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Carl Bartlett, Jr.: Hopeful
by Dan McClenaghan
Alto saxophonist Carl Bartlett, Jr. was pushing his late twenties when he figured it was high time that he put out a CD. Hopeful resulted, and the Queens, New York native proved he was more than ready for the task. Opening boldly, with a five minute sax solo--the disc's title tune--the young artist announces his arrival. ...
Michael Gallant Trio: Completely
by Dan McClenaghan
The art of the piano trio can go the conservative route. How many players are out there going over the same jazz standards, the same American Songbook tunes? Some do it very well; others sound uninspired. But things evolve. Bill Evans created a quiet revolution with his late fifties/early sixties trio with bassist Scott La Faro ...
Tommy Flanagan / Jaki Byard: The Magic of 2
by Dan McClenaghan
One of San Francisco's most famous jazz venues, Keystone Korner, closed in 1983. It was a favorite venue of the top jazz players of the day, and several landmark live albums by pianists Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner, and saxophonists Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Stan Getz, resulted from shows taped inside its hallowed hall.The ...
Anthony Branker & Word Play: Uppity
by Dan McClenaghan
On Uppity, Dr. Anthony Branker, Director of Jazz Studies at Princeton University, has created a life-affirming, sometimes funky, and straight-through beautiful set of sounds--an ode to the resiliency and basic goodness of the human spirit.Branker began his jazz journey as a trumpeter, but complications from a brain aneurysm in 1999 brought his trumpet playing ...
Verneri Pohjola & Black Motor: Rubidium
by Dan McClenaghan
Just going by the name, for those unfamiliar with the thriving Scandinavian jazz scene, a group calling itself Black Motor might be mistaken for a heavy metal rock band--a smash-and-crash set of drums, a blasting three-chord guitar and a wall-shaking bass wrapped around bellowed lyrics. But the real Black Motor, a drums/bass/saxophone outfit--joined on Rubidium by ...
Jeremy Woolhouse: The Persistence of Dreaming
by Dan McClenaghan
The translation of melancholy into music can be a beautiful thing in any genre. Jazz, with its focus, on improvisation (to varying degrees), allows an artist to explore the nuances of mood. A framework that gives way to in-the-moment rumination or flights of fancy can make for the most evocative of sounds.Melbourne, Australia-based pianist ...
Adam Berenson and Bill Marconi: A Codex of Silent Voices
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist/composer Adam Berenson is a mystery; his Facebook page features nothing about his music-making and, in its photo section, a couple of Jackson Pollock-like abstract paintings along with a Van Gogh-inspired seascape. The song titles on his numerous releases perpetuate the mystery--"Sepulchral Vicissitudes" and Emotional Idiot," from Contextual (1999),and the title track to The Mystery of ...
Ilia Skibinsky: The Passage
by Dan McClenaghan
The youthful saxophonist/composer Ilia Skibinsky strikes a thoughtful pose, gazing down at his horn on the nicely designed cover of his debut, The Passage. The substitution of a much older visage would have been believable, given the depth and beauty of the playing, and the writing on the set's nine original compositions.Born in Russia, ...
Pamela Hines Trio: 3.2.1.
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Pamela Hines has been busy on the jazz scene for fifteen years, producing many excellent CDs featuring her quartets and quintets, as well as pairings with several top-notch vocalists. A first-rate composer of engaging and memorable tunes who put out one of the coolest Christmas albums, New Christmas (Spice Rack, 2008), she should be better ...
Inbar Fridman: Time Quartet Project
by Dan McClenaghan
In a quartet that includes both guitar and piano, a certain symbiosis between the players is necessary for the success of the sound. Israeli guitarist Inbar Fridman has established that relationship of musical symbiosis with pianist Camelia Ben Naceur, part of a trio Fridman calls the French mob" that also includes bassist Laurent Chavoit and drummer ...


