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John Sneider: The Scrapper
by Jack Bowers
If you expected a trumpeter whose nickname is “Scrapper" to come out swinging on his first album as leader in twenty years, give yourself a gold star and a hearty pat on the back. That is precisely the modus operandi on The Scrapper, wherein New York-based John Sneider leads a first-rate quintet through its paces on ...
Harold Mabern: Mabern Plays Mabern
by Mike Jurkovic
A tad more subdued than the barn-burning The Iron Man: Live At Smoke (Smoke Sessions Records, 2019), Mabern Plays Mabern still manages to jump full throttle from where that defining recording left us, with a lush, lyrical intensity and a vital, legacy-culling energy which plays as an exquisite coda to the pianist's long, outstanding career.
Aruán Ortiz with Andrew Cyrille and Mauricio Herrera: Inside Rhythmic Falls
by Karl Ackermann
Cuban-born pianist and composer Aruán Ortiz is constantly evolving, experimenting and injecting new elements into his craft. Inside Rhythmic Falls is his third trio album, each with impressive but different lineups. His previous trio release, Live In Zürich (Intakt Records, 2018), with bassist Brad Jones and Chicago Underground mainstay Chad Taylor on drums and mbira, saw ...
Linley Hamilton Quintet: For The Record
by Ian Patterson
Linley Hamilton's fifth album is a cross-Atlantic affair. Alongside regular collaborators Cian Boylan and Derek 'Doc' O'Connor, the Irish trumpeter has enrolled the services of New York heavyweights Adam Nussbaum and Mark Egan--fellow instructors at the annual Sligo Jazz Project where Hamilton has long been a fixture. The quintet rounded off a short Northern Irish tour ...
Kevin Sun: The Sustain of Memory
by Jerome Wilson
This is an ambitious set of compositions by saxophonist Kevin Sun, 2 CDs which contain three suites for various-sized small groups, each with its own distinct identity. “The Middle Of Tensions" is in six sections played by a quartet of Sun, pianist Dana Saul, bassist Walter Stinson and drummer Matt Honor. Most of this ...
Gabriele Coen Quintet: Leonard Bernstein Tribute
by Claudio Bonomi
Gabriele Coen sa come smarcarsi all'interno di uno spesso scontato scenario jazz contemporaneo che ama mimetizzarsi sotto i veli di un'apparente originalità o modernità tout court. Aveva già dato prova in passato del suo savoir faire interpretativo nei tributi a Kurt Weill e a John Zorn e anche nel caso di Leonard Bernstein il sassofonista e ...
Tim Ray: Excursions and Adventures
by Rob Rosenblum
Although hidden away in classrooms at the Berklee School of Music or as the accompanying pianist with vocalist Tony Bennett, Tim Ray is a pianist of the highest order and this album offers all the evidence needed to prove the case. Ray's supporting cast are two exceptionally subtle and responsive players—John Patitucci, who is ...
Eivind Aarset & Jan Bang: Snow Catches on her Eyelashes
by John Eyles
Although they had been collaborating since the early 90s, the first recording on which the Norwegian guitarist Eivind Aarset and American-born, Norway-resident Jan Bang appeared together was Bang's Pop Killer (Virgin, 1998). In the years since, Aarset and Bang have collaborated on many more albums, but this is the first to credit them as a duo. ...
JZ Replacement: Disrespectful
by Chris May
Visceralism and virtuosity, the two qualities which define this momentous debut album by JZ Replacement, make an unbeatable combination. They are also a necessary one. Without a degree of virtuosity, eloquence is constrained by lack of vocabulary. Without a degree of visceralism, technical facility is at worst mechanistic, at best purely cerebral. Bring the two qualities ...
Hank Mobley: Soul Station
by Greg Simmons
Music Matters continues to release exceptionally high quality, all analog reissues of classic Blue Note Records' albums from the golden mid-century age of small-combo jazz. They've recently upped their game with the introduction of a higher-quality raw material formulation they call SRX Vinyl. Hank Mobley was Blue Note Records' most prolific artist, with over ...
