Peter Brötzmann is reunited with Japanese drummer Shoji Hano and guitarist Keiji Haino for a European tour last March. This live date recorded at Wels, Austria is about as raw and true a musical expression as it gets. Brötzmann has recorded and worked with each musician separately. He recorded Dare Devil (DIW) in 1991 with Hano ...

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Article: Album Review

Harold Mabern: Maya With Love

by Mark Corroto
June 1, 2000

There are few pianists to with whom you directly associate their hometown like Harold Mabern. Rarely is his name mentioned without stating Memphis. I guess it is a tribute to the city and to Mabern’s mentor Phineas Newborn Jr. Mabern and fellow pianists Mulgrew Miller, Geoff Keezer, and James Williams paid tribute to Newborn with their ...

147

Article: Album Review

James Williams Magical Trio: Awesome!

by Mark Corroto
March 1, 2000

The title of pianist James Williams 1992 recording with tenor saxophonists George Coleman, Joe Henderson and Billy Pierce is James Williams Meets The Saxophone Masters (DIW/Columbia). This millenium, the designation “master” certainly belongs to Williams. The Memphis born musician was raised on Gospel and R&B, but soon turned to the music of the hometown pianists Harold ...

169

Article: Album Review

Robert Musso: Innermedium

by Mark Corroto
March 1, 2000

Retro-jazz for a forty-something listener is not Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue or John Coltrane’s My Favorite Things both of which were recorded forty years ago. No, our jazz roots are fusion. Rock and Roll nurtured babies dug Jimi Hendrix before Jon Hendricks. We came to jazz through electric jazz and fusion. Bitches Brew (1969) was ...

Album

Memphis Piano Convention

By Various Artists

Label: DIW
Released: 1999

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Article: Album Review

Various Artists: Memphis Piano Convention

by Wayne Zade
July 1, 1999

This collection of solo piano performances pre-dates two releases by the Contemporary Piano Ensemble, aka the Phineas Newborn, Jr. Project, who perform in unison with a rhythm section. Memphis Piano Convention features the impressions of six pianists from Memphis, Newborn's hometown, who either studied with or were influenced by him: James Williams, Donald Brown, Mulgrew Miller, ...

Album