Results for "Geno Thackara"

Anat Cohen Tentet: Happy Song

by Geno Thackara
July 30, 2024

Slowly Rolling Camera: Silver Shadow

by Geno Thackara
July 28, 2024

Apparently you can roll quite a long way in a decade, slowly or not. To jump from Slowly Rolling Camera's self-titled debut (Edition, 2014) to Silver Shadow feels like hearing two different bands entirely. Granted, they switched from vocal songs to all-instrumental pieces along the way, so just about any outfit would sound completely changed. Besides ...

Chance Hayden: Baritone Gold

by Geno Thackara
July 6, 2024

Someone with a musical personality as bright as Chance Hayden's does not need much of a reason to throw a party. If past recordings are anything to go by, the fellow is already willing and eager to kick off a fun rocking jam session at the drop of a hat. This particular occasion was sparked by ...

Angelique Kidjo: Crosseyed and Painless

by Geno Thackara
June 8, 2024

How to tackle a high-energy classic packed with layers of overlapping rhythms? Perhaps by giving it some unexpected breathing space. Angelique Kidjo's Afro-chant treatment (much like the Talking Heads whole-album cover from which it comes) is just as intense as the source, but interestingly smolders more than burns, in a way rather more moody and bewitching. ...

Inspired by Water

by Geno Thackara
May 5, 2024

Here we have a timeless theme that has been providing inspiration for artists as long as people have made art. It's easy to see why water is a perennial subject, and for something so endlessly changeable, it's no surprise that these works could hardly be more different. Fergus McCreadie Trio Stream Edition ...

Afro-Celt Sound System: Colossus

by Geno Thackara
April 7, 2024

Gleb Kolyadin: Voyager

by Geno Thackara
March 19, 2024

Not content to merely master the tricky art of the piano, Gleb Kolyadin manages the even trickier art of crossing prog and classical without relying on volume or bombast. Even if his brand of fusion has plenty of electricity and a share of sweeping drama, somehow this degree of brain-twisting complexity never feels pompous or overblown. ...

Daniel Herskedal: A Single Sunbeam

by Geno Thackara
March 13, 2024

What Del Close did for the art of improv comedy or Jacques Torres for the art of chocolate, Daniel Herskedal does for the tuba. An occasional star such as Bob Stewart has taken the instrument somewhere fresh outside the time-honored contexts of orchestra or marching band, but it is another thing to make the entire tradition ...

Matthew Halsall: Bright Sparkling Light

by Geno Thackara
March 11, 2024

Like an author adding a surprise epilogue when you thought the novel was all wrapped up, Matthew Halsall turns out to still have another turn up his sleeve. An Ever Changing View (Gondwana, 2023) offered the musical equivalent of a seaside creative retreat--the kind of vacation that inevitably seems too short, yet would also feel less ...

Michelle Lordi: Two Moons

by Geno Thackara
March 1, 2024

The art of the jazz diva does not shy away from the dark and mysterious. From putting a spell on somebody to helplessly falling under that old black magic, the tradition always seems to include some small touch of witchery, and Michelle Lordi, for her part, does not let a modern-day sound obscure those roots. The ...