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Mary Kay Riley: My Take
by Jack Bowers
Actress and singer Mary Kay Riley dips her toes gingerly into the recording pool with My Take, an amiable yet concise album whose five songs encompass a total playing time of twenty minutes. This may (or may not) be Riley's first such endeavor, as there are no liner notes and scant information about her on the ...
Pasquale Stafano: Sparks
by Ian Patterson
Italian pianist Pasquale Stafano is perhaps best known for the Nuevo Tango Ensemble which he co-founded in 1999 with bandoneonist Gianni Iorio, with whom he has also released a couple of fine duo albums, namely the tango-inspired Nocturno (Enja Records, 2017) and Mediterranean Tales (Enja Records, 2020). The centenary of Astor Piazzolla's birth might have seemed ...
Abdullah Ibrahim: Solotude
by Gareth Thompson
Abdullah Ibrahim once told a seminar at his M7 Academy in Cape Town, The devil lives on the stage. This is where the ego comes out." On the strength of Solotude, recorded live on his eighty-sixth birthday, Ibrahim has crushed such personal demons and now lets angels guide his performing. One takes his point though, given ...
Aurelijus Užameckis: Signals
by Vitalijus Gailius
Signals is a debut solo album from one of the most promising Lithuanian double bassists, Aurelijus Užameckis, who recently graduated from Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen. He is a member of jazz rock band Džiazlaif and also a leader of the international ensemble, The Young Immigrants. During his career Užameckis has shared the stage ...
Jon Gordon: Stranger Than Fiction
by Angelo Leonardi
Più noto come eccellente sax contralto e leader di un apprezzato quartetto, Jon Gordon torna a incidere un disco orchestrale per la ArtistShare, dopo l'album Evolution del lontano 2009. Registrato nel mezzo della pandemia, con tutte le difficoltà e restrizioni che sappiamo, il nuovo lavoro rinnova la collaborazione col trombonista e arrangiatore Alan Ferber che partecipa ...
Nick Sanders: Phantoms of Memory
by Dan Bilawsky
While the evolutionary arc of the COVID-19 calamity hampered progress for large-scale productions across the globe, the entire scenario, coupled with isolated artists' drive for creative expression, led to a massive uptick in the smallest of formats. At no time in recent memory--or really ever in the recorded history of jazz--have we seen such a steady ...
Funky Ella: I Put a Spell on You
by Jack Bowers
Although singer Leslie Lewis and her husband, pianist Gerard Hagen, have been making beautiful music together for some years and recorded five earlier CDs together, I Put a Spell on You is the first under the group name Funky Ella (which represents a deep bow to another jazz singer of note). The album was recorded in ...
The Barry Deister Quintet: Music for Jazz Quintet & Strings
by Richard J Salvucci
Some music really does speak to the soul, inadvertently, but effectively, nonetheless. And there are painters, real painters, of whom Barry Deister is one. And so are the musicians who accompany him on this truly beautiful set of compositions. Since these are difficult times, there are days when everything seems to be an effort. It is ...
Red Kite: Apophenian Bliss
by Doug Collette
Even more so than on Red Kite's wholly excellent eponymous debut, the follow-up release, Apophenian Bliss, by this Norwegian quartet illustrates how fine are the lines between metal, prog and fusion music. The powerful dynamism this band commands generates thoughts of a more free-form version of the electric Return To Forever quartets, electric music for the ...
Houston Person: Live in Paris
by Jack Bowers
The greatest jazz musicians have one trait in common; they make everything sound so ridiculously easy that listeners are liable to lose sight of the blood, sweat and tears which brought them to that pinnacle. Tenor saxophonist Houston Person, an octogenarian who keeps sidestepping every obstacle including Father Time, is one such master; regardless of groove ...

