On the second recorded effort with his Invocation group after 2009's Things To Come (Sunnyside), Rez Abbasi opts for more of a rock/groove vibe to underpin the guitarist's modern jazz explorations with his fairly regular cohorts, saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa and pianist Vijay Iyer. Gone is Indian vocalist Kiran Ahluwalia, who sang on much of Things To ...

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Article: Album Review

Pascal Schumacher Quartet: Bang My Can

Read "Bang My Can" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
May 24, 2011

Bang My Can is the Pascal Schumacher Quartet's fifth album, and it finds the band expanding its range as it creates yet more fascinating music. Schumacher, the Quartet's Luxembourg-born leader, is an exceptional vibes player with a sparkling, fluid sound that is by turns romantic, cheeky, and dark. The band has been together in this lineup ...

Article: Album Review

Renaud Garcìa-Fons: Méditerranées

by AAJ Italy Staff
May 2, 2011

Viaggio immaginario nella musica del mediterraneo, ricco di ritmi, suggestioni e splendide sonorità, pensato e raccontato da quel singolare musicista che è Renaud Garcìa-Fons. Francese di origina catalane, figlio di un pittore, compositore, contrabbassista e multistrumentista, Garcìa-Fons ci ha abituato a lavori di grande spessore, ma questo Mediterranées è forse una spanna sopra ad altri. E ...

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Article: Album Review

Mike Westbrook Orchestra: The Cortege

Read "The Cortege" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
April 29, 2011

At its richest, pianist/composer Mike Westbrook's work is to jazz what grand opera, in the classical world, is to chamber music. The Cortege is Westbrook at his richest, leading a 17-piece orchestra through an ambitious and brilliantly realized suite, loosely themed around the idea of a funeral procession and its after-party. Thirty years after its first ...