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Article: Album Review

Lauren Bush: All My Treasures

Read "All My Treasures" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
November 20, 2016

Toronto-bred and now London-based Lauren Bush introduces herself --on her debut, All My Treasures--as a traditional, vivacious, and supremely confident vocalist, in the mode of Ella Fitzgerald or Anita O'Day. And the tunes she calls her treasures are mostly from the familiar end of the Great American Songbook spectrum. The voice is sassy/brassy, horn ...

Article: Album Review

Stu Harrison: Volume 1

Read "Volume 1" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
November 19, 2016

Toronto-based pianist Stu Harrison doesn't boast much of an internet presence, so we'll go with the music: Stu Harrison: Volume I is a celebration of the standard piano trio format, a joyful immersion into ten familiar tunes, beginning with Lerner & Lowe's “The Street where You Live," from My Fair Lady soundtrack. The lively take on ...

Article: Album Review

The Common Quartet: The Hive

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by Dan McClenaghan
November 14, 2016

The first spin of any particular recording is more often than not a cursory affair, a listening experience done without undivided attention; and The Hive, by the Brooklyn-based Common Quartet, under these conditions, seemed to have a West Coast cool jazz vibe. And saxophonist Seth Trachy brought Paul Desmond, of the Dave Brubeck Quartet, to mind, ...

Article: Album Review

Steve Heckman: Legacy: A Coltrane Tribute

Read "Legacy: A Coltrane Tribute" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
November 13, 2016

Saxophonist Steve Heckman has spent a good deal of his career walking in the footsteps of saxophone giant John Coltrane, on CD offerings such as Search For Peace (Jazzed Media, 2014) and With John In Mind (World City Music, 2003). With that in mind, nobody has ever--and almost certainly never will--match 'Trane in his ability to ...

Article: Album Review

Adam Pieronczyk:

by Dan McClenaghan
November 8, 2016

Most CD reviews don't start like this, but here it is: author Erik Von Daniken came up with the “ancient astronauts thesis," laid out in his popular book, Chariots Of the Gods? (1968), speculating on the extraterrestrial meddling in early human cultures, claiming that those Earth people at those particular times lacked the requisite know how ...

News: Recording

Wadada Leo Smith Is Recognized As A National Treasure And His New Double Album "America's National Parks" Is Out Now On Cuneiform Records

November 4, 2016

“Wadada Leo Smith, in the middle of his seventh decade now, has created a body or work that qualifies him as one of America's artistic geniuses, in a league with Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Herman Melville, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis. A visionary America's National Parks, along with virtually every recording he has released in ...

Article: Album Review

Jasmine Lovell-Smith's Towering Poppies: Yellow Red Blue

Read "Yellow Red Blue" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
November 2, 2016

Soprano saxophonist/composer Jasmine Lovell-Smith released her excellent debut CD, Fortune Songs in 2012, two years after her move from her native New Zealand to New York. Four years later--after studies with Anthony Braxton and a move to Morelia, Mexico--she offers a follow-up effort, Yellow Red Blue. First rate debuts set up the expectations. Sophomore ...

Article: Album Review

BassDrumBone: The Long Road

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by Dan McClenaghan
October 30, 2016

BassDrumBone has been in the business of making bold, muscular music for forty years, starting their unusual instrumental collaboration in 1977, and releasing their first album, Ohaspe on Auricle Records, in 1979. Trombonist Ray Anderson, bassist Mark Helias and drummer Gerry Hemingway employ a free form, powerhouse approach--there's not much pussyfooting going on with this instrumentation, ...

Article: Album Review

Tom Collier: Impulsive Illuminations

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by Dan McClenaghan
October 28, 2016

Vibraphonist Tom Collier offers up something quite different from his previous Origin Records CDs, where he covered the jazz standards like John Coltrane's “Giant Steps; Miles Davis' “So What," and some seemingly unlikely pop hits: The Rolling Stones “What a Shame" and Brian Wilson's “God Only Knows," alongside his own always engaging compositions. With Impulsive Illuminations, ...

Article: Album Review

Clay Giberson: Pastures

Read "Pastures" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 26, 2016

Pianist Clay Giberson has a fifteen year resume of fine recordings on Seattle's Origin Records label. The discs are, for the most part, solo and trio outings, with the trio sets appearing under his own name or that of his long-standing Upper Left Trio. Some examples: Spaceton's Approach, (2008), and Minga Minga (2015) as Clay Giberson; ...