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Results for "Glenn Astarita"
Roscoe Mitchell: Discussions
by Glenn Astarita
Saxophonist, composer, supreme improviser and a seminal artist for modern times, Roscoe Mitchell's (AACM, Art Ensemble of Chicago) illimitable inventiveness shines forth on this outing that encompasses a 20-piece orchestra, bridging experimentalism and counterbalancing song forms with nouveau classical music applications. The final piece is seemingly derived from a New Orleans slang expression “Who ...
Jonah Parzen-Johnson: I Try To Remember Where I Come From
by Glenn Astarita
Originally from Chicago, baritone saxophonist Jonah Parzen-Johnson calls Brooklyn, N.Y. home these days but absorbed the creative spirit resident in the Windy City's progressive jazz legacy early on his career, studying and performing with some of the best. For example, he learned a great deal under the tutelage of woodwinds master Mwata Bowden, who is a ...
Magda Mayas - Jim Denley: Tempe Jetz
by Glenn Astarita
Magda Mayas (Germany) performs on a 1970s manufactured clavinet with reedman Jim Denley (Australia), augmented by their use of field recordings, as they pay homage to a “marginalized corner" of Sydney, Australia on this experimental and irrefutably adventurous improv fest. Yet I wouldn't be so bold to suggest that this is easy listening but for the ...
To Be Continued: Poetry from the Future
by Glenn Astarita
This band intensifies its artistic focus with a horde of subtleties that follow a largely, free-flowing and undulating course of action. Here, bassoonist Claire de Brunner provides the lower end of the tonal spectrum and contrasts her band-mates throughout these largely, delicate and investigative dialogues that cast a semblance of vignettes woven together. While the bassoon ...
Jorg Schippa's Kiosk: Jorg Schippa's Kiosk
by Glenn Astarita
There are numerous jazz inferences on this sprightly and diverse trio date led by German guitarist Jorg Schippa, but most tracks are blended with dissimilar genres. Indeed, variety is a common denominator throughout as the band funnels punk jazz, rock, blues and other classifications into the grand schema. The program receives some added luster via the ...
Cheer-Accident: Putting Off Death
by Glenn Astarita
This Chicago-based prog rock unit incorporates seamless genre-hopping movements on its 18th album and third for Cuneiform Records. Clocking in at a little over 38-minutes, the musicians provide upper-tier compositions, sans any hint of filler material as opposed to cramming the maximum allowable bits and bytes into the standard CD limitations. Thankfully, each piece stands on ...
Bubblemath: Edit Peptide
by Glenn Astarita
Edit Peptide is the follow-up to Minnesota-based Bubllemath's Such Fine Particles Of The Universe (Sounds Reasonable, 2002); hence, a 15-year gap purportedly due to the customary anomalies and distractions of life. But the musicians have come back with a raging vengeance via this excitable album, underscored by the prevailing math-rock component, leading to high-impact works tinted ...
Kanno - Poll - Pett - Shorr - MacDonald: Free Radicals
by Glenn Astarita
Here we have acoustic-electric instantaneous compositions --largely about nature --that defy the norms. Recorded live at a venue in Scotland the respective musicians are artistic, music and improvising professors from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. And after hearing this album, I'd imagine the professors bring a lot to ...
Angelica Sanchez: Float The Edge
by Glenn Astarita
Here, New York City-based pianist Angelica Sanchez employs the herculean rhythm section of Michael Formanek (bass) and Tyshawn Sorey (drums) and is the follow-up to her duet outing with renowned trumpeter, composer Wadada Leo Smith, Twine Forest (Clean Feed, 2014). Sanchez can be quite cerebral and is irrefutably focused while also showing a penchant ...
Amok Amor: We Know Not What We Do
by Glenn Astarita
When these gents run amok it's largely controlled, spiced with massive quantities of mind-bending narratives, crazily executed pulses and split-second paradigm shifts. You can also think of a welterweight boxer landing rapid flurries, stinging uppercuts and roundhouse knockout blows as they punch out these works with the greatest of ease, shaded with ominous intentions.
