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Article: Album Review

Tim Stevens: I'll Tell You Later In December

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by Dan McClenaghan
November 4, 2017

Pick your Christmas music, secular or sacred. The former probably gets more attention. “White Christmas," “Santa Claus is Coming to Town," “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer," and, of course, Chuck Berry rock'n “Run Run Rudolph." Earth-bound seasonal sounds that bring out the holiday spirit. But sometimes it seems the more sacred side of that equation ...

Article: Album Review

The Billy Lester Trio: Italy 2016

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by Dan McClenaghan
October 30, 2017

Piano trios jazz can charm or seduce, and occasionally mesmerize. In modern times, they can also rock the house, but they seldom jump out of the speakers at you with joy. The Billy Lester Trio, Italy 2016, does just that. The initial impression of pianist Lester's influences--as the opener “An Evening With Friends" plays--is Bud Powell. ...

Article: Album Review

William Evans/Donat Fisch/Banz Oester/Jorge Rossy/Andy Scherrer: Schlitten

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by Dan McClenaghan
October 24, 2017

The Swiss CD release, Schlitten, tips a hat to the undersung record producer, Don Schlitten. The quintet doing the hat-tipping is mostly Swiss musicians. Drummer Jorge Rossy, formerly of the Brad Mehldau Trio, is Spanish-born. Schlitten got his start working the music business with several of the small but prestigious record companies--Muse and Prestige, ...

Article: Album Review

Champian Fulton: Christmas With Champian

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by Dan McClenaghan
October 19, 2017

Pianist/vocalist Champian Fulton may be the only kindergartner in history to take a Charlie Parker CD into school for show and tell. The effect of her presentation on her classmates is uncertain, but she fought the good fight. Now, almost three decades after the “Bird Goes to Kindergarten" incident, Champian Fulton can be found ...

Article: Album Review

Rudresh Mahanthappa: Agrima

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by Dan McClenaghan
October 18, 2017

The music of India is ancient, centuries old. The saxophone is new, with a history of less than a hundred years. Ditto for the “electric" guitar. First generation Indian-American alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa marries the old and new in his music, on his most compelling recording to date, Agrima, featuring his Indo-Pak Coalition, featuring “electric" guitarist ...

Article: Album Review

Ernesto Cervini's Turboprop: Rev

by Dan McClenaghan
October 17, 2017

The Toronto-based septet Turboprop serves, in part, as an arrangement-expanding vehicle for drummer/leader Ernesto Cervini. With his work in two ongoing, outstanding trio's—MEM3 and Myriad3—Cervini helps shape modernist jazz in the piano trio mode. Turboprop, with its three horn front line—two saxophones and a trombone—gets the chance to stretch his arranging chops, with Rev, the group's ...

Article: Album Review

Stefano Battaglia: Pelagos

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by Dan McClenaghan
October 14, 2017

Italian pianist Stefano Battaglia, an ECM artist since 2005, is a player possessed of an alluring refinement and polish carried over into his jazz work via his classical training. His best recordings, 2015's In the Morning (ECM Records) and River Of Anyder (ECM Records, 2011), are studies intricate and understated beauty. Both are piano trio outings--a ...

Article: Album Review

Gil Spitzer: Falando Docemente

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by Dan McClenaghan
October 13, 2017

Bossa Nova music, from Brazil, became part of the America's DNA in the early 1960s, with albums like Jazz Samba (Verve Records, 1962) and Getz/Gilberto (Verve Records, 1964). The key players: Saxophonist Stan Getz, guitarist Charlie Byrd, vocalist/guitarist Joao Gilberto; composer/pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim. With Falando Docemente alto saxophonist Gil Spitzer--who cites Stan Getz ...

Article: Album Review

Marc Copland: Nightfall

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by Dan McClenaghan
October 6, 2017

Between 2006 and 2012 pianist Marc Copland produced a rich discography on the Pirouet Records label. With a cast of top level sidemen—Gary Peacock, Paul Motian, John Abercrombie, Drew Gress, Billy Hart—he shaped up his distinctive sound and and lifted his profile into the stars. The year 2012 saw Copland's last Pirouet release, Some More Love ...

Article: Album Review

Teri Parker: In The Past

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by Dan McClenaghan
October 2, 2017

Toronto-based pianist Teri Parker has released three CDs with her Parker Abbott Trio--including Elevation (Self Produced, 2016). The Parker Abbott Trio features Parker paired with another keyboardist--Simeon Abbott--and a drummer, sounding electric and modernistic. Now she presents In The Past, her first release with her more acoustic quartet. The line-up is the standard rhythm section ...