Home » Search Center » Results: Chris May
Results for "Chris May"
Alice Coltrane: The Impulse Story
by Chris May
Alice Coltrane has always had a raw deal from the jazz world. Either patronised or dismissed out of hand, she's suffered the double whammy of one, being a woman in what (until very recently) was overwhelmingly a man's world, and two, being John Coltrane's widow--and therefore, by some strange logic, not a serious artist in her ...
Alboran Trio: Meltemi
by Chris May
The German ACT Music label is a strange one. Fitfully brilliant--as with the Esbjorn Svensson Trio's ongoing canon, and with recent discs by Nguyen Le and Julia Hulsmann--it has also released numerous bland, MOR-pitched albums which have precious little to do with creative jazz. Many of these have been produced by the slick but featherweight trombonist, ...
Harry Miller's Isipingo: Which Way Now
by Chris May
South African emigre Harry Miller was at the heart of a freewheeling, and in pockets Rabelaisian, circle of improvisers who shot through London like meteors in the 1970s and lit up everything around them. They burned bright and fast, and several of the key members, particularly the several South Africans among them, died tragically young. Miller ...
Pharoah Sanders: Pharoah Sanders: The Impulse Story
by Chris May
Pharoah Sanders began his recording career as a fully paid-up, card-carrying member of the extreme fringe of the mid-'60s new wave. His first album, in 1964, was for ESP-Disk, a tiny but influential independent run by sonic ninja Bernard Stollman, who was also an early champion of Albert Ayler (he recorded Ayler's world-changing Spiritual Unity and ...
Jim Black / AlasNoAxis: Dogs Of Great Indifference
by Chris May
Rock and jazz make fractious partners. The certainties and simplicities of the one don't always sit easily with the unpredictable trajectories and inventions of the other. Opposites can attract, but they can also repel. Miles Davis pulled the marriage off, at least with his early electric bands, and fellow trumpeter Ian Car contemporaneously created something satisfying ...
Various Artists: The House That Trane Built: The Story Of Impulse Records
by Chris May
From 1965-75, the Impulse! label was what Blue Note had been in the preceding decade--namely, the label that defined its era--but much of its back catalogue has been only fitfully available for years. The release of this four-CD set, plus a label biography and ten single-artist CD compilations, suggests that might be about to change. If ...
Thomas Chapin Trio: Ride
by Chris May
Whooooah! To keep up with saxophonist/flautist Thomas Chapin on this one, you're going to need some of those monkey adrenal glands Hunter S. Thompson wrote about, or at the very least a seat belt and a note from your mom. Ride--and if ever an album deserved an exclamation mark at the end of its title, this ...
Obituary: Ambrose Adekoya Campbell (1919-2006)
by Chris May
Nigerian singer, guitarist, percussionist, composer and bandleader Ambrose Adekoya Campbell died in the UK on June 22, 2006. He was 86 years old and passed away peacefully in his sleep.While no single person can be credited with establishing African music in Britain--the process has been gradual and ongoing, and must have begun soon after ...
Art Blakey: Holiday For Skins
by Chris May
An unpleasant odour of Eurocentric condescension has hung over Art Blakey's drum choir projects ever since they were recorded in the late 1950s. Orgy In Rhythm (1957) and Holiday For Skins (1958)--both originally released as two LPs and both now packaged on single CDs, the latter newly available in this Connoisseur edition--have been viewed by some ...
Various Artists: BBC Jazz Awards 2006
by Chris May
As a boy, I was told that wedding reports in our local newspaper generally concluded with the remark that the nuptial gifts were “both numerous and costly." A similarly de rigueur riff accompanies the publication of lists of awards nominations today, with “both varied and of a very high standard" the preferred epithet. Sometimes the claim ...
Album Showcase
Trending
Jazz Raconteurs
Julius Hemphill: Marty Ehrlich and Tim Berne Remember a...
In Tribute To...
John Coltrane At 100: A Global Perspective
History of Jazz
John Coltrane in Detroit: A Brief History
Live Review
Detroit Jazz Festival 2026: A Gathering in a Great Jazz City
Profile
Sequoia Snyder: Growing in the Light of the Masters
Interview
Jasur Khalilov: From Falak to Fusion
Profile
The Discreet Charm of Tete Montoliu
VOTE!
