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John Coltrane: Chasin' The Trane Revisited
by Chris May
A high-tide moment in jazz history, John Coltrane's November 1-5 1961 engagement at New York's Village Vanguard was exhaustively documented on a series of Impulse albums during the 1960s and 1990s. Those discs have now, in autumn 2021, been supplemented by the Swiss-based ezz-thetics label's magnificent Chasin' The Trane Revisited. Before examining the new ...
Mikael Máni: Nostalgia Machine
by Geno Thackara
Mikael Máni understands what's perhaps the most important thing about nostalgia: even if it's a near-universal thing, the experience is still different for everyone. Consequently, his personal Nostalgia Machine isn't so personal that it feels particularly tied to him, or even to any place or time. His variety of semi-abstract Nordic jazz gets at the kind ...
Arbenz, Hart, Känzig: Conversation #2: Oracle / Conversation #3: Neologism
by Kyle Simpler
While much of the world was in lockdown and many musicians didn't have a chance to play live, Swiss drummer Florian Arbenz found a way to keep his creative juices flowing. He envisioned a series of twelve albums, each featuring musical conversations between a different group of musicians. Conversation #1: Condensed (Hammer 2021) featured guitar, trumpet, ...
Art Hirahara: Open Sky
by David A. Orthmann
At the close of each track of Art Hirahara's Open Sky it feels like the slate gets wiped clean and the record begins anew. The disc is rife with turnabouts and the contrasts in character of the thirteen performances are often startling. In the first four cuts alone, an insistent post-bop line ("Groundswell") gives way to ...
Rodney Jordan: Conversations
by Richard J Salvucci
Yes, Hildegard von Bingen is a thing, and for many musicians, especially singers, a serious icon. Yes, you can tune a bass to A=432hz. Until the mid-nineteenth century, standard tuning on a bass was 430-435. Verdi apparently loved 432 because he said it resonated within the golden ratio, or a professional bassist informs “something like that." ...
Ches Smith / We All Break: Path of Seven Colors
by Jerome Wilson
In his group We All Break, drummer Ches Smith puts together a robust hybrid of the rhythms of Haitian Voudou music and the free- flowing impulsiveness of modern jazz. The basic music and lyrics of the songs here are based on traditional Haitian melodies. The group builds from that foundation, starting with the tangled interplay of ...
Marc Johnson: Overpass
by Karl Ackermann
The virtuoso bassist Marc Johnson has kept a relatively low profile as a leader. A graduate of the prestigious North Texas State University jazz program, Johnson made his mark as a member of Bill Evans' trio from 1978 until the pianist's final album the following year. His ECM debut came as a member of John Abercrombie's ...
Nadje Noordhuis: Gullfoss
by Dan Bilawsky
There's a beyond-category beauty emanating from trumpeter Nadje Noordhuis' Gullfoss. Recorded live at Musig im Pflegidach in Switzerland, inspired by the splendors of nature in their many forms, and showcasing the breathtaking work of an incomparable ensemble, it plays like a warm and inviting refuge for the ears and soul. Painting aural pictures ...
Adam Nolan: Prim and Primal
by Richard J Salvucci
Tell you what. A lot of listeners have never been particularly big fans of free jazz. “It is difficult to understand." Really? “Formalism," said Sergei Prokofiev, “is the name given to music not understood on first hearing." This, recall, was a statement made in defense of Dmitri Shostakovich and his Fourth Symphony. This is not to ...
Eliane Elias: Mirror Mirror
by Edward Blanco
Pianist and composer Eliane Elias reveals a wonderful reflection of piano madness on the dazzling Mirror Mirror, capturing the mastery of two piano legends and the fabulous key work of a third legend in the making. One can simply not go wrong listening to the late great Chick Corea and Cuban-born master Chucho Valdes providing amazing ...
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