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Chuck Owen & the Jazz Surge / Swiss Jazz Orchestra / The Aggregation
by Jack Bowers
Chuck Owen & the Jazz Surge The Comet's Tail MAMA Records 2009 On The Comet's Tail, Chuck Owen's superb Florida-based Jazz Surge performs the compositions--yes, compositions--of the late great tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker. As Owen writes in the liner notes, [Michael's] blinding brilliance as a performer / improviser...may ...
Mo'Fone: Sling Shot
by Ian Patterson
It must be challenging for Mo'Fone to secure gigs and, no doubt, many a venue refused them once the trio explained its lineup as two saxophones and drums. It's a setup sure to suggest an avant-garde trip or vaudeville novelty outing but the music on Sling Shot is, in fact, both tremendously listenable and serious. While ...
Jazz Middelheim 2009
by Martin Longley
Jazz Middelheim 2009Park Den BrandtAntwerpenBelgium The Jazz Middelheim festival is nearing its fortieth anniversary, but it's a weekender that hasn't relinquished a fondness for adventure. Nuzzling up against its stellar bookings are acts, Belgian and otherwise, who seek to jolt the expectations of many audience members. The entertaining middle way ...
Live 1973-2007
by John Kelman
With all of British mega-group Genesis' studio discography now available in remixed/remastered form, including 5.1 surround mixes and a bevy of bonus audio and video features, the only commercial material left to receive engineer Nick Davis' careful attention is its series of four live albums. These begin with Genesis Live (Charisma, 1973) and end with The ...
Andy Emler: Crouch, Touch, Engage
by Jean-Marc Gelin
With Crouch, Touch, Engage, Andy Elmer is back. He is one of the most influential pianist/composers to have appeared on the French scene in the last 15 years, having explored all the possible links between jazz and rock. He has collaborated with some major jazz artists, including (Michel Portal, François Jeanneau, Trilok Gurtu and the late ...
Ted Kooshian's Standard Orbit Quartet: Underdog And Other Stories...
by Mark Corroto
Ignore the fact that pianist Ted Kooshian regularly covers cartoon and TV music in his quartet and what's left is an appreciation for music that swings exceptionally hard, and a passion for each tune that is anything but animated." Kooshian's Standard Orbit Quartet has produced its second volume of music, Underdog And Other Stories..., following a ...
Gutbucket: A Modest Proposal
by Glenn Astarita
This multitasking quartet offers a sense of newness to the jazz realm by crossing borders and taking an aggressive, raucous and well-rehearsed stance. In theory, the band should capture the attention of the young and thoroughly hip, along with the adventurous music aficionados who yearn for a sense of musical excitement. Gutbucket rocks the ...
Luca Aquino: Lunaria
by Nicholas F. Mondello
Not very long ago, there was an interesting best-selling fiction book entitled Einstein's Dreams (Random House, 1992). In it, author Alan Lightman depicted what might have been the unusual dreams of a young Albert Einstein as he developed his Relativity Theories. Each short chapter covered time/relativity-related dreams of places where time went in reverse, stood still, ...
Emile Parisien Quartet: Original Pimpant
by Jean-Marc Gelin
It's almost incongruous to write about Emile Parisien's Original Pimpant, considering the importance of its collective dimension. This is not only about the soprano saxophonist's quartet. Parisien--young prodigy, pupil and proof of the good reputation of France's Marciac jazz school--is not looking for individual recognition here. His is a distinctive approach that's about a collective construction ...
Marc Ducret: Le sens de la marche
by Jean-Marc Gelin
From the word go, guitarist Marc Ducret's Le sens de la marche enters another world, an unsettled one full of surprise and anguish--one for which there can be no preparation. Vaguely reminiscent of Frank Zappa, King Crimson and Tim Berne, it's a musical hubbub of organized chaos--systematic in theory but brutal and brilliant in practice. The ...


