talent who is destined for the big stage. There is nothing radical ...
Antonio Flinta: Secrets of a Kiri Tree
by Dan McClenaghan
After the release of several trio and quartet albums, Antonio Flinta, a Chilean-born pianist now based in Italy, tries on the solo piano format for size. He wears it well. Secrets Of A Kiri Tree features Flinta alone at the keyboard, exploring three of his engagingly melodic originals along with four covers, including Thelonious Monk's 'Round ...
Andrea Brachfeld & Insight: Evolution
by Jack Bowers
Although Andrea Brachfeld's may not be a household name, the versatile flutist and composer has been a well-established and respected presence on New York City's jazz and Afro-Cuban scenes since around 1970. On Evolution, her tenth recording as leader, Brachfeld delves musically into children's issues and the ongoing need [for] basic necessities even in the best ...
Caleb Wheeler Curtis: Heatmap
by Paul Rauch
It is mostly troublesome to make blanket assertions about jazz and the musicians that facilitate the art form. Such assertions are subjective at best, yet it would not seem unreasonable to assert that Caleb Wheeler Curtis is one of the more interesting alto saxophonists to emerge since 2000. His playing has a radiant, vocal quality to ...
Albert Ayler Quintet: At Slugs’ Saloon 1966 Revisited
by Chris May
There continues to be as much discussion about Albert Ayler's personality and motivations as there is about the music he left us. Was he a religious fundamentalist? Was he bi-polar? Was he an attention seeker? Was he some sort of leather fetishist? The evidence suggests Ayler may have been borderline bi-polar, but as for the other ...
Bernardo Sassetti Trio: Culturgest 2007
by Mark Corroto
Many listeners were introduced to the pianist Bernardo Sassetti by the record label Clean Feed, which built its early reputation on his recordings. The releases Nocturno (2004), Indigo (2004), Ascent (2005), Unreal: Sidewalk Cartoon (2006), and Motion (2010) are true evergreens. His untimely accidental death in 2012 (like that of Esbjörn Svensson in 2008) was a ...
Francesco Baiguera, Giacomo Papetti, Emanuele Maniscalco: Prèludes
by Neri Pollastri
Sofisticato e originale lavoro per chitarra trio a nome del bresciano Francesco Baiguera, autore di tutte le composizioni--giustamente ascrivibili al genere preludio" in ragione del loro clima sospeso e introspettivo, ma anche sviluppate con modalità singolari--e affiancato dal contrabbassista Giacomo Papetti e dal batterista Emanuele Maniscalco. Ed è proprio il modo in cui i ...
Wadada Leo Smith: String Quartets Nos. 1-12
by Karl Ackermann
In the thirty-page booklet that accompanies Wadada Leo Smith's String Quartets Nos. 1-12, the trumpeter & composer devotes a few paragraphs to the subject of inspiration. He traces an irregular line whose points include Claude Debussy, Dmitri Shostakovich, Muddy Waters, Ornette Coleman, and others. But those diverse artists, who came and went before Smith, have no ...

