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Saxophone Summit: Street Talk
by Chris May
Since coming together in 1999 to celebrate the late-period work of John Coltrane, the aptly named Saxophone Summit has lost only one original member. Michael Brecker passed in 2007 and was replaced by Ravi Coltrane, who has in turn been replaced by Greg Osby. The other principals, Joe Lovano and Dave Liebman, are unchanged, as is ...
Abdullah Ibrahim: Dream Time
by Chris May
Stream-of-consciousness solo-piano recitals come in as many shades as jazz itself. At one extreme are Keith Jarrett's messianic epics. At another are Abdullah Ibrahim's less flashy but deeper outings. Ibrahim's style is about substance, space and subtlety. He says more by doing less. Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk, after all, were his formative influences.
Dave O'Higgins & Rob Luft: Plays Monk & Trane
by Chris May
Hearing the young British guitarist Rob Luft for the first time on his debut album, Riser (Edition, 2017), was rather like hearing American guitarist Johnny Smith for the first time on Moonlight In Vermont (Roost, 1956). You knew you were listening to something special. And while much separates the players' styles, much unites them, too: Smith's ...
Respect to Aretha at Barbican Hall
by Chris May
Nona Hendryx, Bettye LaVette, José James, Alice Russell, Zara McFarlane, Antibalas Barbican Hall Respect to Aretha London September 12, 2019 Great artists deserve posthumous tributes worthy of their talent--and sometimes they get them. So far, Aretha Franklin, who passed in 2018, is doing well. The long-delayed ...
Joe Armon-Jones: Turn To Clear View
by Chris May
A cornerstone of London's underground jazz scene—as well as leading his own band he plays in Ezra Collective and groups led by the tenor saxophonists Binker Golding and Nubya Garcia—the keyboard player Joe Armon-Jones released his first own-name album, Starting Today (Brownswood), in spring 2018. A jewel of nu-fusion which owes almost as much to the ...
Binker Golding: Abstractions Of Reality Past & Incredible Feathers
by Chris May
None of the new, legion improviser-composer tenor saxophonists on London's underground scene are more accomplished than Binker Golding, and unlike many avant-garde players, Golding has a thorough knowledge of the saxophonists who preceded him. His originality is, in a phrase coined by Harold Rosenberg, art critic on The New Yorker in the 1970s, “emblazoned with the ...
Nat Birchall: The Storyteller: A Musical Tribute To Yusef Lateef
by Chris May
The deification of Yusef Lateef, which began only after his passing in 2013, rests on the first decade of his long recording career, from 1957—1967, when he extended the language of jazz to include elements of Asian and Middle Eastern musics while recording for Savoy, Prestige and Impulse. After a second decade with Atlantic, where he ...
Pharoah Sanders: Live At Antibes Jazz Festival Juan-Les-Pins
by Chris May
The first official (allegedly) release of this album for over 30 years, Live At Antibes Jazz Festival Juan-Les-Pins July 21, 1968 captures Pharoah Sanders on the cusp of stylistic change. It is a disc hardcore Sanders fans will treasure. From 1965-1967, with his own bands and in those led by John Coltrane, Sanders' paint-stripping ...
Nicola Conte: Other Directions
by Chris May
Since debuting with the quintessential acid-jazz suite Jet Sounds on the Milan-based label Schema in 2000, the composer, arranger, producer and guitarist Nicola Conte has released another ten exquisitely beautiful albums exploring acid jazz, spiritual jazz, soul jazz and bossa nova, often all on the same disc. Conte also produces other artists and has curated rare-groove ...
Dwight Trible at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club
by Chris May
Dwight Trible Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club London August 17, 2019 Dwight Trible inhabits a song with more than just his voice, he does so with his whole body—he uses every available limb and digit and twists and turns and shoehorns himself into his material. At Ronnie's tonight he ...
