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Alan Skidmore: After The Rain
by Duncan Heining
In 1998, with After The Rain British saxophonist Alan Skidmore got to achieve a lifetime ambition to record this beautiful 'jazz with strings' album. Out of print for some time, its reissue is well overdue. It was once a cliché in the jazz world amongst critics that records such as this represented a descent into the ...
The Sextones: Moonlight Vision
by Chris M. Slawecki
Led by songwriter, singer and guitarist Mark Sexton, The Sextones retreated to the relative isolation of Prairie Sun Studios in Sonoma (one of Tom Waits' favorite recording locations) to lay down their full-length debut. “One of the intentions of Moonlight Vision's production was to have a sonically classic sounding album--sounds that are reminiscent of music we ...
Mark Guiliana Jazz Quartet: Jersey
by Vic Albani
Ho conosciuto Mark Guiliana una decina di anni fa in un ristorante di Parigi al tempo di una delle sue prime tante collaborazioni con Dhafer Youssef e (in quel caso) con Tigran Hamasyan. A parte l'ininfluente curiosità ovviamente “italiana" di quello strano cognome che sembrava frutto di un classico errore di trascrizione dell'ufficio anagrafe di Floram ...
Hakos Trios: Hakos Trios
by Karl Ackermann
The self-titled debut from the Spain-based Hakos Trios is a cross-continental outing from diverse European and Asian influences. Working with straight-forward pentatonic scales as well as Baltic and Eastern inspirations, the resulting pieces take shape as unfamiliar but accessible. Billed as a double-trio, the Bulgarian, Serbian and Spanish musicians maintain a fixed rhythm section and trade ...
Jane Ira Bloom: Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson
by Roger Farbey
Jane Ira Bloom, winner of the 65th Annual Downbeat Critics Poll Winners (2017) award in the soprano saxophone category, took as her inspiration for this recording, the writings of nineteenth century America poet Emily Dickinson. Such was her admiration for the poet that she composed the music for this double CD as a lyrical paean, made ...
Neil Ardley & the New Jazz Orchestra: On The Radio: BBC Sessions 1971
by Duncan Heining
Neil Ardley was a truly remarkable individual. As well as his work in jazz as a composer/band-leader/arranger, Neil was a scientific author with 101 books to his name, which sold over 10 million copies. I spoke to him once but, sadly, Ardley had died by the time I commenced work on my book on British jazz, ...
The Three Sounds: Groovin' Hard: Live at the Penthouse 1964-1968
by Chris M. Slawecki
In the five years spanning 1958 to '62, not only a time of great consolidation and experimentation in jazz but a glorious age for the label, who would you guess was Blue Note Records' best-selling act? Thanks to their nine albums and nearly two dozen more jukebox singles, it was The Three Sounds. Led ...
Matt Wilson: Honey And Salt
by Jerome Wilson
Drummer Matt Wilson has some personal connections to the great Midwestern poet Carl Sandburg in that they were both born in Knox County, Illinois and they are distantly related by marriage. Wilson has long been fascinated by Sandburg's writing and has done musical settings of his work for a long time but with Honey And Salt ...
Steven Wilson: To the Bone
by John Kelman
From the moment that he decided to “go solo"--despite his previous flagship group, Porcupine Tree, beginning in the late '80s as a solo project that only evolved into a group when it became popular enough to necessitate putting together a band in order to perform live--Steven Wilson has, in many ways, defied categorization and expectation, while ...
Joe Smith & The Spicy Pickles: Gin & Moonlight
by James Nadal
Long before jazz became a spectator event, it was dance music. The big bands that played swing made their reputations on being able to flood the floor with dancers. Joe Smith & The Spicy Pickles are on a mission to bring back those days, and Gin & Moonlight has them on the right track. Formed in ...
