Home » Search Center » Results: Album Reviews
Results for "Album Reviews"
Nick Fraser / Kris Davis / Tony Malaby: Zoning
by Jack Bowers
What can be said in a positive vein about Zoning, an essentially inward-leaning and dissonant exercise in avant-garde or “free" jazz by drummer Nick Fraser, pianist Kris Davis and saxophonist Tony Malaby (supported on three numbers by tenor Ingrid Laubrock and trumpeter Lina Allemano). Well, it is music, of a sort—and it is (largely) improvised, or ...
New Bojaira: Zorongo Blu
by Angelo Leonardi
La relazione tra jazz e flamenco ha avuto varie declinazioni. Eccettuando gli estemporanei antecedenti di Miles Davis e di John Coltrane, il primo a inaugurare proficuamente la sintesi è stato Pedro Iturralde nel 1967 con Flamenco Jazz: un condiviso impianto modale legava la chitarra di Paco De Lucia ad assoli di vari jazzmen (tra cui il ...
Noam Wiesenberg: Roads Diverge
by Neri Pollastri
Il giovane contrabbassista israeliano Noam Wiesenber, ormai da dieci anni residente negli States, giunge qui al suo esordio da leader e lo fa con un album di composizioni originali (con la sola eccezione del brano di chiusura), alla testa di un classico quintetto al centro del quale spicca il pianista Shai Maestro, un connazionale che ha ...
The Alex Levin Trio: A Sunday Kind of Love
by Don Phipps
There is a dinner jazz quality to A Sunday Kind of Love by the Alex Levin Trio. And even though there is no pretense of art here, the infectious happiness of the album would certainly destress anyone who has had a rough day. Pianist Levin composed five of the ten numbers on the album, and he ...
Jacques Demierre: The Well-Measured Piano
by John Eyles
Pianist Jacques Demierre's 2019 must be judged a success because of the release of Willisau (Jazzwerkstatt, 2019) by his new quartet—alongside trio members Urs Leimgruber and Barre Phillips plus new member Thomas Lehn—as well as his first duo album Incunabulum (Herbal Records, 2019) with Hans Koch. By comparison, his solo recording The Well-Measured Piano rather slipped ...
Igor Willcox Quartet: Live at The Jazz Room (Canada)
by Mike Jurkovic
With his second live release in as many years, Brazilian drummer Igor Willcox continues to display--with equal parts potent suppleness and sheer fusion momentum--the high energy level at the core of his game. Add to that Newton's Third Law--that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction--and you've got a really clear read on ...
Brad Mehldau: Finding Gabriel
by Emmanuel Di Tommaso
Se un'artista del calibro di Brad Mehldau riesce ancora a stupire dopo aver destrutturato in tutti i modi possibili la musica contemporanea, il motivo può essere solo un'opera d'arte complessa e stratificata, che non a caso trae le sue basi concettuali da una rilettura in chiave post-moderna delle profezie dell'Antico Testamento nel tentativo di offrire una ...
Alice Ricciardi, Pietro Lussu: Catch a Falling Star
by Angelo Leonardi
Le fonti d'ispirazione sono chiare (in primis il magistrale The Newest Sound Around di Jeanne Lee e Ran Blake) ma le scelte espressive e le doti personali di Alice Ricciardi e Pietro Lussu rendono il disco originale e avvincente. La cantante milanese è stata allieva di Blake al New England Conservatory ed ha ...
Alice Ricciardi, Pietro Lussu: Catch a Falling Star
by Angelo Leonardi
Le fonti d'ispirazione sono chiare (in primis il magistrale The Newest Sound Around di Jeanne Lee e Ran Blake) ma le scelte espressive e le doti personali di Alice Ricciardi e Pietro Lussu rendono il disco originale e avvincente. La cantante milanese è stata allieva di Blake al New England Conservatory ed ha ...
Emmet Cohen: Master Legacy Series Volume 3 Featuring Benny Golson & Albert "Tootie" Heath
by Mike Jurkovic
Set aside for the moment that the combined age of the elders here is 174 years. Emmet Cohen's Masters Legacy Series Volume 3 Featuring Benny Golson & Albert “Tootie" Heath is not only a mouthful of a title, but also irascibly and irrepressibly old school. It's as if Cohen, in his youthful (29) zeal and zest ...
Benjamin Dwyer / Pete Gomes / Helen Kindred: KnowingUnknowing
by John Eyles
The Dublin-based label Farpoint Recordings always takes great pride in its releases, lavishing time and love on their artwork, packaging, documentation and quality control. Never has that been truer than on KnowingUnknowing by guitarist-composer-writer Benjamin Dwyer, dancer Helen Kindred and film-maker Pete Gomes. In addition to its impressive artwork by graphic designer Nathan Somers, the sleeve ...
