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Duke Ellington: Uppsala 1971
by Chris Mosey
From his first visit in 1939 to a concert a few months before his death in 1973, Duke Ellington took special pleasure in visiting Sweden. He composed a “Serenade to Sweden" and wrote a new arrangement for a very Swedish pop song, “I en rod liten stuga (In a Red Little Cottage)." He also entered into ...
Carrera Quinta: Traslaciones
by Jack Bowers
As one would anticipate from the group's name--and the album's song selection--the seven-member Carrera Quinta (pared down from big-band size) plays music from South America, more specifically the Andes region of Colombia, interlaced with mainstream American jazz. The Latin Grammy-nominated ensemble's third album, Traslaciones, comprises seven songs showcasing traditional Colombian styles such as pasillo, bambuco and ...
Corey Christiansen: La Proxima
by Dan McClenaghan
Guitarist Corey Christiansen's early days recording for Seattle's Origin Records featured a pair of superb organ jazz recordings, Roll with it (2008) and Outlaw Tractor (2010). A versatile player, the guitarist expanded his vision with his “American West" set Lone Prairie (Origin Records, 2013), in addition to his “avant cowboy/surf rock band" on Factory Girl (Origin ...
Duduka Da Fonseca & Helio Alves featuring Maucha Adnet: Samba Jazz & Tom Jobim
by Dan Bilawsky
Since 2007, drummer Duduka Da Fonseca, pianist Helio Alves and vocalist Maucha Adnet have been presenting the titular program at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola at New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center, and at other venues throughout the world. A concept set steeped in personalized history of varied sorts--Da Fonseca's, absorbing this hybridized style at the foot ...
Tom Rainey: Combobulated
by John Sharpe
Recorded live at Firehouse 12 in New Haven, Connecticut, Combobulated constitutes the fourth outing for what might be now seen as a free jazz supergroup, even if it wasn't when they cut Pool School (Clean Feed, 2009). The stars of saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and guitarist Mary Halvorson have continued to rise in the intervening years, while ...
Paul Booth: Travel Sketches
by Chris May
The intense media interest surrounding the rise of the British woke jazz movement is welcome, but it is increasingly monopolising local bandwidth. Great British jazz which adheres more closely to the founding American tradition is becoming sidelined. Babies and bathwater come to mind. One of the few British labels looking at the 360-degree picture ...
HILA PUNTUR: Plastic Polaroid
by Geno Thackara
Aren't Polaroids largely plastic already? What other kind is there? Does this title signify that the work is fixed like a photograph or malleable like, well, plastic itself? Is it a quickly captured snapshot, or a work craftily molded into shape? When approaching Hila Puntur, all of the above are somewhat true. It's best to leave ...
Ricardo Peixoto: scary beautiful
by Nicholas F. Mondello
A well-known chocolate confection advertises itself as “Indescribably Delicious." That phrase also aptly describes guitarist/composer Ricardo Peixoto's album, Scary Beautiful. It is a recording of rainbow textures, infectious energies and utterly superior musicianship. And, it is one that encourages devouring. Peixoto (pronounced pay-sho-to), Brazilian by birth and now residing in L.A., gives us ...
Donald Byrd: Ethiopian Knights
by Chris May
Donald Byrd (1932-2013) was a solid and dependable and prolifically recorded hard-bop trumpeter during the style's mid 1950s to mid 1960s heyday, though he was never an innovator, far less an auteur. He later went on to make a string of tedious disco-cum-jazz-funk albums which sold by the truckload. On the cusp of this ...
John Yao's Triceratops: How We Do
by Franz A. Matzner
Trombonist and bandleader John Yao possesses a penchant for imposing ambitious artistic constraints on himself. How We Do continues that trend with a newly formed quintet comprised only of three horns, bass, and drums. Yao further ups the ante by composing demanding pieces that often careen from one stylistic approach to another within the same tune. ...
