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Marilyn Crispell - Tanya Kalmanovitch - Richard Teitelbaum: Dream Libretto
by Glenn Astarita
World-class pianist, Marilyn Crispell crafts an endearing musical statement, where she and her cohorts execute a requiem framed on improvisations and succinct melodies based on the pianist's close friends and family who have passed on. Consequently, the first part of this set features Crispell, violinist Tanya Kalmanovitch and legendary electronics ace, Richard Teitelbaum, while the second ...
Wadada Leo Smith: Rosa Parks: Pure Love
by Karl Ackermann
Like several exceptional modern era composers from Ornette Coleman to John Zorn to Tyshawn Sorey, the “jazz" appellation has only anecdotal application to the latter-day calling of Wadada Leo Smith as a composer. On his previous Cuneiform releases Ten Freedom Summers (2012) and America's National Parks (2016), Smith worked with an ear toward confronting injustice and ...
Iro Haarla, Ulf Krokfors & Barry Altschul: Around Again: The Music Of Carla Bley
by Dan McClenaghan
At one time the Finnish pianist/harpist/composer Iro Haarla was best known as a collaborator of drummer Edward Vesala (1945-1999). Her own career blossomed in the new millennium, beginning with Penguin Beguine (TUM Records, 2005) followed by multiple releases on ECM and TUM Records, including Northbound (ECM, 2006), Vespers (ECM, 2011), Kirkastus (TUM, 2014), a daring duo ...
Dave Meder: Passage
by Mike Jurkovic
"Philosophically, what I'm after is the lofty goal of being able to play everything," says 28-year-old pianist David Meder of his ambitions and crowd-sourced debut, Passage. Like he says, that's pretty lofty, if not downright cocky. But what is jazz, let alone any artistic endeavor, if not an equal mix of both, and the chops to ...
Ivan Mazuze: Moya
by Anya Wassenberg
Contemporary Western jazz idioms blend seamlessly with influences that span the globe on Moya by Mozambican-Norwegian multi-instrumentalist and composer Ivan Mazuze. With a cast of collaborators specialized in a range of musical traditions, the results are multi-layered--offering both the familiar and the unfamiliar. Mazuze's playing is expressive; tone is given as much importance as ...
Matthew Shipp Trio: Signature
by Karl Ackermann
In the period of 2017-2018, the leading avant-garde and free jazz pianist Matthew Shipp performed and recorded in a variety of small group settings. Often, he was paired with reed players such as Allen Lowe, Mat Walerian, Daniel Carter, Roscoe Mitchell and on an astounding dozen albums with Ivo Perelman. But it is in solo piano ...
Tony Monaco: The Definition of Insanity
by Mark Corroto
Did you order it? Somebody ordered the party platter, because B3 maestro Tony Monaco is delivering. His music is for all intents and purposes a celebration. With The Definition of Insanity, a reference to doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, he confesses to be under the influence of the ...
Justin Morell: Concerto for Guitar and Jazz Orchestra
by Mark Sullivan
Guitarist/composer Justin Morell has recorded six albums as a leader, and written several ensemble pieces that featured guitar parts. He found that he enjoyed exploring the guitar's capabilities, so the Concerto was created to focus on the guitar as solo instrument accompanied by a large ensemble in the classical concerto tradition. He joined with his lifelong ...
Tomasz Dabrowski: Ninjazz
by Mike Jurkovic
Ninjazz, just one of Polish trumpeter Tomasz Dabrowski's several recorded efforts of 2018, finds him leading his quartet Ad Hoc through a serious investigation of ten cerebral, tonal abstractions. Uninhibited by language, and sound explorers all, Dabrowski's all-Japanese cohorts, pianist Hiroshi Minami, double bassist and electronics Hiroki Chiba and time-defying drummer Hiroshi Tsuboi viscerally ...
Jason Palmer: Rhyme And Reason
by Roger Farbey
Jazz albums without chordal instruments can sometimes sound arid. But that is decidedly not the case with Jason Palmer's Rhyme And Reason. The members of his quartet fit together organically, and the contrapuntal interplay between the trumpeter and his co-front man, tenorist Mark Turner, is remarkably tight. But the backline too is populated by a taut ...
