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Paolo Fresu Devil Quartet: Desertico
by Dan Bilawsky
Italian trumpeter Paolo Fresu has always been more angel than devil, though he's fronted quartets that name check both of those respectively heavenly and hellish entities. His horn work is coolly lyrical and spellbinding, regardless of the setting it's found in, but Fresu also has an impish side to his personality that takes over at certain ...
Brandon Bernstein Trio: But Beautiful
by Dan Bilawsky
Sensitive, serious and sincere are the adjectives that bass veteran Putter Smith uses to describe guitarist Brandon Bernstein, and those simple words prove to be descriptive bull's eyes. Bernstein started on guitar at fourteen, scored a scholarship from the Berklee School of Music at eighteen, and proceeded to wrack up a series of degrees--culminating in a ...
Frank Wess: Magic 101
by Dan Bilawsky
Most musicians can't escape the ravages of time, but a select few seem to have taken a sip from the musical fountain of youth. The late Hank Jones, for example, played with brilliance and class until the day he died at the age of 91, and octogenarian drummer Roy Haynes continues to snap and crackle in ...
Ben McDonnell: Aleph Trio
by Dan Bilawsky
Guitarist Ben McDonnell's Aleph Trio takes its name from a story by Jorge Luis Borge involving a poet who “discovers a point in space which contains all other points." Aleph Trio, likewise, explores and exploits all points present within McDonnell's compositions on its self-titled debut EP. Cyclical thoughts, complex colors, light and airy ...
Roger Beaujolais Quartet: Mind The Gap
by Dan Bilawsky
The quintet has usually been the format of choice for British vibraphone ace Roger Beaujolais, but he changes it up on Mind The Gap; this is the eighteenth album from the veteran mallet man, but the first to really focus on a foursome. Beaujolais, a self taught vibraphonist who started a bit late--in ...
David Ake: Bridges
by Dan Bilawsky
Experimentalist composer Gavin Bryars once proclaimed that “music history has flowed under the bridges for many years." That particular quote adorns the inside flap of pianist David Ake's Bridges which, like Bryars' statement itself, contains many a mystery about music, bridges and history. The pieces that Ake presents herein are modernistic, wide-ranging and wholly original. Melodic ...
Duduka Da Fonseca Trio: New Samba Jazz Directions
by Dan Bilawsky
Drummer Duduka Da Fonseca wasn't the first to fuse the rhythmic patterns of Brazil's samba and bossa nova with jazz language and mannerisms, but he's done more with that combination than anybody before him. In the liner notes for New Samba Jazz Directions, Da Fonseca notes that drummer Edison Machado-- working with pianist Dom Salvador and ...
Dan Lehner's Memory Field: Spoken Migration
by Dan Bilawsky
Spoken Migration--the debut EP from trombonist Dan Lehner's Memory Field--is as auspicious as they come. It's true that comments like that are typically reserved for the end of music reviews, but it's hard not to gush from the get-go with this one; Lehner, after all, doesn't waste any time in delivering the musical goods with this ...
Chip Stephens Trio: Relevancy
by Dan Bilawsky
Pianist Chip Stephens' self-penned liner notes to Relevancy are both reflective and pragmatic, dissecting life, touching on the bond between parents and their children, and sussing out the meaning of relevancy in several contexts. This writing reveals a rare balance between the down-to-earth everyman's insight and the profound, so it should come as no surprise then ...
Kikoski, Carpenter, Novak, Sheppard: From The Hip
by Dan Bilawsky
In 2006, pianist David Kikoski was invited to perform and record in front of a live audience at the private Beverly Hills studio of George Klabin, President of the Rising Jazz Stars Foundation. Kikoski brought in some of his first-call friends for the occasion and, with nary a rehearsal to be had, put on a stunner ...
