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Article: Album Review

Satoko Fujii: Gen Himmel

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by Dan McClenaghan
August 27, 2013

Satoko Fujii's notoriety is based on her originality, energy, and an unmatchable sense of fearlessness and adventure in the creation of music. As a leader of numerous ensembles--duos, trios, quartets, and big bands--she is a gregarious and generous spirit. Her music ebbs and flows, a moment of captivating serenity followed by a burst of a clamorous, ...

Article: Album Review

Mark Masters: Everything You Did

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by Dan McClenaghan
August 21, 2013

Rock band Steely Dan released Pretzel Logic (ABC) in 1974. The album was big, one its most successful. But with younger audiences unfamiliar with jazz, the disc surely must have caused some confusion, along the lines of: “What in the world is this 'East St. Louis Toodle-oo?' And what are they talking about with 'Parker's Band?'" ...

Article: Album Review

Kaze: Tornado

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by Dan McClenaghan
August 20, 2013

Kaze, one of pianist Satoko Fujii's many groups, offers up its sophomore effort with Tornado. A quartet lineup of piano, two trumpets and drums, it's sound is as idiosyncratically original and no-hold-barred as it comes. The trumpets often sound like trumpets--brassy one minute then whispery the next. The two trumpets spit hard, rapid-fire notes and long ...

Article: Album Review

Mark Dresser Quintet: Nourishments

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by Dan McClenaghan
August 15, 2013

There's evidence of bassist Mark Dresser's audacity and originality in his sideman work with Satoko Fujii, opening the title tune of the Japanese pianist's Trace a River (Libra Records, 2008) with a ghostly arco whine that sounds as if it drifted in out of the twilight zone, before the ever-mercurial Fujii shifts the tune into a ...

Article: Album Review

Rotem Sivan: Enchanted Sun

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by Dan McClenaghan
August 13, 2013

Guitarist Rotem Sivan, who made the move from his native Israel to New York City in 2008, chose the trio format for his debut, Enchanted Sun. Working with just bass and drums accompanying--whether the “lead" is a piano, a horn or a guitar---is one of the most intimate ways to make music; since pianist Bill Evans' ...

Article: Album Review

ZZ Quartet: Beyond the Lines

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by Dan McClenaghan
August 4, 2013

The group is called the ZZ Quartet, and no, it is not an expansion of the famed blues rock trio from Texas, ZZ Top. Beyond the Lines is the brainchild of the leaders--the Zs of the ZZ Quartet--accordion master Simone Zanchini and guitarist Ratko Zjaca. And their music isn't rock, though elements of the genre surface, ...

Article: Album Review

Billy Bang: Da Bang!

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by Dan McClenaghan
August 1, 2013

The list of prominent jazz violinists is not a long one. Start with Stéphane Grappelli and his legendary Hot Club de France swing recordings with gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt. Then there's Stuff Smith and his innovative electrolyzing of the instrument; Joe Venuti; the late Polish firebrand Zbigniew Seifert; and the still-active, post-bop/fusion player Jean-Luc Ponty.

Article: Album Review

Iro Haarla Sextet: Kolibri

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by Dan McClenaghan
July 20, 2013

Finnish pianist Iro Haarla has expanded her customary quintet approach--trumpet, saxophone and rhythm section--with the addition of a third horn, Jari Hongisto's trombone, on Kolibri. The sextet is composed of some of Finland's most dynamic improvisors, and Haarla has given these vibrant artists the space to move the music in their own individual directions within the ...

Article: Extended Analysis

Denny Zeitlin: Both/And

by Dan McClenaghan
July 20, 2013

Pianist Denny Zeitlin has the distinction--among many others--of having written one of the loveliest of love songs: “Love Theme From Invasion of the Bodysnatchers." The tune can be heard in its unadorned beauty on Zeitlin's Precipice (Sunnyside Records, 2010), the recording of an extraordinarily beautiful and adventurous solo concert. The original version of the tune, from ...

Article: Album Review

The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra: In the Spirit of Duke

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by Dan McClenaghan
July 16, 2013

Another tribute to bandleader/composer/pianist Duke Ellington? Is this necessary? Pulling from the archive a few recent nods to one of America's musical icons reveals 1997's elegant Count Plays Duke (Mama Records), by the Count Basie Orchestra; Don Sebesky's unabashedly gorgeous Joyful Noise (RCA Victor, 1999); and pianist Ted Howe's excellent trio affair, Ellington (Summit Records, 2005). ...