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Victor Haskins: Showing Up
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Since he burst onto the scene, Victor Haskins has developed a robust reputation as a modern-day jazz storyteller. His utterly sincere approach to his art is in the highest jazz tradition of exploration and innovation. With Showing Up, Haskins has taken his message to yet another higher level. The album, Haskins' second, presents ...
Fred Hersch Trio: Fred Hersch Trio '97 @ The Village Vanguard
by Mark Sullivan
Pianist Fred Hersch has produced a steady stream of recordings in the last few years, both solo and with his current trio. The trio was featured on Live In Europe (Palmetto Records, 2018) and Sunday Night At The Vanguard (Palmetto Records, 2016). This album captures a special career moment for Hersch: his first appearance as leader ...
SJZ Collective: SJZ Collective Reimagines Monk
by Doug Collette
Until a saucy swagger kicks in on the fourth and final track, “Blue Monk," it's difficult if not impossible to recognize this music as a tribute to the late Thelonious Monk And that's perfectly appropriate--no similarly-conceived homage should be overly familiar. But it is also a tribute to the ingenuity of the SJZ Collective, and the ...
Julian "Cannonball" Adderley: Swingin' In Seattle, Live At The Penthouse 1966-1967
by Mike Jurkovic
Julian “Cannonball" Adderley and his merry men--brother/cornetist Nat Adderley, bassist Victor Gaskin, backbeat king drummer Roy McCurdy and bursting-at-the-seams-with-new-ideas pianist Joe Zawinul--were having themselves a high time during 1966-67, that Renaissance time of adventure between Cecil Taylor's Unit Structures (Blue Note, 1966), Miles Smiles (Columbia, 1967) and the colorful, imagination emancipations of Sgt. Peppers' Lonely Hearts ...
Liudas Mockūnas: Hydro 2
by Vitalijus Gailius
Liudas Mockūnas, an iconic Lithuanian improvisation and jazz figure, still continues his exploration of water. By combining water and reeds he steps into an unpredictable and unique sonic meadow. His first attempt to put the bridle on water, Hydro, was released in 2017 by NoBusiness Records. At the end of 2018 the same label presented the ...
Mark de Clive-Lowe: Heritage
by Tyran Grillo
On Heritage, pianist/composer/producer Mark de Clive-Lowe sows two rhythmic seeds for every melodic plant reaped from an autobiographical crop. The half-Japanese, half-New Zealander's spiritual kinship with Japan runs deep. His blending of electronics and sampling elicits a precision that only enhances the freer passages, and provides a fitting platform for his copilots Josh Johnson (alto sax ...
Vula Viel: Do Not Be Afraid
by Gareth Thompson
Having once wowed audiences at the London Jazz Festival, Vula Viel acquired a more unlikely fan in the shape of Iggy Pop. Maybe it's this trio's post- punk verve that grabbed the Stooges frontman, or Pop might have been seduced by hearing the gyil (Ghanaian xylophone) in such an original context. Bex Burch was ...
Jeff Ballard: Fairgrounds
by Roger Farbey
The overture to Fairgrounds, “Grounds Entrance," involves an engaging percussive soundscape leading into “Yeah Pete!," which despite its exclamatory title is a laid-back feast of drums, electric piano and guitar on a similar wavelength to Miles Davis' In A Silent Way (Columbia, 1969). But “The Man's Gone" introduces a funky shift with irrepressibly upbeat wah-wah guitar ...
Tony Adamo: Was Out Jazz Zone Mad
by Chris M. Slawecki
Some African cultures preserved their history not by the written but by the spoken word, kept by oral cultural historians known as griots. On Was Out Jazz Zone Mad, vocalist Tony Adamo aspires to serve in this same role, as a verbal historian of both official and unofficial African-American jazz and blues culture. This type of ...
Don Byron / Aruan Ortiz: Random Dances And (A)tonalities
by Jerome Wilson
Aruan Ortiz is a Cuban-born pianist who has worked with a number of progressive jazz luminaries including William Parker, Oliver Lake and Nicole Mitchell. Here he performs a program with clarinetist Don Byron which touches on a wide spectrum of music from J. S. Bach's formal beauty to Duke Ellington's crafty blues. The two ...
