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Beth McKenna: Beyond Here
by Dan McClenaghan
Montreal-based multi-reedist Beth McKenna's Beyond Here proves a few things. One, she is a fine arranger of her original compositions for her jazz quintet. Two: she writes. complex-yet-engaging tunes that often go after the groove. And three: there is an expansiveness--compositionally and production-wise--in her music that could probably transfer nicely to larger ensemble work. She studied ...
Matthew Shipp: Codebreaker
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Matthew Shipp has a habit of putting out piano solo and piano trio CDs in quick succession. In 2020, it was the solo set Piano Equation (Tao Forms) and the trio outing The Unidentifiable (ESP Disk). In 2021 he offers up Village Mothership (Tao Forms), a trio offering, and the solo set—and the subject of ...
Montreal Jazz Trio: Montreal Jazz Trio
by Dan McClenaghan
We had the Modern Jazz Quartet, sometimes tagged MJQ, from 1952 until--after a stop and start or two--the early 90's. They were a class act, playing in formal attire, playing classically-influenced jazz with a dollop (sometimes more than a dollop) of the blues. Restraint and laid back complexity was the name of the game.
Kate McGarry + Keith Ganz Ensemble: What to Wear in the Dark
by Dan McClenaghan
Let us start with a nod to Steely Dan, the rock/jazz group headed up by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, a pair of tunesmiths who hit a career zenith in the early 1970s with albums like Can't Buy A Thrill (1972), Countdown To Ecstasy (1973), Pretzel Logic (1974) and Aja (1974), all on ABC Records. The ...
David Janeway: Distant Voices
by Dan McClenaghan
In 2017 pianist David Janeway offered his Secret Passages, a trio outing featuring bassist Frank Tate and drummer Chuck Zeuren. He proves, in 2021, that he can change partners without losing an ounce of swing or even a shot glass of verve. It is Cameron Brown on bass this time out, with Billy Hart sitting in ...
Adrianne Duncan: Gemini
by Dan McClenaghan
It started out for Adrianne Duncan with classical piano. Then—as it happens so often—she fell in with a jazz crowd. On her Gemini, the vocalist/pianist/composer proves herself an adept and compelling artist in the jazz genre, one who isn't afraid to take some chances. And she has a way with words, penning lyrics in an off-the-beaten-path ...
Frank Macchia: Bluezapalooza
by Dan McClenaghan
Frank Macchia has recorded some serious sounds in his day. Landscapes (Cacophony, 2008), for instance, with The Prague Orchestra, was a sweeping masterpiece of an album which should have won him some sort of Aaron Copland Award (It was nominated for a Grammy). But the reedist-composer-arranger also has a fun side, with albums like 2012's Swamp ...
Charu Suri: The Book of Ragas Volume II
by Dan McClenaghan
New sounds in jazz often come from countries other than America, where the music was born. Antonio Carlos Jobim and Joao Gilberto introduced the lilting rhythms of Brazil; the prolific pianist/bandleader Satoko Fujii brings an avant-Japanese frame of mind to the music, and .numerous Scandinavian artists--Jan Garbarek, Trygve Seim, Tord Gustavsen and the Marcin Wasilewski Trio--have ...
Lena Bloch & Feathery: Rose Of Lifta
by Dan McClenaghan
Saxophonist Lena Bloch knows something about the pain of separation from one's homeland. Born in Russia, she emigrated to Israel in 1990, then to Europe and, finally, in 2008, to the United States, setting up shop in New York City's fertile jazz ground. In 2014, Feathery, (Thirteen Note Records), the album and her quartet of that ...
Borderlands Trio: Stephan Crump / Kris Davis / Eric McPherson: Wandersphere
by Dan McClenaghan
It begins so quietly, whispering out of silence like a ghost. The creaking door of Stephan Crump's arco bass, the hiss of Eric McPherson's brushes, the parsimonious delicacy of Kris Davis' piano notes. This is what opens Disc one of this two CD outing by the Borderlands Trio. The tune's following half hour's worth of improvisational ...
