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Ed "Tenderlonious" Cawthorne: The Piccolo: Tender Plays Tubby
by Chris May
Saxophonist, flautist and vibraphonist Tubby Hayes, who died at the unconscionably young age of 38 in 1973, was that rare thing among the first generation of British hard boppers—a musician who was taken seriously by the hippest American musicians and audiences. He visited New York in 1961 and 1964 for seasons at the Half Note, and ...
Gard Nilssen's Supersonic Orchestra: If You Listen Carefully The Music Is Yours
by John Eyles
Before getting onto the music on If You Listen Carefully The Music Is Yours, the debut album by the appropriately named Gard Nilssen's Supersonic Orchestra, it is well worth taking a look at the instrumentation of this sixteen-member ensemble. Firstly, every member is credited with playing percussion, in addition to three of the sixteen being drummers, ...
Amina Figarova: Persistence
by Edward Blanco
Veteran jazz pianist Amina Figarova embarks on a bold new step with her genre-bending Persistence, creating a new sound for the pianist with music that produces an electric-influenced groove mixing funk-jazz, jazz fusion, hip-hop, classical and R&B rhythms found on this new exploratory album. After two decades leading an acoustic sextet, her new quintet ensemble, Edition ...
Tamara Obrovac: TransAdriaticum
by Neri Pollastri
La croata Tamara Obrovac è una cantante e compositrice dedita da anni alla trasposizione della tradizione della natia Istria nel mondo del jazz, cosa che ha realizzato in molteplici progetti e album con organici diversi. In questo suo ultimo lavoro è alla testa di una formazione denominata TransAdriatic Quartet della quale, oltre al connazionale e antico ...
Laila Biali: Out Of Dust
by Dan Bilawsky
There's no boxing Laila Biali in. A sharp-minded songwriter, respected pianist and celebrated vocalist who straddles jazz and pop with unusual ease and strength of vision, Biali is truly beyond category. Possessing clear eyes, a perceptive mien and a sharpshooters's gifts in regard to emotional aim, she often expresses more in a single breath than others ...
Jon Stickley Trio: Scripting the Flip
by Geno Thackara
Mere flips are child's play to the Jon Stickley Trio; their performances are more the equivalent of tumbling somersaults and almost physically-impossible stunt dives. Scripting the Flip shows that their intricate jigsaw-puzzle pieces are as painstakingly well-scripted as ever, though never to the point of suffocating their chemistry and in-the-moment playfulness. With new-ish drummer Hunter Deacon ...
Webber / Morris Big Band: Both Are True
by John Sharpe
On Both Are True Canadian composers and reed players Anna Webber and Angela Morris reimagine the language of the big band. They extend the tradition through adventurous arrangements spiced with the unpredictability of improv, by co-opting the nimbleness of a much smaller group, and reveling in non-standard techniques. Webber has already garnered plaudits for the work ...
Clairdee: A Love Letter To Lena
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Revered decades after her passing, Lena Horne has remained an icon in the realms of music, stage & screen, and civil rights activism. With A Love Letter to Lena, San Francisco-based vocalist Clairdee assumes the task of saluting Horne by way of selections from Billy Strayhorn and other great American composers. And the inclusion of narration ...
Pigfoot: Pigfoot Shuffle
by Ian Patterson
Once a taste for mischief is acquired it's hard to rein it in. Pigfoot was having way, way too much fun on 21st Century Acid Trad (Village Life Records, 2014) to go straight on this, its second outing. If the former happily warped New Orleans jazz, Pigfoot Shuffle applies a similar concept to a broader pool ...
Matthew Shipp: The Piano Equation
by Mark Corroto
Let the celebration of pianist Matthew Shipp's 60th birthday year 2020 commence with The Piano Equation. Having released a dozen or so prior solo sessions, this also is a recording sans nostalgia. Shipp, like Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, or Thelonious Monk before him, does not pine for the past, but ceaselessly forges a path onward. And ...
