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Nik Bartsch's Ronin: Llyria
by Chris May
Pianist Nik Bärtsch's Ronin has traveled a long way since its formation in 2001, through its early albums on Ronin Rhythm Records, its signing with ECM, and the three discs that label has so far released. Mid-decade, the Swiss band was forging its reputation with a relentlessly beat-centric style which Bärtsch dubbed “Zen funk" and “ritual ...
Chucho Valdes & The Afro-Cuban Messengers: Chucho's Steps
by Chris May
The semiology contained on pianist Chucho Valdés' magnificent Chucho's Steps points to the character of the music before the disc has even been taken out of its sleeve. First there's the name of the group and its reference to drummer Art Blakey's ferociously swinging Jazz Messengers. Then there's the title of the opener, “Las dos caras" ...
Chucho Valdes & The Afro-Cuban Messengers: Chucho's Steps
by Chris May
La semiología contenida en el magnífico Chucho's Steps de Chucho Valdés define el carácter de la música antes de haber reproducido el disco. En primer lugar, la referencia al batería Art Blakey y al swing apasionado y feroz de los Jazz Messengers. Luego, el título de la pieza inicial, Las dos caras, que apunta a las ...
Legendary Cuban Pianist Chucho Valdes Interviewed at All About Jazz...and More!
For his first album in seven years, Chuco Valdés returns to the group format, expanding his longstanding quartet to an even more powerful septet. The legendary Cuban pianist and founding member of Irakere has been touring the world in support of Chucho's Steps (World Village, 2010), and will welcome Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz ...
Rahim Alhaj: Little Earth
by Chris May
With six albums under his belt since he arrived in the US in 2000--two of them, Friendship (Fast Horse, 2006) and When The Soul Is Settled (Smithsonian Folkways, 2007), Grammy nominees--Iraqi oudist Rahim Alhaj is settling into his new homeland with aplomb. Four of the discs have been virtuoso expositions of traditional Iraqi music. But on ...
Part 12 - Fela Anikulapo Kuti: Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense
by Chris May
Fela Anikulapo Kuti & Egypt 80Teacher Don't Teach Me NonsenseWrasse Records2001 (1986) During the latter half of the 1980s, Fela Anikulapo Kuti's international star waned a little, as Congolese rumba and Malian desert blues became the new world music flavors of the moment. And in 2010, even ...
Part 11 - Knitting Factory releases Fela Kuti "Zombie" batch
by Chris May
Knitting Factory Records' meticulous, immaculately packaged and altogether exemplary Fela Kuti reissue program reaches its third, broadly chronological chapter with the six-disc “Zombie" batch, comprising eleven LPs originally released between 1976--1980. The batch chronicles Kuti's music from shortly before the Nigerian army's destruction of his live/work commune, Kalakuta Republic, in 1977, through that ...
Jose James and Jef Neve: For All We Know
by Chris May
A newsworthy release, not just for the poised American songbook performances of Minneapolis-born, London-based singer José James and his accompanist, Belgian pianist Jef Neve, but also for its issuing label. The iconic Impulse! is not best known for vocal albums. Under its present owners, Universal Music/Verve, the onetime home of the new thing ...
Africa: 50 Years of Music - 50 Years of Independence
by Chris May
Various ArtistsAfrica: 50 Years of Music: 50 Years of IndependenceSterns2010 “In my country alone, there are 80 ethnic groups and 200 dialects," says the Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango in an interview in the booklet enclosed with this box set. “So it's hard to talk about Cameroonian music ...
All About Jazz Celebrates the North American Release of Nils Petter Molvaer's Hamada
When released internationally in 2009, Norwegian trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær's Hamada was heralded as “anything Molvær has done before," with its “stunning growth and unexpected directional shifts" making “Hamada one of Molvær's most moving and challenging records to date." (John Kelman , All About Jazz). To celebrate Thirsty Ear's North American release of Hamada ...
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