Home » Search Center » Results: Chris May
Results for "Chris May"
Frank Kimbrough: Play
by Chris May
Recorded with no rehearsal and just five hours of studio time, Play is something of a departure for post bop-to-free pianist Frank Kimbrough. Unlike almost all of his previous albums, it's a fly by the seat of your pants affair with essentially a pickup group, albeit one of the highest calibre. The pastel, vivacious and lyrical ...
Nils Petter Molvaer: An American Compilation
by Chris May
In the 35 years since Miles Davis first put foot to wah-wah pedal, any number of musicians have tried to develop the original, shocking impacts of his 1969-74 electric recordings, or even just plain replicate them. (Davis himself tried, with generally disappointing results, throughout the 1980s.) Current pretenders to Davis' electric legacy include two trumpeters: France's ...
Julian "Cannonball" Adderley: Why Am I Treated So Bad!
by Chris May
By the time Why Am I Treated So Bad! was recorded over three sessions in March and July 1967, Cannonball Adderley's joyous soul jazz had begun to develop a rictus. Things could still get greasy, but the music was starting to get formulaic around the edges. Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!, recorded by the same lineup in 1966, ...
Stan Kenton: Sophisticated Approach
by Chris May
The Donald Rumsfeld of American big band jazz in the 1940s and 1950s, Stan Kenton didn't so much embrace his audiences as shock-n-awe them into submission with relentless carpet bombing. Kenton's monstrous orchestras--the most overblown being the 43-piece Innovations In Modern Music outfit of the early 1950s--specialised in heavy-footed, portentous, screaming brass performances which left zero ...
Serge Chaloff: Boston Blow-Up!
by Chris May
Baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff lived a short, often ugly and painful life. A hard-line, nodding off, ankle-scratching junkie with bad personal hygiene problems, he died horribly at the age of 34. Yet he was a master of his cumbersome instrument and capable of creating music of extraordinary beauty. Boston Blow-Up!, made in 1955 as part of ...
Oriole: Migration
by Chris May
An enchanting followup to Song For The Sleeping, Oriole's 2005 debut album, Migration finds guitarist Jonny Phillips' band once again blending exploratory, modern jazz improvisation with world music-inspired original compositions and unusual cross-cultural instrumentation. Brazilian, Venezuelan, Andalucian, Moorish, Cuban and African folk music traditions, experienced by the well-travelled Phillips at source, inform his gentle and lyrical ...
Tony Kofi: Future Passed
by Chris May
Though its nuances may not be readily apparent online, the back and front sleeve art for Future Passed, London saxophonist and ex-Tomorrow's Warrior Tony Kofi's second album as leader, is reminiscent of the time-travelling cover of Curtis Counce's 1958 recalibration of hard bop, Exploring The Future. There are no astronauts on Kofi's sleeve, true, but the ...
Herbie Hancock: Great Sessions
by Chris May
Herbie Hancock's music has been in a continuous state of flux since he first started recording in the early 1960s, yet it's possible to identify four distinct phases in his development: the more or less conventional, if more than usually distinctive, hard bop of the very early days; the restlessly exploratory acoustic music made with the ...
Hugo Siegmeth: Red Onions: Celebrating Sidney Bechet
by Chris May
Against the odds, this is an audacious and mesmerising album--the second tribute album in as many weeks, after Pat Martino's Remember: A Tribute To Wes Montgomery, to confound expectations. Hugo Siegmeth is a 36 year-old German reed player whose style owes nothing to the great soprano saxophonist and clarinetist Sidney Bechet (1897-1959). His astringent and quirky ...
The Bennie Maupin Ensemble: Penumbra
by Chris May
Always the bridesmaid, rarely the bride, Bennie Maupin has spent most of his career supporting other artists--sometimes as a featured soloist, but more often as a background colourist. Since the mid-1990s he has stood in the shadows more than ever, concentrating on teaching and leading community outreach projects. Penumbra is his first album in eight years. ...
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
Interview
Jasur Khalilov: From Falak to Fusion
Profile
Sequoia Snyder: Growing in the Light of the Masters
Profile
The Discreet Charm of Tete Montoliu
VOTE!
