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Monty Alexander at the Avalon Theater
by Geno Thackara
Monty Alexander and Friends The Avalon Theater Easton, MD August 31, 2019 Ten years," Monty Alexander wryly observed at the center-stage microphone with a disbelieving shake of the head. Ten years of this festival, and 75 years as me." It was a celebration of multiple anniversaries at the weekend-long Labor Day ...
Siril Malmedal Hauge & Jacob Young: Last Things
by Geno Thackara
Personal, thoughtful, starkly minimal and yet sublimely atmosphericthis is the kind of session that's terribly easy to overlook, but if it tried to grab your attention, that would really defeat the purpose. The appeal of Last Things is in its disarming straight-from-the-heart intimacy. Simple but never simplistic, it offers the aural equivalent of late-night relaxation amid ...
Maria Baptist: Here & Now 2
by Geno Thackara
Maria Baptist and big bands go way back. From a lifelong fascination with orchestras to several large-ensemble collaborations and academic competitions from the '90s onward, she's always been drawn to handling impressive quantities of brass. Whatever else she gets up to--and there's certainly no shortage of other different projects to keep rotating among--her Jazz Orchestra stays ...
3x3: Piano Trios: August 2019
by Geno Thackara
Yoko Miwa Trio Keep Talkin' Ocean Blue Tear Music 2019 When Yoko Miwa and her trio-mates get to talking, it's no wonder they only want to keep going and going. Their playful bantering elevates everything on offer here, from a couple venerable standards through a handful of playful originals showing the ...
Mu: Free Energy!
by Geno Thackara
The Greek letter mu is used in physics notation to represent the coefficient of friction--and accordingly, this wacky and brainy crew could have hardly chosen a more relatable handle. The name seems to conflict with inventor Nikola Tesla's famous concept of free (i.e. all-natural) energy, but the clash is pretty apt for Free Energy!, which revels ...
Michele Rabbia - Gianluca Petrella - Eivind Aarset: Lost River
by Geno Thackara
There is a bewitching soundscape from a group of subtle and skilled aural sculptors on this beautifully abstract ECM Records session. The players' backgrounds touch on jazz, electronics, European folk and much more, but none of that really matters here. Their approach on Lost River is free of form and convention in the most liberating sense. ...
Kevin Hays & Lionel Loueke: Hope
by Geno Thackara
It would have been easy to leave well enough alone. Kevin Hays and Lionel Loueke made a delightful recording the first time arounda most happy clash of hemispheres blending urban jazz and world-folk balladry, crossing upbeat piano with lively scat-singing, frisky African rhythm play and much more. Nonetheless, a slot with Edition Records offered them a ...
HILA PUNTUR: Plastic Polaroid
by Geno Thackara
Aren't Polaroids largely plastic already? What other kind is there? Does this title signify that the work is fixed like a photograph or malleable like, well, plastic itself? Is it a quickly captured snapshot, or a work craftily molded into shape? When approaching Hila Puntur, all of the above are somewhat true. It's best to leave ...
Resonance Records: The Art of the Sampler
by Geno Thackara
Resonance Records is a refreshing success story in the modern jazz world, still happily defying the norms of the streaming age with unflagging class and style. Even familiar listeners can lose sight of what a catalogue of material they've gathered, which is where 2019's handful of budget samplers come in. Co-president Zev Feldman declares that he's ...
Ronny Wiesauer: Monologues
by Geno Thackara
If you are willing to learn, learn from the best. Guitarist Ronny Wiesauer has clearly taken the right lessons from the likes of Egberto Gismonti and Ralph Towner--he is a happily understated player, at home in the worlds of studious classical and informal jazz alike. He has played in different contexts and featured his own pieces ...


