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Anthony Braxton: Quartet (New Haven) 2014
by Don Phipps
The shifting moods of Anthony Braxton's Quartet (New Haven) 2014 probably have to do with the song dedications. Each number reflects a famous and important popular musician and composer—-Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, James Brown and Merle Haggard. These four musicians would most certainly provide a strange but intoxicating mix if played at a party. Yet Hendrix's ...
Chet Baker: Chet
by Karl Ackermann
In the early 1950s, the rural Oklahoman Chet Baker established prominent connections in the jazz world; gigs with Charlie Parker and Stan Getz led to his first recordings. The trappings of both musicians' circles were dusted with heroin and Baker's career breaks coincided with his introduction to the disease that would stifle his musical development and ...
Bobby Bradford / Frode Gjerstad / Kent Carter / John Stevens: Blue Cat
by John Sharpe
Following on from Day Two (2019), the Lithuanian NoBusiness imprint issues another archive tape by Detail, the collective founded by Norwegian reedman Frode Gjerstad and English drummer John Stevens. By 1991 when this live set was captured, original bassist Johnny Dyani had died and had been replaced by expatriate American Kent Carter. Also on the album ...
Amanda Addleman: Into the Light
by Jerome Wilson
There are a lot of young singers around whose music draws equally from the fluidity of jazz and the confessional focus of the singer-songwriter genre. San Francisco's Amanda Addleman is one of those. This CD mixes personal original songs with standards and she delivers both with a deceptively light but powerful voice and understated passion.
Benny Benack III: A Lot Of Livin' To Do
by Dan Bilawsky
Benny Benack III does it all. A trumpeter, vocalist, writer and arranger with a swaggering soul and the chops to back up the panache, he's clearly done his fair share of living already. He may be young—only at the tail end of his twenties, believe it or not—but he seriously has his act together in every ...
Robin Phillips: Re-Versed
by Bruce Lindsay
How long does it take to write the lyrics? Some of the greatest and best-loved American Songbook lyrics might have been rattled out in a couple of hours or less, others might have taken months or years of refinement before their creators decided they were worthy of performance. They may be intended to tell a story, ...
Burak Bedikyan: Istanbul Junction
by Hrayr Attarian
Istanbul-born and New York-based pianist Burak Bedikyan is an inventive composer and intelligent improviser with a subtle touch. His fifth release, the intimate and cinematic Istanbul Junction, showcases his talents fully as he leads a new band through nine of his captivating originals. The album's overall ambience is dramatic and darkly-hued, and the various ...
Elliot Galvin: Live In Paris At Fondation Louis Vuitton
by Chris May
An inventive and adventurous keyboard player and composer, Elliot Galvin is active in Britain's jazz and contemporary-classical worlds. He is making a strong impression on the former. Galvin is a member of the Mercury Music Prize-nominated band Dinosaur, whose Wonder Trail (Edition) was among the highlights of 2018. His duo album Ex Nihilo (ByrdOut), made with ...
Svetlana: Night at the Movies
by C. Michael Bailey
Russian-American singer-composer Svetlana (she has a last name, Schmulyian, but prefers the monomoniker) is onto something. Her debut recording, Night at the Speakeasy (OA2 Records, 2016) with her self-appointed Delancey Five, was a structured affair which concentrated on the music of the “Jazz Age" (save for the Beach Boys' “God Only Knows") performed in a Jazz ...
Bill Mays and Friends: Mays Plays Mays
by Jack Bowers
Apart from whatever else it may entail, Mays Plays Mays surpasses most other recent enterprises thanks in large measure to pianist Bill Mays' singular artistry as composer, arranger and keyboard master. Now well into his seventh decade, Mays, who has made his living playing mostly other people's music, has devoted this album (for the most part) ...
