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Grace Kelly and Lee Konitz: GRACEfulLEE
by Dan McClenaghan
Most sixteen year old musicians are honing their chops in the high school marching and concert bands. Some of the luckier ones attend a school that has a jazz band where a beginner can get a taste of improvisation. Sixteen year old alto saxophonist Grace Kelly--a testament to joyful precocious talent and a killer support system--trades ...
Wadada Leo Smith's Golden Quartet: Tabligh
by Dan McClenaghan
For Tabligh, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith has reassembled a Golden Quartet to blow, very Miles Davis-like, on a follow-up recording to Year of the Elephant (Pi Recordings, 2002). But the lineup, excepting the leader, has changed.The sound is, in part, an exploration of Miles' electric period, from 1969-75, albeit in a sparer mode--a rhythm ...
Jessica Williams: Deep Monk
by Dan McClenaghan
Do we really need another tribute to Thelonious Sphere Monk? Everybody who is anybody in the jazz game has put a Monk song on an album. Some have been so bold as to dedicate an entire album to the odd and angular songs full of playful dissonance and unexpected angles.Not easy tunes to play, ...
Gene Bertoncini: Concerti
by Dan McClenaghan
Concerti is twenty-six strings vibrating: A string quartet--two violins, a viola and a cello--with a bass added on the bottom end, fronted by the nylon-string acoustic guitar of Gene Bertoncini.A top notch guitarist who has taught for forty years at the Eastman School of Music, Bertoncini enlisted some of his colleagues from the school ...
Jessica Williams: Blood Music
by Dan McClenaghan
This electronically rendered music thing got its start with Wendy (then Walter) Carlos back in 1968, with the Grammy-winning Switched-On Bach (CBS Records). Carlos played the then-new Moog Synthesizer, giving a serous electric glow to composition by Johann Sebastian Bach.Now Jessica Williams--one of the finest acoustic jazz pianists alive--"switches on" for Blood Music.
Trio Reenactment: Trio Reenactment
by Dan McClenaghan
The deep dark prowling bass lines that open up Trio Reenactment's “Groove Chick," says that this Detroit-based piano trio's leader is bassist John Barron. The up-tempo composition has the feel of a Motor City “Night in Tunisia," as it drives forward with an exotic groove.Barron, pianist Sven Anderson and drummer Rich Emanuel are veterans ...
Jessica Williams: Tatum's Ultimatum
by Dan McClenaghan
Rule Number 1 of writing a music review: try to be at least half as creative and spontaneous as the music at hand. Rule Number 2: If it's Jessica Williams' music you're writing about, good luck with Rule Number 1.Pianist Jessica Williams is another one of those jazz artists who hasn't received the acclaim ...
Marcin Wasilewski Trio: January
by Dan McClenaghan
Listening to “The First Touch," the opening cut on the Marcin Wasilewski Trio's disc, January, is like slipping into a shimmering dream. The piano trio's sound is gentle, drifting and contemplative. Space is a factor, as is intricate three-way interplay. The music fits into the much written of “ECM Records aesthetic"--a sound not too far from ...
Torben Waldorff: Afterburn
by Dan McClenaghan
Guitarist Torben Waldorff really knows how to put a band together. The first impression on hearing his previous effort, Brilliance (ArtistShare, 2007), was that his group had a great collective sound. There was a lot of fine soloing, to be sure--from saxophonist Donny McCaslin and Waldorff--but it was the group atmosphere, simmering and always a bit ...
Jessica Williams: Songs for a New Century
by Dan McClenaghan
If you slip into Jessica Williams' web site and ride the currents of her blog, you could get the feeling that the (proudly) sixty year-old jazz pianist is something of an eccentric. Which is a good thing--in this case, an eccentric being one who has walked away from the hype, b.s. and group think with her ...
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