Results for "Braithwaite & Katz Communications"

Wadada Leo Smith: 80 Years Strong

by Doug Collette
December 12, 2021

The celebration of trumpeter/composer Wadada Leo Smith's 80th birthday milestone year culminates with yet another four-CD box set plus a proportionately sumptuous single-disc package. Both sets include extensively-annotated booklets with background on the graphics of the package as well as the music itself, with a thorough attention to detail reflective of the Mississippi native's boundless drive ...

Gordon Grdina: Prolific Independent

by Doug Collette
December 12, 2021

The more Gordon Grdina works, the more clearly he follows his own course(s) of action. Following in fairly short order the releases of the Nomad Trio (Skirl Records, 2020) and a septet effort, Resist (Irabbagast Records, 2020), the guitarist/oud master initiates his own label imprint, Attaboygirl Records, with two simultaneous releases (and another to come in ...

Satoko Fujii: Aural Abstracts

by Doug Collette
December 10, 2021

Pianist/composer Satoko Fujii had already released one of the year's most notable albums Piano Music (Libra Records, 2021) by the time Underground and Mosaic came out. And yet these two titles, conceived and executed in markedly different ways, reaffirm the woman's ingenuity as much as her prolific nature (along with close to another handful of records ...

Sara Schoenbeck: Sara Schoenbeck

by Karl Ackermann
December 9, 2021

Sara Schoenbeck is cast against type in the world of bassoonists. The versatile double reed, broad-ranged instrument dates to the Renaissance and is commonly found in wind ensembles and chamber orchestras. But Schoenbeck has brought her classical-leaning instrument to creative music in an electrifying body of work. Her self-titled leader debut is the first such project ...

Happy Holidays from the Jeff Hamilton trio

by David Bixler
December 8, 2021

Josh Sinton: b.

by Troy Dostert
December 7, 2021

Baritone saxophonist and bass clarinetist Josh Sinton has a long resume going back to the 1990s, when he worked extensively in the Chicago scene with veterans including Fred Anderson and Ken Vandermark. Then a move to the East Coast, in the early 2000s, brought him into contact with mentors such as Ran Blake and Steve Lacy; ...

Martin Wind Quartet: My Astorian Queen

by Pierre Giroux
December 5, 2021

Bassist Martin Wind is a German national who received his early education and began his career in that country. He arrived in the US in the mid 90s to further his musical education, and studied with the likes of Jim McNeely, Mike Holober and Kenny Werner among others. He eventually began to receive broader recognition through ...

The Persistence of Big Bands

by Geno Thackara
December 4, 2021

It's faintly amazing to be able to talk at all about big-band recordings--plural--emerging during an ongoing pandemic with no end in sight. Nonetheless it's a milieu that still enjoys plenty of devotion, and musicians (especially jazz players) are no strangers to realizing ideas that seem practically impossible. Here we have scores of them willing to keep ...

Dan McClenaghan's Best Jazz Recordings of 2021

by Dan McClenaghan
December 3, 2021

The top jazz recordings of 2021, in the order in which they were encountered... Aki Takase / Christian Weber / Michael Griener Auge Intakt Records The ever mercurial Japanese-born, Berlin-based pianist Aki Takase presents her take on the piano trio. Teaming with bassist Christian Weber and drummer Michael Griener, she ...

Gordon Grdina: Pendulum

by Karl Ackermann
December 2, 2021

The Vancouver, BC, oud player & guitarist Gordon Grdina has become a prolific presence in jazz and world music. The Juno award winner led Gordon Grdina's Nomad Trio (Skirl Records, 2020) with Matt Mitchell and Jim Black. The previous year, he took part in the trio of Matthew Shipp and Mark Helias on Skin and Bones ...