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Jamie Reynolds: Grey Mirror
by Dan McClenaghan
New York-based pianist Jamie Reynolds set himself up with the challenge of conveying the realities of certain emotions musically. The result is Grey Mirror, a piano trio enhanced by the contributions of guitarist Matthew Stevens and The Westerlies, a two trumpet, two trombone quartet. Reynolds proves himself a fine conceptualist, with some tunes featuring ...
Nicole Mitchell: Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds
by Hrayr Attarian
Composer and flutist Nicole Mitchell has released her magnum opus with the provocative and stirring Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds. The single suite is a musical dramatization of the futuristic allegory that Mitchell wrote for the album. It is a short story set in the year 2099 and is about the symbolic struggle between the decaying ...
Andrew Butt Trio +: Blueberry Ash
by Barry O'Sullivan
Blueberry Ash is predominantly an album of original compositions by Australian based saxophonist Andrew Butt. Pleasingly, it contains one added gem--"Love Song From Apache" written by David Raskin and Johnny Mercer, a rarely recorded tune that was a favourite of the great Coleman Hawkins, whose rendition on his album Today and Now is a true masterpiece ...
Champian Fulton & Scott Hamilton: The Things We Did Last Summer
by Dan McClenaghan
Sometimes it's destiny. In the case of pianist/vocalist Champian Fulton: Her father, Stephen Fulton, is a jazz trumpeter who, early on, exposed his daughter to the sounds of classic jazz, to the exclusion of the then current popular sounds. Also, legendary trumpeter Clark Terry, Stephen's friend, hung around the Fulton house from Champian's earliest days, and ...
Bryant / Fabian / Marsalis: Do For You?
by Roger Farbey
Lance Bryant and Christian Fabian (both alumni of Berklee College) met when playing in the Lionel Hampton Big Band. Jason Marsalis, a younger member of the famous jazz dynasty, subsequently joined the Hampton band to replace its late leader on vibes. There are several strands to this intriguing recording. The blues is overtly featured in the ...
Lizz Wright: Grace
by James Nadal
In reaffirming the adage that you can go home again, Lizz Wright did just that. The songs on Grace reflect a homecoming to the singer's southern heritage--a personal rite of passage to glean inspiration and redefine her musical origins. She revisits her rural Georgia upbringing and Atlanta gospel roots, and finds comfort at her current home ...
Pieces of a Dream: Just Funkin' Around
by Jeff Winbush
It would be the easiest thing to say about the new Pieces of A Dream record, “If you already like Pieces of A Dream, you'll probably like this. If you don't, you won't." That would be real easy. It would also be real accurate. I road-tested Just Funkin' Around with a bunch of 20-somethings ...
Denny Zeitlin & George Marsh: Expedition
by Dan Bilawsky
While fear often paints the idea of spontaneous creation as a sea of uncertainty, openness tend to shape it as an ocean of possibility. The difference all comes down to how you look at it and the way you choose to operate. To exist in the latter mindset, and boldly travel to new and unknown realms ...
Windisch: Drama
by Geno Thackara
When asked for “one word to describe your album," Julius Windisch settles on drama--which is indeed accurate, if not necessarily in the most obvious way. The pianist's eponymous quintet has its own feel for excitement, but it's a subtle variety without any hint of pomp or bombast. (Another illustrative tidbit: for the followup question of “one ...
Pat LaBarbera Kirk MacDonald Quartet with Adam Nussbaum & Kieran Overs: Silent Voices
by Nicholas F. Mondello
The oxymoronic title of Silent Voices belies and simultaneously validates interesting things about this recording. Far from silent in its artistic message, it is an intelligent, evocative, and brilliantly communicative effort. Its “voices" dominate, ring loud, and are intensely passionate. Most stentorian, they emanate from deep within the respective creative wellsprings of these four superior performers. ...
