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Ben Wendel: The Seasons
by Friedrich Kunzmann
For many centuries composers have set to music the different seasons each new year has to offer (lately, some show the tendency of disappearing more and more. Seasons, not composers). Baroque composer Vivaldi's very straightforward division in four on “Le Quattro Stagioni" has to be one of the most prominent examples. Saxophonist and composer Ben Wendel ...
Judi Silvano & The Zephyr Band: Lessons Learned
by Jerome Wilson
Judi Silvano is a vocalist, singer and artist who has been around for some time, long enough to look back over her life and create this set of songs which reflect on her experiences and accumulated knowledge. Her music here contains elements of jazz, rock and other genres with a heavy reliance on guitars, both the ...
Tomasz Dabrowski Ad Hoc: Ninjazz
by Glenn Astarita
Award-winning Polish trumpeter/educator Tomasz Dąbrowski (Gilad Hekselman, Kurt Rosenwinkel, TOM TRIO) and current resident of Copenhagen, has an impressive résumé amid a penchant for exploring dissimilar jazz-based methods. Here, the artist and his Japanese cohorts build an opaque conduit between modern jazz and experimental tendencies via a democratic engagement, where each musician's voice is heard.
Alan Pasqua: Soliloquy
by Dan McClenaghan
Webster's Dictionary defines the word “soliloquy" as “the act of talking to oneself." In terms of solo piano recordings, it is an apt title. Pianist Alan Pasqua's Soliloquy is a sophisticated and reflective, alone-with-the piano work, a deliberative and lovely take on a batch well-chosen standards and one Bob Dylan tune. A versatile and ...
Niculin Janett Quartet: Complexes
by Geno Thackara
Despite the connotations of its title, the sound of Complexes doesn't suggest anything excessively technical (or mental issues either, for that matter). The Niculin Janett Quartet's second recording is a largely sedate affair that stays semi-formless and yet always easy to follow--a resolutely modern mix of familiar swing and challenging abstraction. Even while the drift mostly ...
Elliot Deutsch: Make Big Band Great Again
by Jack Bowers
Bandleader Elliot Deutsch has come up with a clever angle for his third CD, complete with obligatory red baseball cap and “Make Big Band Great Again" logo. Song titles are precocious too: “Fake News," “Repeal and Replace," “The Great Wall," sandwiched between “America the Beautiful" and an ambivalent ode to his Los Angeles home, “Pink Sunset ...
Charles Pillow Large Ensemble: Electric Miles
by Jerome Wilson
The electric music Miles Davis recorded from 1969 and into the 1970s was a game-changing event in jazz, a steamy, mysterious, ever-evolving soup of improvisation, rock, funk and electronics that launched numerous careers and inspired subsequent generations of musicians across genres. Its influence shows in the numbers of players who have since studied, dissected and interpreted ...
Daniel Carter - Matthew Putman - Patrick Holmes - Hilliard Greene - Federico Ughi: Telepatia Liquida
by Glenn Astarita
New York-based improvising stalwart Daniel Carter (reeds, trumpet) and other regional artists perform on this 37-minute improv fest, marked by alternating flows and shifting cadences. The album title translates into a 'telepathic understanding,' which of course, is always a positive component for free-spirited dialogues and fruitful artistic ingenuity. Classically trained pianist Matthew Putman is ...
David Caffey Jazz Orchestra: All In One
by Jack Bowers
Although it is alluded to only in Kabir Sehgal's informative liner notes, the first four numbers on composer / arranger David Caffey's new CD comprise the All in One Suite, a musical salute to the social, cultural and ethnic diversity that has forever been a hallmark of American society as well as to the frame of ...
Torben Westergaard: Heart Tunes
by Geno Thackara
Though Denmark may serve as a home base, Torben Westergaard's musical home can be anywhere new songs and ideas take him. The bassist was figuratively reaching halfway around the world as far back as Brazilian Heart (Self Produced, 1996). Argentina became an unexpectedly prominent touchstone, as the exploratory Tangofied (Point of Departure, 2013) grew into a ...
