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Alister Spence / Tony Buck: Mythographer

by Dan McClenaghan
Duo recordings, no matter what the particular instrumentation, are able to showcase musical mind-melds. Two artists conversing, trading and extrapolating on each other's ideas. Pianist Alister Spence and drummer Tony Buck try the format on for size with Mythographer. This spontaneous, one-day-session recording opens with Dry Wood Talking." It sounds as if the talking ...
Brad Goode: The Unknown

by Dan McClenaghan
One of the joys attached to reviewing music is the exposure to artists who otherwise might not show up on the radar. For every Pat Metheny there are a hundred highly-creative, lower-profile, hugely-talented guitarists plucking the strings; for every Brad Mehldau plying the trade ten dozen marvelous, relatively unknown pianists show up in the mailbox or ...
Manzanita Quintet: Osmosis

by Dan McClenaghan
The tried and true quintet formation, set in stone by alto saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie in the late 1940s, is back in 2022 with the Reno, Nevada-based Manzanita Quintet. So how do they give a fresh shine to a sound that could be considered done to death?" On Osmosis the ...
ECM Records Touchstones: Part 3

by Dan McClenaghan
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 This third edition of ECM Touchstones" explores more of the label's early recordings, repackaged and offered up as a way to present music that had perhaps slipped through time's cracks, into the hard-to-find category. Of these, four were re-released in 2019, one in 2008--24 to 47 ...
ECM Records Touchstones: Part 2

by Dan McClenaghan
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 This second edition of ECM Touchstones" explores more of the label's early recordings, repackaged and offered up as a way to present music that had perhaps slipped through time's cracks, into the hard-to-find category. Of these, four were re-released in 2019, one in 2008--32 to 43 ...
Simona Premazzi: Wave In Gravity

by Dan McClenaghan
What do we listen for in a solo piano project? Technical proficiency. Heart. Body. Soul. A vulnerability versus strength dynamic. The ability to surrender to the sounds, to take them where they want to go. In other words, we look for how well the artist articulates their humanity. Simona Premazzi displays all these attributes ...
ECM Records Touchstones: Part 1

by Dan McClenaghan
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Every album ever released by ECM Records would be readily available in a better world. But that, understandably, is not the case. The German label, founded by Manfred Eicherwho still holds the helmdebuted in 1969 with pianist Mal Waldron's Free At Last. In the ensuing five-plus ...
Jim Snidero: Far Far Away

by Dan McClenaghan
Alto saxophonist Jim Snidero had quite a year in 2021, with the re-release of his masterpiece, Strings (Savant), originally released in 2001, and the release of another masterful set, Live At Deer Head Inn (Savant). In 2022 he decided to keep a good thing going, inviting his Deer Head rhythm section--pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Peter Washington, ...
Torben Snekkestad / Soren Kjaegaard / Tomo Jacobson: Spirit Spirit

by Dan McClenaghan
I love the illusive, enigmatic nature of this material. Being in that space can perhaps leave the listener with the only obvious choice of just listening to what is rather than understanding any of it." Tomo Jacobson Polish-born, Copenhagen-based bassist Tomo Jacobson embraces a minimalist mode on his Spirit Spirit. The cover art is ...
Adam Pierończyk & Miroslav Vitous: Ad-Lib Orbits

by Dan McClenaghan
The duet performances on Ad-Lib Orbits feature the voices of two jazz generations. Adam Pieroncyzk, (b. 1970), the Polish saxophonist; and bassist Miroslav Vitous (b. 1947). Pieroncyzk has earned international acclaim for his homage to his countryman, Krzysztof Komeda on Komeda: The Innocent Sorcerer (Jazzwerkstatt Records, 2010) and on his odd and modernistic masterpiece, Monte Alban ...