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Wadada Leo Smith: America's National Parks
by Mark Sullivan
The U.S. National Park Service celebrates its centennial in 2016 (it was created in 1916 when Congress passed the Organic Act). There are many celebrations planned, but few are likely to match the power and individuality of Wadada Leo Smith's epic six-part suite. Over the two discs (a bit over 90 minutes total playing time) Smith ...
Richard Sussman: The Evolution Suite
by Troy Dostert
On this ambitious recording, keyboardist Richard Sussman draws together several seasoned jazz veterans with the Sirius Quartet for a stimulating, genre-defying album of music. Built around Sussman's five-part Evolution Suite," the record's guiding theme is also a gesture toward the transcendence of stylistic boundaries that animates Sussman's music. By utilizing conventional jazz, fusion, contemporary classical and ...
Steve Lehman: Sélébéyone
by Luca Canini
Due sarebbero i modi più appropriati e coscienziosi di iniziare questa recensione. Il primo: una rapida carrellata sui precedenti tentativi di contaminazione tra jazz e hip hop (entrambi i generi intesi nel senso più ampio e inclusivo possibile). Da Steve Coleman e Greg Osby alle lucide visioni di Mike Ladd e Vijay Iyer, dal Miles Davis ...
Gwendolyn Dease: Beguiled
by Dan Bilawsky
While this fourth album from marimbist Gwendolyn Dease is rightly seeing release on the classical arm of Origin Records, it wouldn't have been completely out of place if it had landed on the jazz side of that imprint. Dease bypasses contemporary marimba fare and late twentieth century favorites from the usual suspects like Ney Rosauro, Casey ...
Autobahn: Of the Tree
by Dave Wayne
Not to be confused with the band of the same name from The Big Lebowski (or the similarly-named British indie- rock / emo band, for that matter) this Autobahn is a trio of jolly Canadians who play 21st Century jazz. Not swinging" jazz in the traditional Blue Note sense, the music of this bass-free trio of ...
Gene Ess: Absurdist Theater
by Jerome Wilson
On this CD guitarist Gene Ess and his group Fractal Attraction have put together an intelligent fusion of jazz, folk and rock concepts led by the glassy clarity of Ess' guitar and the calm beauty of Thana Alexa's voice. Alexa's rising and falling wordless tones are the first thing heard on the disc and they lead ...
Eric Johnson: EJ: Song Explorations on Acoustic Guitar and Piano
by Doug Collette
The very announcement of a (largely) solo acoustic album from Eric Johnson is enough to startle fans of the Texas bluesman as well as those who know him only by name and a little of his tenure as a contemporary guitar hero. Hearing EJ: Song Explorations on Acoustic Guitar and Piano will no doubt dazzle those ...
Matt Brewer: Unspoken
by Andrew Luhn
Bassist Matt Brewer first revealed his talents as a bandleader and a composer on his 2014 Criss Cross debut Mythology. Brewer returns to the Criss Cross label for his sophomore effort with a completely new quintet to explore seven new original compositions, a Bill Frisell cover, and one Charlie Parker tune. Joining him this time around ...
Billy Hart & The WDR Big Band: The Broader Picture
by Dan Bilawsky
A great teacher's influence can be unusually powerful and completely unbound, fixed to specific moments and lessons in a student's mind while also reverberating through time and space. You simply never know where it may lead, what doors it may unlock, or what wonders and worlds it may help to create. That's the subtext in the ...
Taylor Ho Bynum: Enter the Plus Tet
by Karl Ackermann
Cornetist/composer Taylor Ho Bynum has proven to be a visionary composer, striking the difficult balance between free improvised and arranged music. While accomplished in any group setting, he has shown a particular gift for extended works in larger group situations as in two recent Firehouse 12 Records releases, his sextet Apparent Distance (2011) and sextet and ...

