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Way North: Fearless And Kind
by Dan McClenaghan
This roots jazz band is called Way North, presumably for their home base in Toronto. But a spin of their second recording, Fearless and Kind, says they could have tagged the quartet Way South, especially considering the opening tune, “Boll Weevil," and the two-part “Jelly Roll Morton Medley." Their music has a sort of Ornette Coleman ...
The DIVA Jazz Orchestra: 25th Anniversary Project
by Jack Bowers
To mark the DIVA Jazz Orchestra's twenty-fifth year as one of the world's leading jazz ensembles--male or female--drummer / music director Sherrie Maricle gave herself and eight members of the all-woman orchestra a homework assignment: to compose and arrange each of the ten numbers on the group's eleventh CD, the bright and exhilarating 25th Anniversary Project. ...
MMO-Ensemble: Any Day Now
by Mark Sullivan
MMO-Ensemble is the realization of Norwegian saxophonist/composer Martin Myhre Olsen's vision of a new 21st Century large improvising ensemble. The twelve-piece group (the largest version of the ensemble to date) includes horns, strings, a vocalist, and of course a rhythm section. The Ensemble's third project, Any Day Now is based upon texts by James Baldwin, Emily ...
Sam Leak and Dan Tepfer: Adrift
by Roger Farbey
Adrift is an unusual recording featuring two pianos in an original work by Sam Leak. It's hard to neatly categorise since it presumably draws its influences from a variety of sources. It could be described as neo-classical, minimalist or chamber jazz but is most probably a mixture of all these elements since it assiduously resists any ...
Hot Heros: Folkjazz from Finland
by Anthony Shaw
From the tarnished keys of his favorite old tenor sax, through the scaberous tones of the same instrument to the tangle of his extensive rusty beard, Sami Sippola epitomizes the essence of a free jazz artist. So needless to say the most recent of the releases featuring this well established Finnish musician is another tour de ...
Enzo Pietropaoli, Julian Mazzariello, Alessandro Paternesi: The Princess
by Neri Pollastri
Piano trio tradizionale, impegnato su “standard del pop" riletti con meditata attenzione, sempre su tempi lenti e con partecipazione emotiva: si può riassumere così questo The Princess, del contrabbassista Enzo Pietropaoli, che vede al pianoforte Julian Mazzariello e alla batteria Alessandro Paternesi. Il programma si apre con un brano di John Lennon e prosegue ...
Cory Smythe: Circulate Susanna
by Karl Ackermann
Cory Smythe tells stories. About stories. Specifically, a father's tales in the rural heartland of America; ingredients that a listener might assume had shaped Smythe's imagination in ways that go far beyond music. But like the Stephen Foster discs spinning on the gramophone as a tornado approaches, Smythe's nostalgic and inspirational world is liner-note fantasy. Nevertheless, ...
Wayne Wesley Johnson & Friends: Jazzamenco
by Jack Bowers
The well-traveled and now New Mexico-based guitarist Wayne Wesley Johnson pulls out all the stops on the generally engaging double-CD set Jazzamenco, using (at various times) no less than seven guest guitarists, saxophone, Latin percussion, pan flute, charango and Chinese pipa to amplify the rhythm section of keyboards, bass and drums (which is present and accounted ...
Francois Houle - Alexander Hawkins - Harris Eisenstadt: You Have Options
by Glenn Astarita
The late co-founder of the Vancouver Jazz Festival, Ken Pickering, recommended British pianist Alexander Hawkins to consummate this trio featuring Canadians: drummer Harris Eisenstadt (drums) and clarinetist Francois Houle. And, based on the output of this exquisite studio set, it was a sound decision to align with the pianist, who for several years has performed with ...
Alan Hall: Heroes, Saints and Clowns
by Chris M. Slawecki
Ratatet, the sextet led by drummer Alan Hall, doesn't seem to quite fit into a musical box of any style or shape. One of the San Francisco Bay area's most respected musical performers and educators, Hall assembled this uniquely constructed ensemble from fragments of previous engagements: He previously played in a trio called Electreo with Paul ...
