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Samuel Blaser: Pieces of Old Sky
by Dan McClenaghan
Pieces of Old Sky could be called furtive jazz. The quartet--trombone, bass, guitar and drums--sneaks around the perimeter of the room, leaving big swaths of space. It sounds as if there are mysteries in this music, secrets in Samuel Blaser's sonic world. Swiss-born trombonist Blaser treads a free jazz territory that is similar in ...
Fred Hess Big Band: Hold On
by Dan McClenaghan
Fred Hess has been prolific this millennium. For those familiar with the Denver-based saxophonist's last six discs, however, Hold On may come as a surprise. Since 2004, Hess has immersed himself in the art of the piano-less quartet, before augmenting his group--first, with a second saxophonist, and then a guitarist, moving from quintet to sextet and ...
Jessica Williams: Art of the Piano
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Jessica Williams' third Origin Records CD, The Art of the Piano, brings to mind Brad Mehldau's Art of the Trio series that ran through five discs. In Mehldau's case the recordings were, of course, with his trio, featuring bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jorge Rossy (later, Jeff Ballard). Williams' three sets on Origin are all ...
Edmar Castaneda: Entre Cuerdas
by Dan McClenaghan
The harp seems such a cerebral instrument, the sound a mix of, light, lush delicacy, refinement and finesse. It is not often heard in jazz outside of large ensemble settings. Columbian harpist/bandleader/composer Edmar Castaneda seems intent on changing that dynamic. On Entre Cuerdas, Castaneda employs a trio of unlikely parts: harp, trombone and percussion, ...
Ron Thomas / John Swana / Joe Mullen: Elysium
by Dan McClenaghan
The sound of Elysium is, in a word, otherworldly. Then throw in the electro-industrial tinge and cold liquid submersion resonance--like the noise of a high tech blacksmith shop on a distant planet with a dense atmosphere and heavier than Earth gravity like Neptune--music of an alien culture, or songs played for cryogenically suspended astronauts slumbering their ...
Jon Alberts / Jeff Johnson / Tad Britton: Apothecary
by Dan McClenaghan
An Internet search for the Fu Kun Wu Lounge in Seattle, Washington's Ballard neighborhood, reveals one patron's assessment of it as “one of the best kept secrets of the Seattle Jazz Scene." Many of the city's dynamic Origin Records stars perform in the converted Chinese herbalist's shop; players like pianists Bill Anschell and Marc Seales, saxophonist ...
Steve Kuhn Trio with Joe Lovano: Mostly Coltrane
by Dan McClenaghan
The sound of John Coltrane (1926-1967) was a mix of spiritual tranquility and ecstatic fury, sheets-of-sound full force gales and transcendent, tender, Zen-like ruminations from a man intent on communing with God through his music--all of which makes an attempt at communing with Coltrane a nervy quest.Enter pianist Steve Kuhn.In 1960, at ...
Louis Sclavis: Lost on the Way
by Dan McClenaghan
French multi-reedist Louis Sclavis has involved himself in many modes of musical expression during a career which has spanned over 30 years, from free to folk to Baroque, and into the contemporary realm. His jazz perspective is European, which perhaps means having something of a chamber approach, and not much rooting in the blues--not unusual for ...
Juergen Friedrich: Pollock
by Dan McClenaghan
Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), the Abstract Expressionist American painter best known for his “drip paintings" produced from 1947 to 1950, loved and was inspired by jazz. The innovative music of that time in the genre was Bird (Charlie Parker), Dizzy Gillespie and the burgeoning bebop sounds that Pollack would listen to while he created. Jazz has loved ...
Rudresh Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak Coalition: Apti
by Dan McClenaghan
Alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa slipped onto the jazz scene right around the turn of the millennium via sideman work with pianist Vijay Iyer, on Architexture (Asian Improv Records, 1998) and the breakout Panoptic Modes (Red Giant Records, 2002). He continues to team with Iyer in an increasingly excellent evolution of sound on Reimagining (Savoy Jazz, 2005), ...
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