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John Coltrane: The Very Best Of The Atlantic Years
by Chris May
Does the world really need another John Coltrane compilation album? Yes, most certainly. The world needs as many Coltrane albums, of any description, as can be thrown at it. Even the tackiest, most opportunistic Coltrane compilations--take a bow Coltrane For Lovers (Impulse!, 2001) and Plays For Lovers (Prestige, 2003)--are redeemed by the presence of their subject, ...
Guinea's Diabate Brothers: Virtuoso Guitarists Unplugged
by Chris May
African Virtuoses African Virtuoses: The Classic Guinean Guitar Group Sterns 2007 This enchanting and exquisitely beautiful album, originally released in 1983, features four of the top electric guitarists of the pre-world music “golden years" of west African music, performing unplugged. Fragrant, lyrical and reviving, a ripe mango of ...
Robert Glasper: In My Element
by Chris May
Pianist Robert Glasper's embrace of hip hop--which is being foregrounded by Blue Note, presumably as a device to widen his trio's appeal--is, truth be told, overstated going on misleading. For at its core, Glasper's music is everything that hip hop is not, or anyway not what it is perceived to be. In My Element--a wonderfully rounded ...
Charlie Hunter Trio: Mistico
by Chris May
On Mistico, Charlie Hunter finally, after a couple of near misses, gets in touch with his inner rock guitarist. The disc's immediate predecessors--Copperopolis (Ropeadope, 2006) and Longitude (Thirsty Ear, 2005)--inhabited similarly full-on visceral territory, but here those albums' funk quotients are reduced to practically zero in favor of dirty, confrontational, rock 'n' roll. Nothing on Mistico ...
Salif Keita, Mory Kante, Bembeya Jazz: Africa for the Africans
by Chris May
The 1960s and 1970s are often referred to as the “golden years" of African music. As more and more African countries freed themselves from colonialism, a wave of artists emerged who celebrated their own cultural legacies rather than those validated by their erstwhile European rulers. This post-colonial generation played roots-based styles employing traditional instruments and African-language ...
Noah Howard: The Black Ark
by Chris May
Like “rarely performed" operas, “hard to find" recordings are often obscure for a prosaic reason: they're no good. Here's a monumental exception to the rule. The Black Ark--released in small numbers on the Freedom label in 1969, out of print almost overnight, and a holy grail for collectors practically ever since--is forty minutes of passionate and ...
My Life In E-Flat
by Chris May
My Life In E-Flat Chan Parker ISBN 1-57003-245-9 Paperback, 191 pages University Of South Carolina Press 1999 The nearest I ever got to meeting alto saxophone and bebop incendiary Charlie “Bird" Parker was attending an auction of objects once owned by or associated with him. Held ...
James Blackshaw: The Cloud Of Unknowing
by Chris May
Music of such shimmering, unalloyed, heavenly beauty as this doesn't come along very often. Maybe once or twice a decade. Guitarist Johnny Smith's early masterpiece Moonlight In Vermont (reissued Roulette, 2004) and harmonica player Hendrik Meurkens' Amazon River (Blue Toucan, 2005) are amongst recent releases of comparable loveliness. British 12-string acoustic guitarist James Blackshaw's ...
Paul Steinbeck: Sun Set
by Chris May
New York bassist Paul Steinbeck's third album for Engine Studios is an infectious, good-foot gumbo of retro and contemporary styles. Gospel, classic R&B, hip hop and New Orleans marching band music provide the grooves and rhythms, which sit alongside collective improvisations straddling New Orleans' Preservation Hall and today's free music. It inhabits similar territory to trumpeter ...
Mike Westbrook Orchestra: On Duke's Birthday
by Chris May
Among the most characterful and singular British composer/bandleaders, Mike Westbrook is revered by the relative few who follow his music, but is woefully under-appreciated in the wider jazz world. In part, this is because Westbrook paints on a larger canvas than that used in most “conventional" orchestral jazz, frequently taking on projects with textural themes or ...
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