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Houston Person: I'm Just a Lucky So and So
by Jack Bowers
Perhaps tenor saxophonist Houston Person is indeed A Lucky So and So, as he professes on his newly recorded album of that name, but it has taken far more than luck to sustain a long and successful career that spans more than half a century and numbers more than sixty albums as leader of his own ...
Jose Dias & Awareness: Live at SMUP
by Don Phipps
On Live at SMUP, guitarist and composer Jose Dias and his Awareness Quartet have produced a stunning musical landscape centered on Dias' interpretation of literary characters, books and writers. Recorded in 2017 at SMUP, a music venue located in Parede, Portugal, Dias, Francisco Andrade on tenor sax, Goncalo Prazeres on alto and baritone sax and Rui ...
Mark Wingfield & Gary Husband: Tor & Vale
by Glenn Astarita
Before receiving widespread exposure as the keyboardist with John McLaughlin's The 4th Dimension band, Gary Husband's notoriety was firmly centered on his polyrhythmic progressive rock and jazz drumming, rising through the ranks by accompanying prodigious guitarists Allan Holdsworth and Robin Trower, amid stints with Level 42, UK and other notables. Moreover, idiosyncratic guitarist Mark Wingfield's notoriety ...
Stratus Luna: Stratus Luna
by Glenn Astarita
These hip young Brazilian cats impart an encyclopedic comprehension of core progressive rock fundamentals, executed with a modern uplift. Hence, there are many tasty treats on this album. Yet the band doesn't predominately focus on extended solos, and concentrates more on compositional acumen, where solos become meaningful amid aural portraitures that adhere to, or in some ...
Chris Madsen: Bonfire
by Peter J. Hoetjes
The winds of change have been blowing over the record business for over two decades, altering the ways in which consumers listen to music. With the rise of internet-based services such as Spotify and YouTube, the prospect of an expensive trip to the recording studio has soured for many jazz musicians. Despite the fact that the ...
Atle Nymo: Solo for Trio
by Friedrich Kunzmann
While the reduction of instrumentation is a typical occurrence in the world of music--most commonly practiced for piano--the opposite is rarer. Norwegian woodwind virtuoso Atle Nymo seems to have this concept in mind on Solo for Trio--his debut album as a leader. Supported by ECM-associated Mats Eilertsen on bass and talented Slovakian drummer/percussionist Michaela Antalová, Nymo ...
Maciej Obara Quartet: Three Crowns
by Mark Sullivan
For its sophomore ECM release this Polish/Norwegian quartet titled the album after the Trzy Korony summit of the Pieniny mountain range in the south of Poland. While it may be premature to describe the album as a peak or summit, it is a substantial artistic statement. There have been prior jazz interpretations of works by Polish ...
Sean Khan: Distant Voice
by Chris May
Sean Khan is among the most interesting of British jazz musicians, a prime exponent of jazz as rebel music with a unique voice. And yet, twenty years after he debuted with his band SK Radicals, Khan remains one of the scene's least celebrated players. Khan accurately describes himself as a “career outsider." Like another outsider, fellow ...
Francesco Guerri: Su Mimmi Non Si Spara!
by Dan Bilawsky
The work of Italian cellist Francesco Guerri is wholly inclusive. It presents with both gravitas and playfulness, a classically-influenced standing and free- mindedness, and a general sense of wonder connected to the sculpting of sound. A solo recital set apart by an embrace of extended techniques, artful preparations and personalized tunings, Su Mimmi Non Si Spara! ...
Minton - Butcher - Robair: Blasphemious Fragments
by John Eyles
Studio-recorded in London in July 2017, Blasphemious Fragments brings together an appealing improvising trio comprising vocalist Phil Minton, saxophonist John Butcher and percussionist Gino Robair. For Butcher, the trio reacquaints him with players he has known for decades; he and Minton recorded Two Concerts (FMP) together as far back as 1995, in a trio with German ...
