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GoGo Penguin: Everything Is Going to Be OK
by Geno Thackara
There is clearly something different about GoGo Penguin on their sixth full-length: where they've previously had a pattern of evocative titles and vaguely futuristic abstract covers, this one (at first glance) looks and reads almost like a greeting card. This also comes after one-third of the trio changed with 2022's interim EP, Between Two Waves (Sony/XXIM). ...
Haeun Joo: We Will Find
by Geno Thackara
You can read a lot into the simple phrase “We Will Find," and befitting such a title--especially for a debut--Haeun Joo sounds equal parts exploratory and hopeful. The jazzy grooving and trading of solos is familiar as can be, while her wordless crooning adds a more exotic allure at the same time. Strange and charming.
Torben Westergaard: Jazz Brazil
by Geno Thackara
For Torben Westergaard, sooner or later all roads lead back to Brazil. The special flavor of South American jazz shaped his life from an early age, and has stayed a recurring staple in his music from his debut Brazilian Heart (Self Produced, 1996) through the Tangofied (Gateway) series of 2013-17. If it's taken him a while ...
Marvin Blague: Epistrophal Astronomy: The Hidden Code of Thelonious Monk
by Geno Thackara
If you've ever wondered what planet Thelonious Monk came from, you are not alone. According to Marvin Blague, you're not wrong to wonder either. Like most jazz listeners, he was not sure what to make of Monk's clunky-sounding playing style on first listen. But where many of us gradually come to enjoy how the pianist used ...
Playing the Beatles (Again)
by Geno Thackara
How to present some of these oh-so-familiar songs yet again? With a catalogue as universally known as The Beatles,' the best guideline would seem to be the more reinvention, the better. Everyone involved in these tributes, fortunately, seems to agree. Rubber Soul Quartet Something Losen Records 2023 In ...
Derek Brown: Whatever the Case May Be
by Geno Thackara
From his social-media-famous trick of analogue beatboxing to here, literally, beating on a box, Derek Brown never runs short on tricks. Just as importantly, those fun little ideas aren't gimmicks but building blocks to be used in ways both clever and musical. Whatever the context, the sonic coloring is just the topping while there's always a ...
Kevin Hays & Lionel Loueke: Feuilles-O
by Geno Thackara
One pianist with a naturally soulful touch (and a fairly rich crooning voice to boot), one guitarist with innate Afro-rhythms running through everything he does; they still make a myriad of tones for just two guys with no special effects. 2019's Hope (Edition Records) had no shortage of highlights, but their take on this sweet/sad Haitian ...
Geno Thackara's Favorites of 2022
by Geno Thackara
As with most years, the list could have easily been twice as long (and that's still without getting into an especially rich trove of archival discoveries, particularly from Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck, Esbjörn Svensson and Ahmad Jamal). Still, these are the staples that have just resonated the most. Fergus McCreadie Trio ...
Esbjorn Svensson: HOME.S.
by Geno Thackara
We've had a few from-the-vaults recordings worth celebrating since Esbjorn Svensson's sudden passing in mid-2008, but this long-belated discovery is a quiet surprise the music world could not have expected. There was the Esbjörn Svensson Trio (e.s.t.)'s final completed album Leucocyte (ACT Music) that same year, later followed by the equally exploratory 301 (ACT, 2012) which ...
Revisiting and Reinventing: Lionel Loueke and Portico Quartet
by Geno Thackara
Rearrangements and self-remixes can have a checkered story, yet sometimes the right treatment can give something just as much of a fascinating life the second time around. Lionel Loueke (with Gilles Peterson) HH Reimagined Edition Records 2022 Reinvention is one of Lionel Loueke's specialties already—from solo or duo works ...
