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Nachito Herrera: Bemb
by Chris May
Nachito Herrera conceived this recording as an exposition of eleven different Cuban song forms--from bolero and cha-cha-cha through guaracha and guanguanco, with a strong admixture of jazz throughout--but any danger of Bembé En Mi Casa coming on like a college lecture disappears with track one, note one. A campus riot would be a more accurate description. ...
Enrico Rava: TATI
by Chris May
What you see is not necessarily the only thing you get. The track titles here, including Gershwin's “The Man I Love" and Puccini's “E Lucevan Le Stelle," together with Enrico Rava's celebrated melodic genius, might suggest an album of lush and legato music, comfortably at peace with the world. And indeed, TATI is glowingly lyrical from ...
Robert Glasper: Canvas
by Chris May
Hallelujah! Another exciting young pianist emerges to take the classic piano trio tradition forward. This is Robert Glasper's second album--the first was Mood (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2003)--and at just 26, he is already cooking. The marketing thrust which accompanies this album makes much of Glasper's supposed membership of the hip-hop massive. Truth is, ...
Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane: At Carnegie Hall
by Chris May
The hype surrounding the discovery and release of this concert recording has been considerable, but now the actuality is upon us, every breathless adjective proves to be justified and then some: it's only September, and this beauty must already qualify as the Buried Treasure Discovery Of The Year, no contest. Just in case you've ...
Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble: The Eleventh Hour
by Chris May
With over a decade of serious and engaging electro-acoustic experimentation behind him--some of it with the Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, some of it in other contexts--Evan Parker has produced his most ambitious and perfectly realised work in the genre to date in The Eleventh Hour: a masterpiece of sonic adventure and time travel. Not jazz as we previously ...
Robert Mitchell's Panacea: Trust
by Chris May
The cultural trajectories of most musicians tend to be unidirectional. Sometimes they point south towards real or supposed roots and authenticities, sometimes north towards the European conservatoire, sometimes east and sometimes west. Rarely does the rocket travel in two directions simultaneously. Robert Mitchell's vision, unusually, is omni-directional. He is as involved with African and ...
Various Artists: Lagos Chop Up
by Chris May
An inspired trawl through the treasure trove that is urban Nigerian social music of the late '60s through mid '80s--a laid-back, all-night, intertribal dance party featuring classic highlife, Afrobeat, juju, and fuji hits of the era in all their four-track, one-take, original glory. The '70s, give or take, were arguably the Golden Age of ...
Charlie Haden/Liberation Music Orchestra: Not In Our Name
by Chris May
This empowering masterpiece of an album succeeds brilliantly on at least three levels: as proof that instrumental jazz can be as powerful a protest music as the lyric-based Woody Guthrie/Bob Dylan tradition; as demonstration that at least one corner of the domestic American opposition to the Bush administration is in strong and resonant form; and as ...
Trevor Warren: Disassembler
by Chris May
A lyrical and gently trippy album in which Trevor Warren--previously best known as leader of the world/jazz band Deva--brings together free improv, groove, and rock with music from India, the Middle East, and Africa. It whispers rather than shouts, and the prominent access-all-genres presence of saxophonist Mark Lockheart and drummer Seb Rochford gives it something of ...
Cannonball Adderley: Domination
by Chris May
Domination is a curious curate's egg of an album, not previously available on CD, and some of it bears considerable historical interest. Tracks 1-8, recorded in '65 and originally released as Domination, feature Cannonball and Nat Adderley over big band charts arranged by Oliver Nelson. The twenty-minute closing track, recorded in '70, features the two Adderleys ...
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