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Cliff Brucker: Full Circle Vol. 2

by Don Phipps
On Full Circle Vol 2, Albany, New York-based drummer Cliff Brucker and friends reach back to the swing and bop jazz periods to showcase their talents on a set of first-rate standards. These musicians clearly understand the bop trade and what emerges from their collective knowledge is solid and assured music. The entire affair is like ...
Sumrrá: 6 Mulleres

by Don Phipps
Throughout the history of jazz, musicians have looked to figures inside and outside of music for inspiration. In this tradition, the Spanish trio Sumrrá created their album, 6 Mulleres, as an homage to six women from the recent past and contemporary times who rose up and successfully challenged prevailing archetypes. Sumrrá indicates on its website that ...
Tom Abbs & Frequency Response: Hawthorne

by Don Phipps
On his album Hawthorne, Brooklyn-based Tom Abbs showcases his mastery of several instruments and writing styles. Combining free, hard bop, world, and blues styles, Abbs's compositions juxtapose explosive exposés of new music with idioms that hearken back to ancient times. Abbs is joined by Jean Cook and Jenna Barvitski on violin, Brian Settles on ...
Christian Pabst: Inner Voice

by Don Phipps
What is that quote from the movie American Beauty? Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can't take it, and my heart is just going to cave in." That's what German pianist Christian Pabst's album Inner Voice offers the jazz listener: a surrender to the beauty of music--not a sentimental beauty, ...
Ryan Meagher: Lost Days

by Don Phipps
On Lost Days, guitarist Ryan Meagher offers up ten expressive and entertaining compositions that run the gamut from blues to funk and from swing to rock. His compositions are hot and spontaneous--they break apart and fuse back together in kaleidoscopic fashion. The Portland, Oregon-based Meagher is backed by a talented group. Tenor saxophonist Bill ...
Cesar Cardoso: Interchange

by Don Phipps
On his album Interchange, Portuguese tenor saxophonist César Cardoso offers up a lively set of original compositions to make the head nod and the heart soar. Cardoso hails from Portugal and his music is vaguely reminiscent of Weather Report--but instead of Joe Zawinul's playful keyboard there is Bruno Santos on guitar, propelling the music forward with ...
William Flynn/Tim Fischer: Cross Country

by Don Phipps
Like a couple of old friends traveling through memories, thoughts and ideas, guitarists William Flynn and Tim Fischer have fashioned their album Cross Country as a conversation of grace and beauty. Flynn, a professor of Jazz Guitar at Wichita (KS) State University, and Fischer, a professor of music at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina's Coastal Carolina University ...
Michael Feinberg: Whatever Possessed Me

by Don Phipps
Tribute bands are glowingly appreciated by fans of great rock acts; perhaps it's time jazz fans got with it! Michael Feinberg's Whatever Possessed Me is a dedication to the works and sound of John Coltrane and his classic quartet with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones. The performances on this album are so good, one ...
Michael Musillami: Life Anthem

by Don Phipps
Dark, cerebral, moody, Michael Musillami's Life Anthem was inspired by his near-death experience from a brain hemorrhage and tumor. The music takes the listener on a journey from medical crisis to recovery. While the quality of abstract lyricism, improvisation, and musicianship cannot be denied, the music's harsh landscape proves at times frustrating and difficult to navigate. ...
John Zorn: The Urmuz Epigrams

by Don Phipps
Prolific composer John Zorn's The Urmuz Epigrams offers up an infectious mix of Stockhausen effects, polyrhythmic percussion, and twisty tunes, a combination which produces music that is unsettling, surprising, and humorous--often at the same time. All the pieces repeat themselves. Zorn notates the first rendition as modern" and the second as original." And while ...