Home » Search Center » Results: Chris Mosey

Results for "Chris Mosey"

Article: Album Review

Yvonnick Prene and Pasquale Grasso: Merci Toots

Read "Merci Toots" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
March 15, 2015

It is often said--rather nastily--that nobody can name five famous Belgians. Jazz fans can certainly name one: harmonicist Toots Thielemans. Thielemans, who in 2014 announced his retirement at the age of 92, decamped from his homeland after the war to play with just about everyone in the US, including Charlie Parker and--primarily--George Shearing. ...

Article: Album Review

Svend Asmussen: Embraceable

Read "Embraceable" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
March 14, 2015

In 1987 when he was a young man of 70, Svend Asmussen played a gig in a small club in Paris. This year, on the eve of his 100th birthday, the Danish violinist rediscovered a tape made of the evening for a Parisian radio station. He says: “I assumed it would be just another radio show ...

Article: Album Review

Sigurdur Flosason and Kjeld Lauritsen: Nightfall

Read "Nightfall" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
March 13, 2015

Icelandic saxophonist Sigurdur Flosason gets a pretty unique sound out of his instrument. His silky, rhapsodic style of playing harks back to Johnny Hodges but with more bite. There are only the very faintest echoes of Charlie Parker and hardly any of John Coltrane. Yet Flosason is both inventive and soulful. This is ...

Article: Album Review

Burak Kaya: Climate Change

Read "Climate Change" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
March 2, 2015

Turkish guitarist Burak Kaya sees climate change as the greatest challenge facing mankind. On the sleeve of his album of the same name, he cites a Cree proverb: “Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught, will man finally realize that we ...

Article: Album Review

Sigurdur Flosason/Kjeld Lauritsen: Daybreak

by Chris Mosey
February 27, 2015

They used to call this kind of thing “mood music." The idea was to put the listener in a particular mood, usually one of calm and relaxation. When it came to jazz, the US label Prestige climbed on the bandwagon with a whole series titled--wait for it-- “Moodsville." Moodsville aimed at providing jazz ...

Article: Album Review

Sigurdur Flosason/Kjeld Lauritsen: Daybreak

by Chris Mosey
February 25, 2015

Article: Album Review

Alyssa Allgood: Lady Bird

Read "Lady Bird" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
February 24, 2015

Today scat is, literally, a dirty word. In a more polite age it was what Louis Armstrong did when he forgot the words to “Heebie-Jeebies." Such was Pops' influence that, even though it was a mistake, soon everyone was doing it. After bebop kicked in, King Pleasure took things further when he first ...

Article: Album Review

Jorge Moniz: Inquieta Luz

Read "Inquieta Luz" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
February 2, 2015

Inquieta Luz (Restless Light), by a band fronted by Portuguese drummer Jorge Moniz, explodes like a firework in all directions. The opener, “Interruptor," is electronic and discordant, having the same sort of effect on the listener's sensibilities as fingers scraping down a blackboard. After this--mercifully--things get very much better. The ...

Article: Album Review

Archie Shepp: Archie Shepp And The New York Contemporary Five

Read "Archie Shepp And The New York Contemporary Five" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
January 4, 2015

The New Thing is now old hat; all those squawking saxophones, blipping trumpets and discordant piano explorations a thing of the past. With its arrival in the early 1960s, jazz reached the end of its historical road. The New Thing wasn't The Shape Of Jazz To Come, as an Ornette Coleman album title ...

Article: Album Review

Bud Powell: Bouncing With Bud

Read "Bouncing With Bud" reviewed by Chris Mosey

by Chris Mosey
January 1, 2015

This album has cropped up in various guises over the years. Most recently it was part of Storyville's In Copenhagen series." It's back, as part of the same label's Remastered Vinyl collection. Powell was one of the most talented yet tragic artists in jazz history, a giant of the bebop era who translated ...