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Sara Serpa / Ran Blake: Aurora
by Hrayr Attarian
Aurora is vocalist Sara Serpa's second release with her mentor, pianist Ran Blake. A duet recital recorded live at Lisbon's Auditório da Culturges, despite being more laidback and slightly less adventurous, it is just as creative as the pair's engrossing Camera Obscura (Inner Circle, 2010). Serpa and Blake's sparse and atmospheric delivery of ...
Food: Mercurial Balm
by John Kelman
While Anglo/Norwegian musical encounters have recently been on the rise--Norway's In the Country and Jaga Jazzist, for example, recently discovering respective nexus points with British pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole and the Britten Sinfonia--it's of no small significance that Food has been exploring trans-national connective threads for a considerably longer time, with its eponymous 1999 recorded ...
Naked Truth: Ouroboros
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
With apologies to the late guitarist Pete Cosey (who led a band by the name), the members of Naked Truth are bona fide children of Agharta." That is, the group--led by bassist-guitarist Lorenzo Feliciati--has absorbed and adapted the lessons of trumpeter Miles Davis's exhausting, tectonic live recording Agharta (Columbia, 1975) so well that Davis' disc can ...
Phantom Orchard Orchestra: Trouble In Paradise
by Eyal Hareuveni
Phantom Orchard began as an experimental duo comprised of two innovative figures from the experimental New York downtown scene: Ikue Mori, who exchanged the drummer position in the No Wave band DNA for a unique exploration of electronic sounds; and Zeena Parkins, who has expanded the vocabulary of the harp in acoustic and electric contexts. The ...
KyungGu Lee: New Song
by Dan Bilawsky
Jazz is all about artistic growth and an individual's willingness to move outside of his/her comfort zone to make it happen. Tenor saxophonist KyungGu Lee has firsthand knowledge of this fact; the Korean-born Lee had settled into a comfortable musical life in his native land, playing the clubs, teaching, and working the theater and television sides ...
Alberto Mizrahi: Matzah to Menorah: A Holiday Jazz Celebration
by Hrayr Attarian
There is a well-established legacy of fusing the sacred with the secular in jazz. Pianist Duke Ellington's Concert of Sacred Music (RCA, 1966) is, perhaps, the most ceremonial example of this but there is a myriad of other recordings. Guitarist Grant Green's gospel-inspired Feelin' the Spirit (Blue Note, 1962), pianist/harpist Alice Coltrane's exploration of Hinduism and ...
Dennis Haklar: Lizard's Tale
by Glenn Astarita
There's always been an implicit connection between progressive rock and jazz fusion. Years of Internet-based collaborations with fabled prog-rock vocalist Jon Anderson (Yes) led to his appearance on several tracks for New Jersey-based studio engineer and session guitarist Dennis Haklar's debut solo effort. The guitarist also employs former instructor, jazz guitar legend Larry Coryell, along with ...
Manami Morita: When Skies Are Grey
by Ian Patterson
Japanese pianist Manami Morita has made a name for herself in Boston since arriving in 2006 to study at Berklee College of Music. Whether solo, in guitarist Colin Cannon's quartet or leading her own trio, Morita's impressive technique harnesses energy and finesse in equal measure, qualities to the fore on her fourth release as leader. Morita ...
Coreto: Aljamia
by Dan Bilawsky
The full power of Coreto's music is felt in the combinatorial possibilities that exist with eleven individualists pulling their weight. This particular project is the first of what promises to be many from the Porto-Jazz Association, a collective of strong, modern jazz personalities based in Oporto, Portugal. Though still at an early stage as a cooperative ...
Suzzette Ortiz: Renacer
by Steve Bryant
There are a lot of jazz players out there who for gotten tired of waiting for some label to record them and take decided to do it themselves. Philadelphia's Suzzette Ortiz, who has been laboring in the trenches for the past two decades, took it upon herself to record her own music. The Puerto Rican-born pianist ...

