Home » Search Center » Results: Album Review
Results for "Album Review"
Daniel Bennett Group: New York Nerve
by Tyran Grillo
"This is not a pandemic record, but it is," says Daniel Bennett about his latest album. What might come across as a paradoxical statement is, from the multi-instrumentalist and composer's lips, a poignant assessment of his creative turn. I didn't go on pause at all. I did my best as a human, using common sense while ...
Andrea Massaria: New Needs Need New Techniques
by Glenn Astarita
With his debut solo recording, abstract guitarist Andrea Massaria indulges in sleight of hand framed techniques, while executing free form tonal vignettes that bridge painting with music via nine pieces that are dedicated to, and motivated by three impressionists: Rothko, Rauschenberg, and Pollock. Here, the artist's expressive nature spawns plucking and streaming layers of controlled analog ...
Lucien Johnson: Wax///Wane
by Geno Thackara
While Lucien Johnson is a dab hand at playing and composing, he is even more skilled at weaving a piece of music. Flow and dynamics are the specialties he displays most here, sketching out a series of groove patterns, and smoothly guiding an eclectic quintet as they ride through the ebbs and swells. Wax///Wane is not ...
Judson Green: Gratitude
by Jack Bowers
It's fairly safe to say that Gratitude, recorded in 2017, is pianist Judson Green's last album, as he died in August 2020 at age sixty-eight. It's even safer to say that Green, who released half a dozen recordings under his own name, played jazz piano solely for love of the music, as he didn't need to ...
Simon Moullier Trio: Countdown
by Geno Thackara
Simon Moullier declares that one of his goals with his second recording is to make the vibraphone disappear." To this end, he eschews the colorful guest list of his debut Spirit Song (Outside In, 2020) and puts his instrument at the head of an acoustic trio where it gets to fill out most of the melodic ...
Various: Journeys In Modern Jazz: Britain (1965-1972)
by Chris May
As British jazz in 2021 reaches domestic and international audiences of unprecedented size, so record companies are being emboldened to open up their archives and reissue long-buried treasures. So, too, are new labels being formed to make available recordings which have not previously been released, but which have survived in the tape libraries of the musicians ...
Miho Sasaki Trio: From My Heart
by Dan McClenaghan
Japanese-born pianist Miho Sasaki put down some productive roots in the United States, studying piano with Donald Vega at SUNY Purchase College, where she earned a James Moody Scholarship. The challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic sent her back home to Tokyo, where she live streams her music and teaches online. But the challenges of Covid did ...
Bruce Harris: Soundview
by Pierre Giroux
Cory Weeds, who is the executive producer of Soundview, is also the major domo behind The Cellar Music Group. This Vancouver, B.C. entity is committed to providing black artists with the opportunity to record and showcase their talent under the guidance of well-known trumpeter Jeremy Pelt. This initial release features trumpeter Bruce Harris and provides him ...
Anthony Braxton: 12 COMP (ZIM) 2017
by Jerome Wilson
There had been just a slow trickle of recordings from Anthony Braxton, but all at once he made up for lost time with two major releases. One is a 13 CD box set of performances of standards. The other is a collection of recordings of original compositions that form part of his latest musical concept, ZIM ...
Albert Ayler Quartet with Don Cherry: European Recordings Autumn 1964 Revisited
by Chris May
Many attempts have been made to locate the source of tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler's muse in American history and culture. Among the less outlandish suggestions are the field hollers of slaves toiling on Southern plantations and the Pentecostal church's tradition of talking in tongues. Given the importance Ayler's parents placed on him attending church as a ...

