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Results for "Geno Thackara"
Pat Metheny & Brad Mehldau: Summer Day
by Geno Thackara
"Summer" is a frequent shorthand for “loud and bright," but the span of the day can include a whole lot of tones more subtle and colorful. This is the scene Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau paint on this highlight of their mostly-duo debut recording (Nonesuch Records, 2006), weaving a broad palette of tones like a sky ...
Back Door: Vienna Breakdown: The Recordings 1971-1976
by Geno Thackara
It was a whole different world back then, me lad. A person could not simply plug in a couple gizmos and record an album in their bedroom--well, not a very good-sounding one at any rate. It was fairly rare for an early-'70s combo to wing it on their own (or at least with a friendly venue ...
GoGo Penguin: Necessary Fictions
by Geno Thackara
What exactly is the entity known as GoGo Penguin? After several recordings developing a niche they call “acoustic electronica"--an amorphous recipe of rock-and techno-oriented hooks played on jazz instruments in real time--one might have thought we had the answer to that question with the eponymous GoGo Penguin (Blue Note, 2020). Like many self-titled albums, it made ...
Trey Anastasio: The 5th Round
by Geno Thackara
Merely keeping up with Trey Anastasio's work in all its contexts would practically be a full-time job. It would be easy to miss the fact that his solo catalogue includes an instrumental big-band-funk album--nestled in between an eclectic guitar-rocker and a work for orchestra, naturally enough--but this stomping ten-piece combo is just too much fun to ...
The Counterfictionals: An Incomplete Encyclopedia of Gentle Emotions
by Geno Thackara
Any hardcore film buff will tell you that plot is not really what is important--or as the estimable critic Roger Ebert often said, the thing is “not what a movie is about, it's how it is about it." This is a lesson Kristoffer Rosing-Schow and The Counterfictionals have indeed taken to heart. Their pieces are mostly ...
Snowpoet (Lauren Kinsella & Chris Hyson): Heartstrings
by Geno Thackara
If the soul of a poet is determined to follow the muse anywhere, that means being ready to accept some emotional ups and downs--or if not always ready, then willing to take the ride anyway. Wordsmith Lauren Kinsella and sonic craftsman Chris Hyson have certainly taken their share of creative swings under the Snowpoet name, crossing ...
Thelonious Monk: Monk's Mood
by Geno Thackara
Thelonious Himself (Riverside, 1957) was a perfectly suitable title for a solo album showcasing the quirky essence of Thelonious Monk. It may forever be a mystery as to why he and/or producer Orrin Keepnews saw fit to add other players for the very last track, but whether it was out of place or not, we can ...
Three Short Trips with Torben Westergaard
by Geno Thackara
Insert cliche here about how good things can come in small packages. While the world continues insistently churning with digital chatter and ADHD, Torben Westergaard has been leaning toward the simple and concise with a string of snack-sized (yet wildly eclectic) EPs. If you know the bassist's history or personality, though, you can guess that this ...
Daniel Herskedal: Movements of Air
by Geno Thackara
Quick--when you think of instruments that sound airy, what comes to mind? Piccolo, mandolin, some kind of synthesizer or possibly the theremin? Most of us would take quite some time before guessing the tuba. It takes some imagination to look past its conventional low lines and thumps, but Daniel Herskedal is just that kind of thinker. ...
