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Burak Bedikyan: New Beginning
by Hrayr Attarian
On his fourth release as a leader, the thoughtful and captivating New Beginning, pianist Burak Bedikyan has matured both as a composer and improviser. The album is Bedikyan's first with a trio and consists mostly, although not entirely, of original material. The cadence and the melody within each piece transform in delightfully surprising ways while maintaining ...
Gordon Beeferman: Other Life Forms
by Troy Dostert
A keyboardist and composer with ambitious reach, Gordon Beeferman creates music designed to surprise and challenge. He specializes in avant-garde contexts, whether with his Organ Trio (alongside guitarist Anders Nilsson and drummer Ches Smith) or in a larger septet format, with Music for an Imaginary Band (Generate Records, 2009). And then there's his work writing operas ...
Matador: Ducon
by Hrayr Attarian
Uruguayan guitarist and composer Santiago Bogacz, who goes by the stage name Matador, has already proven his virtuosity and adventurous spirit on a number of eponymous solo EPs, each with gorgeous abstract art work as a distinguishing feature. Ducón is his second duet release after the poetic Cabala (Self Produced, 2018). This time he has teamed ...
Eunhye Jeong: Chi-Da
by Ian Patterson
Boston-based, South Korean pianist Eunhye Jeong's second release as leader couldn't be more different from her debut, Turtle Suite (2015). That recording brought jazz and traditional Korean musicians together on a set of melody-based originals where Song Yi Jeon's wordless vocals were as much a protagonist as Jeong's elegant piano playing. Chi-Da, by contrast, is a ...
Michael Kocour: East Of The Sun
by Dan Bilawsky
The ease of expression with which pianist Michael Kocour unspools standards tends to belie the greatness of his playing. With extreme comfort and control he lays out one beautiful performance after another, all the while presenting a fine balance between technical accomplishment and creative bent. East Of The Sun--the sixth leader (or co-leader) ...
Jamie Saft, Steve Swallow, Bobby Previte: You Don't Know The Life
by Dan McClenaghan
Since his 1997 recording debut, keyboardist Jamie Saft has carved out a dynamic profile, first (mostly) with John Zorn's Tzadik label and, since 2011, with RareNoise Records. A string of four releases on the label set the stage, beginning with 2014's trio outing The New Standard, through Loneliness Road (2017) (another trio set, with Iggy Pop ...
Krupka Trio: Hymns in a Jazz Mood Vol. 2
by Geno Thackara
Whether it's meant deliberately or not, the cover image for Hymns in a Jazz Mood, vol. 2 is a pretty apt illustration: the simple church building is central, but doesn't need to be at the front and center of attention. The pastoral feel of the forestscape covers everything more prominently, though half the tree shapes somehow ...
Casey Golden: Atlas
by Mark Sullivan
Australian pianist/composer Casey Golden, now a London resident, was last heard from on Miniature (Scrampion Records, 2016) with his long-standing Sydney-based trio. He also appears on Phillip Johnston's The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Cuneiform Records, 2018). Atlas is the first recording from his new London-based quartet with guitarist Alex Munk, bassist Henrik Jensen, drummer Will Glaser ...
The 14 Jazz Orchestra: The Future Ain't What It Used to Be
by Jack Bowers
The Future Ain't What It Used to Be, the second album by South Florida's impressive The 14 Jazz Orchestra, is by and large like its precursor: swinging, straight-down-the-fairway big-band jazz underlined by leader Dan Bonsanti's admirable charts. As before, each of the songs was written by a blue-chip composer, from Chick Corea and Antonio Carlos Jobim ...
Michael Wolff: Swirl
by Peter J. Hoetjes
"This new album is the culmination of my transformation after being to the brink and back," states Michael Wolff. At one point during 2015, Wolff, then deep into his four-year battle with a rare form of cancer, fell comatose. His prognosis left little hope yet, with a stubborn willpower, the pianist fought off the ...
