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True East: First EP
by Dan Bilawsky
The debut release from collective trio True East is a patchwork party inviting gut-level utterances, punch-drunk strides, Latin-leaning grooves, and post-bop pronouncements to rejoice in each other's company. Engaged in near-unmitigated acts of creativity, trombonist Dan Lehner, bassist Ran Livneh and drummer Zack O'Farrill create an atmosphere rife with quick wit, raunchy rejoinders, catchy riffs and ...
Marialy Pacheco: Danzón Cubano
by Ian Patterson
You can take the girl out of Cuba, but you can't take Cuba out of the girl. Pianist Marialy Pacheco left her homeland for Germany in 2004, and after a few years in Australia, settled once again in Germany. Wherever Pacheco has dropped anchor, however, she has turned to her island's music for inspiration. Nestled amongst ...
Jacek Kochan & musiConspiracy: Occupational Hazard
by Franz A. Matzner
Polish-born and current Canadian Jacek Kochan's 22nd release as a leader, Occupational Hazard, exists at the crossroads of straight ahead and electric jazz. A drummer, composer and arranger, Kochan has played with a variety of musicians over the course of his long career. On Occupational Hazard he leverages this broad experience to bring together ...
Kayle Brecher: Kayleidoscope
by Geannine Reid
Vocalist, composer, and stylist Kaylé Brecher has long been a part of the jazz fabric. A Summa Cum Laude graduate of Temple University with a double major in performance and composition/arranging, Brecher has long been a member of the BMI Jazz Composers' Workshop in New York City. Her private studies include tutelage by Jim McNeely and ...
Josh Nelson Trio: The Discovery Project: Live In Japan
by Dan Bilawsky
When pianist Josh Nelson's name surfaces in conversation, the art of the trio isn't typically a topic that comes up. A first-call accompanist and collaborator for the vocal elite, and a conceptualist who's crafted smartly arranged musical love letters to everything from steampunk sci-fi to the City of Los Angeles as part of his ongoing Discovery ...
Jimmy Haslip: Red Heat
by Jim Worsley
Music is our universal language. A message can be conveyed spiritually to a multitude of cultures and processed at innumerable human levels. Red Heat (originally released in 2000) is a rare and priceless gem that engages the masses with purely relatable emotions and feelings. It targets and strikes your core with purposeful marksmanship. This ...
Chase Kuesel: Space Between
by Bruce Lindsay
Drummer and composer Chase Kuesel is based in Brooklyn, but his debut release as leader, Space Between, arose from a year spent studying in Basel as part of a select group of young musicians funded through the Focusyear Artist Grant. It's an album that's notable for Kuesel's ambitious compositions--drawing on influences including Olivier Messiaen, Norma Winstone ...
Stephen Gauci / Sandy Ewen: Studio Sessions Vol. 6
by John Sharpe
One of reasons label boss and tenor saxophonist Stephen Gauci appreciates performing with Texan guitarist Sandy Ewen so much is that she doesn't play anything which demands a rote response. Ewen forms one quarter of Gauci's regular quartet, which appears on Live At The Bushwick Series (Gaucimusic, 2019) and Studio Sessions Volume 5 (Gaucimusic, 2020), but ...
Jeong Hwan Park: Sound of Bronze
by Troy Dostert
A debut recording which belies the youth of its leader, Sound of Bronze is the handiwork of Jeong Hwan Park, a bassist on the rise who has assembled some fine talent and terrific compositions on this promising quartet album. Bouyed by the presence of veteran tenor saxophonist Rich Perry, Park and his colleagues specialize in music ...
Emilia Vancini: And If You Fall, You Fall
by C. Michael Bailey
There is a post-modern, deconstructive spirit in music existing within the anabolic-catabolic dichotomy of composition and performance. This spirit manifests in the same impetus that compels inquisitive minds to take things apart and put them back together differently, if not improving them, then revealing, from a different cleave, some previously unseen aspect of the whole. A ...
