Results for "Braithwaite & Katz Communications"
John Yao: Off-Kilter

by Mark Corroto
In all great ensemble recordings one pays no attention to the compositions and arrangements. The music just seems to dance without inhibitions and flow over the ears. Correction: excellent ensemble performances compel one to recognize and appreciate the compositions and arrangements. With composer, arranger, trombonist John Yao both statements are true and both are in opposition ...
Frank Kimbrough: Frank Kimbrough 2003 - 2006

by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Frank Kimbrough (1956 -2020) was involved in a good deal of collaboration throughout his career, with the Herbie Nichols Project and, most notably, his twenty-four year, seven CD stint in the piano chair of the Maria Schneider Orchestra, where he elevated an already high altitude music to an even loftier level. Such was Kimbrough's willingness ...
Gordon Grdina/Mark Helias/Matthew Shipp: Pathways

by Dan McClenaghan
Gordon Grdina, guitarist and oud player, has cranked things up into high gear in terms of CD release productivity. This is a good thing. When artists regularly release albums--two to four or five or six a year, which was common during Blue Note Records' heyday in the late 1950s and early 60s--their artistry evolves more quickly. ...
Wadada Leo Smith: String Quartets Nos. 1-12

by Mark Corroto
Wadada Leo Smith's seven CD boxset String Quartets Nos. 1-12 summons two words, epic and ineffable. The 5½ hours of music chronicle three of his four periods writing for string quartets from 1965 until 2019. The remaining work, String Quartets Nos. 13, 14, and 15" inspired by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the US ...
The Montreal Jazz Festival Is Back In Full Swing

by Leo Sidran
After a two-year slowdown due to COVID, the Montreal International Jazz Festival came back this year. I had been there a couple times, in and out, as a musician. I went this year to cover the festival's full return for The Third Story. When you're a musician at a festival like MJF, the job ...
Festival International de Jazz de Montréal 2022

by Mark Sullivan
Various Venues Festival International de Jazz de Montréal Montréal, Canada June 30-July 4, 2022 Like everything else, the Covid-19 pandemic stopped the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal in its tracks. Forced to cancel the 2020 festival, they instead presented a four-day virtual festival online on June 27-30. Another abbreviated ...
Wadada Leo Smith: The Emerald Duets

by Karl Ackermann
The pioneering British photographer/author Val Wilmer said of Wadada Leo Smith, he no longer relates to the restrictions of scales and chords. To him, music is about two things only: sound and rhythm." Her assessment, from the essential book As Serious As Your Life (Allison & Busby Ltd, 1977), was published in 1977. But in the ...
Wadada Leo Smith: Inspiration Incarnate

by Doug Collette
Wadada Leo Smith's The String Quartets Nos. 1-12 and The Emerald Duets are right in line with his well-established, iconoclastic means of creativity. Material composed and arranged with consummate care and attention to detail is also fodder for improvisation replete with a dignified abandon. And much like the trumpeter/composer/bandleader himself, Tum Records bestows a supreme reverence ...
Wadada Leo Smith: The Emerald Duets

by Dan McClenaghan
Wadada Leo Smith's music is often celestial, but the man himself is of this Earthof America, in particular, the progeny of people brought to the Western Hemisphere involuntarily. People who have historically been treated as less than human, for the sin" of having dark skin. This goes on. The true sin, the flames of racism, are ...
Abraham Burton-Swingin' with Gratitude in Central Park

by David Bixler
Season five begins with saxophonist Abraham Burton. During the pandemic, photographer and engineer Jimmy Katz produced an informal concert series at the sight of the historically significant Seneca Village in Central Park. One of the concerts that Katz recorded was a trio performance featuring Burton, drummer Eric McPherson, and bassist Dezron Douglas. This energetic performance is ...