Home » Search Center » Results: Ben Monder
Results for "Ben Monder"
Donny McCaslin Group / Ensemble LPR: Symphonic Bowie at Central Park SummerStage
by Kurt Gottschalk
Donny McCaslin Group / Ensemble LPRCentral Park SummerStage Symphonic Bowie New York, NY June 9, 2018 New York City can't stop saying goodbye to David Bowie. And with good reason. The rock legend lived in Manhattan for more than 20 years and often spoke fondly of his adopted city. On ...
Kristjan Randalu: Absence
by Mike Jurkovic
With a gathering, rubato flurry, Estonian pianist Kristjan Randalu, a Chick Corea-inspired student of the late, virtuosic and highly lyrical British pianist John Taylor and his mischievous compatriot Django Bates, begins “Forecast" in whirling descent, before the quiet storm of guitarist Ben Monder and drummer Marku Ounaskari take the weather out to sea, where Randalu threatens ...
David Ake: Humanities
by David A. Orthmann
The group that pianist/composer David Ake assembles for Humanities thrives on change and doesn't care all that much for boundaries, familiar stylistic references, or decorum. Distinctions between written material and improvisation, soloists and accompaniment, are subject to transformation, collapse, consolidation and mutation. Nothing stays on exactly the same course for very long. Featuring Ake, Ralph Alessi's ...
Dan Weiss: Starebaby
by Mark Corroto
It is always interesting when a musician's newest release zigzags away from previous works, making an abrupt change of course. Often it happens at the request of a producer or record company, and probably because his/her previous disc was not well received. This in no way explains Starebaby by drummer Dan Weiss. Sixteen: Drummers Suite (Pi ...
David Ake: Humanities
by Dan Bilawsky
Pianist David Ake is a tough man to pin down. With Bridges (Posi-Tone, 2013) he took on the form of label outlier and pathfinder, breaking away from Posi-Tone's radio-friendly album format with a series of outward bound excursions; on Lake Effect (Posi-Tone, 2015) he offered a cooler alternative that proved ruminative in many of its pursuits; ...
John Kelman's Best Releases of 2017
by John Kelman
For those who may have noticed, there have been no best of lists coming from yours truly since 2014; sadly, the chronic health problem that has reduced my previous writing pace to a crawl continues without much respite. My best of the year lists have always been predicated upon having reviewed the releases chosen, and with ...
Mikkel Ploug: Alleviation
by Dan Bilawsky
Alleviation is a fascinatingly winsome document showcasing what occurs when tool serves as muse. While out and about in New York in 2016, Danish guitarist Mikkel Ploug happened upon a musical curio--a mahogany-top Gibson Banner LG-2. The instrument, essentially a wartime relic made by the (mostly) female work force in Gibson's Kalamazoo plant in the early ...
Brian Charette: Kurrent
by Friedrich Kunzmann
The density of new releases and their voluminous level of innovation and experimentation in the current New York jazz scene is somewhat remarkable. The usage of Synthesizers, programming and bending up to completely dissolving compositional structure, as ever so often exemplified by Mary Halvorson, are experiments more and more frequently encountered every day. Leading ...
Berlin Jazzfest 2017
by Henning Bolte
Haus der Berliner Festspiele Jazzfest Berlin Berlin November 4-5, 2017 This year it was the last edition of Berlin Jazzfest under the aegis of British artistic director Richard Williams. With its “In All Languages" adage running through the six-day program as red thread, the festival still had promising ...
Kurrent Duo at The Bop Stop
by C. Andrew Hovan
Kurrent Duo with Brian Charette and Jordan Young The Bop Stop Cleveland, Ohio October 26, 2017 Taking the tried and true organ trio format and turning it on its side, Brian Charette's latest self-produced release is a mind-bending mélange of colors that is certainly one of the best recordings of ...
