Home » Search Center » Results: Album Reviews
Results for "Album Reviews"
Thana Alexa: ONA
by Doug Collette
A departure from Thana Alexa's first album Ode to Heroes (Harmonia Mundi/Jazz Village, 2015), ONA is also rooted in jazz, but it showcases Alexa's use of her voice as both a lyrical and experimental instrument. Commencing immediately on the title tune, this mostly original material features arrangements in various combinations of atmospheric, electronic soundscapes and exotic ...
Lakecia Benjamin: Pursuance: The Coltranes
by Mike Jurkovic
Maybe it's the nuances she's picked up sharing stages with Rashied Ali, Stevie Wonder and Alicia Keys, or a deep intuition not only into jazz, but also into James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone. Perhaps it's her Washington Heights sidewalk sense that, no matter the game, you play and play alike. Or that you ...
Jenny Davis: Rearranged
by C. Michael Bailey
The first listen is simply heating the snifter to introduce the complex and commanding music made as essence to the listener. The second and subsequent listenings consumes the musical liquor of the talent and vision of vocalist and composer Jenny Davis, who reveals a very sophisticated creative method existing at the triple point of her singing, ...
Myra Melford, Zeena Parkins and Miya Masaoka: MZM
by Troy Dostert
Three world-class musicians whose long paths had yet to intersect, pianist Myra Melford, electronics wizard Zeena Parkins and kotoist Miya Masaoka finally team up for MZM. It's a potent, concentrated set of fully-improvised pieces that highlight the trio's ability to craft something wholly new while retaining each of their unique musical personalities. The album ...
Felipe Salles Interconnections Ensemble: The New Immigrant Experience
by Jack Bowers
Is it mere coincidence, or does the rise in the number of “concept" albums by jazz big bands signal that the trend is here to stay? Trumpeter Brian Lynch won a 2020 Grammy Award for his Journey Through Literature in Music, and there have been other tenet-based enterprises within the past year by Dan Jonas, John ...
Jon Hassell: Vernal Equinox
by Mark Sullivan
Visionary trumpeter-composer Jon Hassell is one of the architects of what has come to be called World Music: his own preferred term is Fourth World, which he described as “a unified primitive/futuristic sound combining features of world ethnic styles with advanced electronic techniques." Vernal Equinox was his first commercial album release, originally on Lovely Music in ...
Pharoah Sanders: Live In Paris (1975)
by Chris May
Pharoah Sanders' catalogue of newly-discovered album releases is expanding as fast as those of his fellow travellers Alice Coltrane and John Coltrane. Which is great, but... most of the albums were recorded live, sometimes with poor audio capture, and do not always find the musicians at their best. You have to pick and choose between them. ...
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: Just Coolin'
by Chris May
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a man or woman in possession of a good quantity of Art Blakey albums, must be in want of a lot more. Previously unreleased albums are particularly enticing. So do not be fooled by the Reid Miles-inspired cover of Just Coolin': the disc is previously unissued. It presents Blakey ...
Gilfema: Three
by Pat Youngspiel
Few trios are as immediately recognizable as Gilfema. It's almost impossible to mistake the interplay between Ferenc Nemeth, Massimo Biolcati and Lionel Loueke. The three Berklee College of Music and Thelonious Monk institute graduates have been going at it together for more than 15 years now, their eponymous debut album having been released in 2005 for ...
Ken Fowser: Morning Light
by David A. Orthmann
Throughout Morning Light, Ken Fowser's latest Posi-Tone Records release, he poses a welcome alternative to the fast-lane excesses of some of his peers on the tenor saxophone. The first thing that sets him apart is a medium-weight tone which doesn't crave attention or take up too much room. His sound sets an example to the rest ...
