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سم [ISM]: Metaphor
by Mark Corroto
We are all becoming. Not “becoming" as in pretty or handsome, but, as in we are coming to be. You can relate this to the Dharma path, or maturity, maybe even the act of learning how to juggle. Becoming is also the theme of the trio سم [ISM]. Its follow up to Nature In Its Inscrutability ...
Lafayette Gilchrist: Dark Matter
by Franz A. Matzner
Recorded live, pianist Lafayette Gilchrist's second solo recording, Dark Matter, embraces the long history of jazz bound to the beat and textures of a specific time and place, rather than stylistic pedigree or lineage of influencers. Its rhythms are the jackhammer throb, subway rattle, and relentless pulse of Baltimore, Philly, and Washington, D.C. It's textures the ...
Massimo Colombo: Acoustic Weather (The Music of Weather Report)
by Jim Worsley
Depending on your point of view, Weather Report either defined or redefined fusion during the 1970s. Their vivid approach and instrumental dynamics were mind blowing back then and still set the bar. Somehow pianist Joe Zawinul and saxophonist Wayne Shorter, always buoyed by a top-notch rhythm section, defied the odds by creating spirited fusion without the ...
Antonio Adolfo: Samba Jazz Alley
by Chris Mosey
With this album, Antonio Adolfo, an early exponent of bossa nova, takes a look at the roots of the music in his hometown, Rio de Janeiro. He recalls: “From 1958 to 1965 a small alley in the Copacabana district became known as Beco das Garrafas, Bottles Alley, because neighbours in taller buildings used to throw bottles ...
Evan Parker: Crepuscule In Nickelsdorf
by Mark Corroto
Excise the notion of virtual reality and AI as the force behind the music heard on Crepuscule In Nickelsdorf by Evan Parker and Matthew Wright's Trance Map+. Undoubtedly you might be tempted to have this thought by surveying the instrumentation, which is chock-full of sampling and electronics. Let's reserve those thoughts for a listen to this ...
Frederico7: Exótico Americano
by Chris M. Slawecki
It's hard to figure out Exótico Americano and its creator Frederico7. Frederico7 lived in Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina, and then settled down in “the live music capital of the world": Austin, Texas. His music bounces around the globe the same way: Exótico Americano features Caribbean reggae, Columbian cumbia, Brazilian backbeats, Latin rock, and country and western ...
Eric Hofbauer: Book Of Water
by Mike Jurkovic
Boston based guitarist and rising star Eric Hofbauer obviously isn't afraid of challenges. But then again, no musician/artist should be if they wish to leave a mark. The compositional intent at first come across rather lofty: a five part, multi-ensemble project interpreting wood, fire, earth, metal, and water, namely the five pillars of Chinese philosophy understood ...
Jakob Dinesen: Keys & Strings
by Jakob Baekgaard
In the liner essay for Jakob Dinesen's double album, Keys & Strings, writer Eddie Michel Azoulay mentions the tenor saxophonist's quest for truth and beauty. The romantic poet John Keats is not mentioned directly, but his lines from the famous poem “Ode on a Gracian Urn" immediately come to mind: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that ...
Walt Weiskopf: Worldwide
by C. Andrew Hovan
Back in 1992, saxophonist Walt Weiskopf made his first date for Criss Cross Jazz, Simplicity. It is one of the most daring new recordings of the period, featuring Weiskopf's incendiary playing and stellar compositions. Over the course of the next ten albums for Criss Cross culminating with 2010's See the Pyramid, Weiskopf forged an ...
Derek Bailey / Han Bennink / Evan Parker: Topographie Parisienne
by Mark Corroto
This analogy between free improvisation and human nature seems appropriate. Some people, seeing a burning building, will flee for their lives, while others run straight into the building. Mention the names of any member of this trio—Derek Bailey, Han Bennink or Evan Parker—to listeners and they either give a big hoorah or make a break for ...
