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Alexander von Schlippenbach / Globe Unity Orchestra: Globe Unity - 50 Years
by John Sharpe
The internet. Mobile phones. Social media. The Fall of the Berlin Wall. A lot's happened over the last 50 years. When pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach first assembled the Globe Unity Orchestra in the autumn of 1966, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk still walked the earth. The GUO was one of the first expressions of ...
Solon McDade: Murals
by Glenn Astarita
This is the debut release by ace Canadian bassist and Juno Award winner, Solon McDade. And it's a welcome surprise, to say the least. Think of classic small ensemble Prestige or Blue Note recordings with a modern uplift and state-of-the-art recording processes to conjure a good idea of the quintet's deportment and stylization. McDade is an ...
Particle: Accelerator
by Doug Collette
Contrary to prevailing popular opinion, electr(on)ic keyboards are not just for noodling in ever-so-cheesy, toy-like tones. In the hands of the titular leader of Particle, keyboardist/vocalist Steve Molitz, for instance, those instruments are lethal weapons with which, on the group's first album in fourteen years, he sets out to destroy preconceptions about what righteous creations can ...
Aaron Parks: Little Big
by Friedrich Kunzmann
After an absence from activity as a leader, pianist and composer, Aaron Parks reemerged in 2017 with a new trio formation, releasing the highly acclaimed Find The Way (ECM), which carried on the unique harmonic language found four years prior, on the solo Arborescence (ECM, 2013). Today's Little Big, however, comes much more in the vein ...
Doyle Bramhall II: Shades
by Doug Collette
The title of Doyle Bramhall II's Shades intimates a fitting level of nuance comparable to that of his previous album, Rich Man (Concord, 2016), where he married the most profound spiritual themes of his original material to lush production and arrangement. Here, in contrast, he emphasizes his blues and R&B roots so that, as a direct ...
Various Artists: Putumayo Presents: Ska Around the World
by Jim Trageser
For casual fans and newcomers to the music of Jamaica (a growing number, given the popularity of the BBC / France 2 TV mystery series Death in Paradise and its Jamaican-infused soundtrack), the definitions of ska vs. reggae are likely too obscure to worry about. Much as only hardcore jazz fans worry about drilling into the ...
Aguankó: Pattern Recognition
by Mark Sullivan
If the music of Aguankó is any indication, Latin jazz is in good shape in Southeastern Michigan. Conguero/composer Alberto Nacif leads a crack band, most of them from the metro Detroit area. Their previous album, Latin Jazz Christmas in Havana (Self Produced, 2015), presented creative arrangements of a variety of holiday standards, a delightful standout in ...
Lars Jansson: Just This
by Chris Mosey
Swedish pianist/composer Lars Jansson is a Zen Buddhist, concerned primarily with being in the moment. There can be difficulties--"To experience and accept all that happens in our lives is no easy matter," says Jansson. “It takes practice and an open mind (beginner's mind) to ignore expectations and preconceived attitudes and completely immerse oneself in the present ...
Schnell: Live at Sowieso
by Glenn Astarita
This international trio spares no effort with its plight to create hyper-mode bebop like gamma rays streaming through the universe at light speed. It's a rather amazing live set, that was probably meant to be performed in front of an audience and not in a cloistered studio setting. To say it's invigorating doesn't tell the whole ...
Moses Boyd: Displaced Diaspora
by Chris May
The pre-release anticipation surrounding drummer and producer Moses Boyd's Displaced Diaspora was a sure sign that the cultural revolution that has reset London's jazz world over the last three years has bedded itself firmly into the architecture. Not because the album is a newly recorded set--but because it is not. The disc is a selection of ...
