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Ethan Gruska: En Garde
by Doug Collette
Ethan Gruska's En Garde illustrates the truism about the apple not falling far from the tree. With his solo efforts as well as his participation in the Belle Brigade (with sister Barbara), the songwriter/multi-instrumentalist is doing justice to his esteemed lineage: Ethan's father is Emmy-nominated TV/film composer and songwriter Jay Gruska and his grandfather is Oscar-winning ...
Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York: Entity
by Karl Ackermann
As she did in 2019, pianist/composer Satoko Fujii—an artist at home in many formations—opens the new decade with an orchestra recording. Entity, from Fujii's Orchestra New York, is the eleventh release from the ensemble that has remained largely intact for almost twenty-three years. It is an all-star collective that includes saxophonists Oscar Noriega, Ellery Eskelin and ...
Ben Flocks: Mask of the Muse
by Geno Thackara
It was probably inevitable that the start of the 2020's would see something of a comeback for the Roaring Twenties of the last century. You could say that puts Ben Flocks ahead of the curve for releasing this homage to mark the change of decade... well, except that it's not just rooted in the previous gilded ...
Marc Copland: And I Love Her
by Mike Jurkovic
Perhaps you glance quickly at the song titles on the back cover and haphazardly say to yourself or your phone or your new imaginary friend “What?!"Afro-Blue" again?" and just as haphazardly put the disc down and move on to Billie Eilish. But, if you take a moment-you'll-never-get-back to pause and listen, you'll hear drummer Joey Baron ...
Mikko Innanen: Autonomus I - XXX
by Anthony Shaw
Mikko Innanen has been a prolific saxophonist on the Finnish scene for so long that one can no longer refer to him as any sort of new boy in town. But with the passing of the years there have been changes of focus and style, and the release of the album Autonomus sees a new experimental ...
Wild Card: Beast From The East
by Chris May
The impact of Jimmy Smith's organ trio in the mid 1950s was by all accounts massive. Nothing quite like it had been heard before in popular music. Smith unleashed a wailing, high decibel (for the era) monster which was also capable of expressing gentler moods. Audiences and record buyers went ape and Smith's label, Blue Note, ...
Lisa Hoppe's Third Reality: The Mighty Unlikely
by Mike Jurkovic
Without giving away any professional secrets, it is quite often that any beat-pounding pundit or wily curmudgeon--pick several thousand if you like, there's billions out there--will come at an artist with certain prejudices and expectations. And so it is with German bassist Lisa Hoppe. Having heard her unusual yet oddly soothing explorations on such discs as ...
Issie Barratt's Interchange: Donna's Secret
by Duncan Heining
Put simply, this is a truly beautiful record. It features eight very different compositions by eight different women composers, including three from outside the band. In other hands, the diversity of styles might have left more an impression of a compilation than of a coherent, integrated programme of music. But that is certainly not the case ...
Avishai Cohen: Arvoles
by Emmanuel Di Tommaso
Il leit-motiv di Arvoles è chiaro fin dall'iniziale “Simonero" nonostante gli sconvolgimenti di ritmi, di tempi e di scenari siano una costante del disco: le atmosfere noir dipinte dal contrabbasso di Avishai Cohen si evolvono verso tonalità più calde attraverso la percussività del piano di Elchin Shirinov e della batteria di Noham David. Questa ...
Andrew Rathbun: Atwood Suites
by Angelo Leonardi
Sassofonista e orchestratore canadese, Andrew Rathbun ha 47 anni e una ricca carriera alle spalle, svolta negli Stati Uniti con studi al New England Conservatory sotto la guida di Ran Blake e dal 1997 professionalmente a New York in vari contesti. A partire dal debutto del 1999 con Scatter Some Stones, ha inciso alcuni dischi da ...
