Home » Search Center » Results: CD/LP/Track Review
Results for "CD/LP/Track Review"
Jonny Lang: Signs
by Doug Collette
The weathered voice recounting life's travails on the opening track of Signs, “Make It Move," is in marked contrast to the boyish countenance of Jonny Lang as pictured on the cover of the album. The distortion on his electric guitar, however, suits the chain-gang song likes of that number, even as it leads directly into the ...
Adam Larson: Second City
by Dan Bilawsky
When you hear “Second City" and think about improvisation, comedy comes to mind before jazz. But this music is no laughing matter. Saxophonist Adam Larson is one serious talent, as this, his fourth album to date, makes clear. While Larson has called New York home for the past decade, Second City was recorded ...
Girls in Airports: Live
by Roger Farbey
The fifth album by the Danish crossover band Girls In Airports was recorded during three live shows in Germany in April 2017. The audience applause (and cheering) is included at the conclusion of some tracks. The album opens with “Kantine" a slow-burner which inexorably builds tension and gravitas, releasing a crescendo of energy midway and ultimately ...
Windisch: Drama
by Matthew Aquiline
Drama is a fitting title for pianist/composer Julius Windisch's debut album for QFTF; the musical atmosphere is mercurial enough to parallel a theatrical odyssey through some unknown frontier. Armed with his eponymously named quintet, Windisch's compositions permeate with vigor, collectively exhibiting just one case of the raw talent found within the legion of young composers in ...
Roger Beaujolais: Sunset
by Mark Corroto
Maybe it should be a law that every vibraphonist is required to cover Bobby Hutcherson's “Little B's Poem." Okay, perhaps we don't need such a law, but as with pianists covering compositions by Thelonious Monk, a requirement like this would enable us to get the measure of the musician. Here Roger Beaujolais, on his 19th studio ...
Fred Hersch: Open Book
by Doug Collette
Slowly but surely, over the last five years, Fred Hersch has been encroaching upon Brad Mehldau's position as the premiere player on jazz piano. And while it's debatable the latter's openness to experimentation with the likes of electronicist/percussionist Mark Giuliana or nouveau bluegrass master Chris Thile renders him superior, it is the very purity of the ...
Christian McBride Big Band: Bringin' It
by Dan Bilawsky
Where and how does Christian McBride find the time to do what he does? His plate is full about nine times over, what with his work as bassist, composer, bandleader, educator, jazz advocate, public speaker, radio personality, DJ, and Artistic Director for the Newport Jazz Festival. It's no wonder that it took him six years to ...
Janet Staley: Whisper to the Wind
by Jim Olin
Janet Staley is an artist who immediately appeals to listeners for her great personality and for her personal approach to songwriting and performing. Her new release, Whisper to the Wind, is a vivid example of the hard work and passion that fuels her creative vision. The album features 11 stunning tracks that offer really ...
Chris Speed: Platinum on Tap
by Geannine Reid
Saxophonist Chris Speed releases an album in a chord-less trio format entitled, Platinum on Tap on Skirl Records, a label dedicated to Brooklyn based creative music, now with over thirty-one releases. Speed is known for skirting the boundaries between: jazz, rock, electronic, classical and improvised music and the music on this project is in alignment with ...
Aggregate Prime: Dream Deferred
by Vincenzo Roggero
Il quintetto Aggregate Prime si presenta come il classico gruppo post-bop ricco di energia, muscolare, dai ritmi quasi sempre sostenuti -che la chitarra di Mark Whitfield ingentilisce a tratti -, guidato da una vecchia volpe quale il batterista Ralph Peterson. Nel leggere la formazione balzano all'occhio i nomi di due musicisti anomali in tale contesto, quello ...
