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Elia / Dominguez /Verdinelli: Cuando Sea Necesario
by Dan McClenaghan
Argentine pianist Eduardo Elia explored the classic jazz tunes on his 2015 release, Solo (Blue Art Records), making the familiar distinctively his own. He shifts gears for Cuando Sea Necesario, bringing on board saxophonist Rodrigo Dominguez and drummer Sergio Verdinelli, for what sounds like a set of loosely-constructed compositions which leave plenty of room for inspired ...
Greg Reitan: West 60th
by Peter J. Hoetjes
The collaboration of musicians unaccustomed to each other often yields unexpected and occasionally brilliant results. There is no substitute however, for familiarity. Greg Reitan has played with the same trio consisting of bassist Jack Daro and drummer Dean Koba for over two decades, and their resulting musicianship is versatile yet comfortable. It may have been recorded ...
Assif Tsahar: In Between the Tumbling a Stillness
by Mark Corroto
As the saying goes, In Between The Tumbling A Stillness, recorded in 2015 in Tel Aviv, “comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb." Saxophonist Assif Tsahar, who sticks to tenor throughout, opens “In Between" like a lion, if that lion were Albert Ayler. The 35-minute piece draws from the fire music of ...
Choi Sun Bae: Arirang Fantasy
by John Sharpe
A 1995 meeting in Tokyo between Korean and Japanese proponents of the art of free jazz furnishes another entry in the Chap Chap series of improvised encounters issued by the Lithuanian NoBusiness imprint. From Korea, Arirang Fantasy introduces trumpeter Choi Sun Bae, who also features alongside Japanese trumpeter Itaru Oki on Kami Fusen (NoBusiness, 2017), and ...
The Branford Marsalis Quartet: The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul
by Mike Jurkovic
It was back in 2012 when the last quartet-only recording Four MFs Playin' Tunes (Marsalis Music) was released. So give more room on the floor to the evil toys dancing their pants off to the pure, wild, free-styling surge of “Dance of the Evil Toys," the killer, lead-off track to the Branford Marsalis Quartet's first full ...
Millennium Jazz Orchestra: Octopus
by Jack Bowers
Octopus, the tenth album released by the Millennium Jazz Orchestra in its nearly twenty-five years of impressive music-making in The Netherlands, is actually an eight-part suite by composer / arranger Joan Reinders devoted to one of the sea world's more fearsome and enigmatic creatures. The thematic essay spans the whole nine yards, from “Evolution" and “Environment" ...
Four Letter Words: Pinch Point
by Mark Corroto
What is the difference between unbalanced and off balance? Very little, if you listen to Four Letter Words' Pinch Point, the trio's third release, after Blow (Amalgam, 2015) and Radio Silence (Amalgam, 2015). Unbalanced can mean both “disturbed" and “demented." Certainly the seven improvisations presented here can be a bit disturbing, meaning the music seeks no ...
Christoph Irniger Pilgrim: Crosswinds
by Don Phipps
With Crosswinds, Christoph Irniger's quartet Pilgrim offers a scintillating trip into a musical subconscious --a dream state where one opens doors only to find more doors --a spiral staircase where the top is always just beyond reach. For the most part, the album consists of tunes that are both sparse yet engaging. And it is this ...
Yelena Eckemoff/Manu Katché: Colors
by Mark Sullivan
Pianist/composer Yelena Eckemoff has produced a varied discography. But since her piano trio album Lions (L&H Production, 2015) she has tended towards larger ensembles. Leaving Everything Behind (L&H, 2016) and Desert (L&H, 2018) were both quartets; Blooming Tall Phlox (L&H, 2017) and In the Shadow of a Cloud (L&H, 2017) were quintets; and Better Than Gold ...
Bodhisattwa Ghosh: The Grey Album
by Mike Jurkovic
By incessantly stacking one post-rock ambiguity upon another, Calcutta's Bodhisattwa Trio's The Grey Album is anything but. Instead, The Grey Album is an animated aggregate of garage-band sound and fury determined to turn your head, prick your ears, and rattle your sensibilities while leading you through seven swirling, roiling, soundscapes. Injecting into the mix ...
