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Louise Cappi: Mélange
by C. Michael Bailey
Vocalist Louise Cappi's recording Mélange is a musical collection of short stories, each cast as uniquely and differently as if they were written by a Mario Vargas Llosa or Gabriel García Márquez. Each selection is carefully curated, right down to the production, to achieve a given end. The title is apt as each of these songs ...
Anthony Coleman: Catenary Oath
by John Sharpe
Catenary Oath presents a 2018 solo recital by pianist and composer Anthony Coleman, recorded at Jordan Hall in the New England Conservatory in Boston where he also teaches. The album, available as a limited edition LP or digitally, contains a mix of originals and standards all given deeply personalized interpretations by the pianist. Coleman's profile has ...
Yuri Honing Acoustic Quartet: Bluebeard
by Ian Patterson
Since the late 1980s, Dutch saxophonist Yuri Honing has steered a singularly eclectic course, bouncing between straight-ahead jazz, the two-guitar Wired Paradise, rock-cum-electronica, and Franz Schubert. This questing musician has never sat still for long. The mesmeric True (Challenge Records, 2012), however, marked the beginning of a more stripped down, meditative acoustic jazz, an aesthetic further ...
Steve Fidyk: Battle Lines
by David A. Orthmann
Battle Lines, the inaugural release of Steve Fidyk's Blue Canteen Music label, bears the stamp of a rhythm section capable of adroitly assuming multiple identities. During large portions of three amiable, bop-oriented tracks, “Bebop Operations," “#Social Loafing" and “Sir John," Fidyk's drums, bassist Michael Karn and pianist Peter Zak move the music along without any fuss ...
Anansi Trio: Calling
by Jerome Wilson
The Washington, DC based Anansi Trio create a lot of varying sounds with a deceptively simple lineup of reeds, bass and percussion. Their first album, On The Path (Anansi Trio, 2018), established their approach of mixing jazz and world rhythms based around the intricate sound of Mark Merella's combination trap drum and conga setup. This second ...
London Jazz Composers Orchestra: That Time
by John Sharpe
Issued to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, That Time uncovers a fascinating window on the early years of the pioneering company which are only sparsely documented elsewhere. The first two tracks from Berlin and Donaueschingen date from 1972, some six months after the LJCO's debut album Ode (Intakt, ...
Ecliptic: The Path of 01
by Mark Sullivan
Slovenian jazz guitarist Jani Moder composed all of the music for this project, but it is arranged by the band, and is very much a group sound. Only trumpeter Igor Matković appeared on Moder's previous release Jani Moder's Brain Blender: Abacus (ZKP RTV SLO, 2014), but his role here has expanded from guest to a significant ...
Jason Stein: Silver Dollar
by Patrick Burnette
The record label's name--NoBusiness Records--should be warning enough. Silver Dollar is not an album trying to make friends. Contents are under pressure and probably dangerous. The group releasing said record, Threadbare, is a sonic-terrorist cell comprised of Jason Stein on bass clarinet, Ben Cruz on electric guitar and Emerson Hunton on drums. Once past the trappings ...
Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra: Four Questions
by Jack Bowers
The Four Questions addressed by composer / pianist Arturo O'Farrill's Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra on its latest album were first posed in 1903 by W.E.B. DuBois in his book The Souls of Black Folk and are answered herein by the esteemed educator / historian / social activist Dr. Cornel West. For the record, the questions are ...
Lajos Dudas: The Lake and the Music
by C. Michael Bailey
At 80-years old, clarinetist Lajos Dudas is dropping off the keys to the recording studio while making his way out—Dudas claims this is his last recording and, if true, he ends things on a high note at the intersection of The Great American Songbook and free jazz. Dudas' previous recording, Return to the Future (Jazzsick Records, ...
