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Jan Lippert Ensemble: Play Attention
by Eric J. Iannelli
Six years ago, Jan Lippert released an album on the small Storyville label entitled Imprints. It was only his second disc as leader, but he managed to attract the interest and assistance of Michael Brecker--no mean feat for a jazz guitarist little known outside his native Denmark. Play Attention, Lippert's third release, has ...
Sacha Perry: Eretik
by Eric J. Iannelli
Sacha Perry first emerged out of relative obscurity last year as a member of the Across 7 Street quintet on Made in New York, the second disc in Smalls' ever-expanding catalogue and the one that more or less established the label's prevailing sound: fresh but familiar, accessible but challenging, heady but emotive. Or to borrow others' ...
Michelle Latimer: Sings & Plays
by Eric J. Iannelli
"If youth is a fault," wrote Goethe, “it is one that one gets rid of soon enough." On Michelle Latimer's debut as leader on her own Cool Note label, her youth is not exactly a fault, but it is a liability all the same, a quality that cries out to be either tamed or overcome. Her ...
Erik Truffaz: Saloua
by Eric J. Iannelli
Jazz is by nature an act of continual fusion, the conflation of disparate styles, instrumentation and techniques into one dynamic whole. Nevertheless, one small subgenre--specifically the blending of rock and jazz--is most often applied with the “fusion" label; and though Miles Davis' name isn't exactly synonymous with the term, on the strength of his pioneering efforts ...
Neal Caine: Backstabber's Ball
by Eric J. Iannelli
Its title sounds more likely to appear in the heavy metal section of the record store, but sonically Neal Caine's Backstabber's Ball has far more in common with the classic West Coast cool jazz releases of the early '60s than the identikit angst rock of today. As such, it isn't a departure for Smalls Records; rather, ...
Bill Charlap: Plays George Gershwin: The American Soul
by Eric J. Iannelli
Pianist Bill Charlap limited himself to Leonard Bernstein-penned tunes for his previous album, Somewhere (Blue Note, 2004). For the followup (or -on, one might say) he has chosen to concentrate exclusively on another giant of American music, George Gershwin, with undoubtedly fine results. The group shrinks and swells, depending on the treatment Charlap aims to give ...
Dan Haerle: Standard Procedure
by Eric J. Iannelli
For his debut recording on Blujazz, veteran pianist and erstwhile jazz professor Dan Haerle has taken a safe but not altogether predictable tack, opting for a set of back-to-back familiar standards that lend the album its title. “Body and Soul" gets a fresh intro of leaps and cascades. Haerle maintains this technique to greater and lesser ...
Chris Walden Big Band: Home of My Heart
by Eric J. Iannelli
Recorded several years ago, in late 2002, Home of My Heart sounds as if it could have been--were it not for its handful of latter-day charts by eighties pop supernova Christopher Cross and film composer John Williams--recorded several decades earlier. The prevailing sound is classic big band, delighting in the force of its multitudes while consistently ...
Charles Lloyd Quartet: Jumping the Creek
by Eric J. Iannelli
On the cover of Charles Lloyd's latest album, a solitary figure walks with some deliberation toward a vast expanse of sea. A series of lines converge at his right, appearing to box him in like one of Francis Bacon's popes. And so before even getting so far as inserting the disc in the player, the listener ...
Tord Gustavsen Trio: The Ground
by Eric J. Iannelli
ECM considers pianist Tord Gustavsen to be the least “Nordic" of the several Norwegian artists on its roster. This is because his compositions, while typically pensive and austere, have also endeavored to incorporate the deepest roots of jazz in Afro-American blues and gospel. Musical and philosophical sophistication commingles with raw emotion and lyrical melodies, creating a ...
