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Miguel Zenon Quartet at 36th Annual Chicago Jazz Festival
by Hrayr Attarian
Miguel Zenon Quartet Millenium Park, Jay Pritzker Pavilion 36th Annual Chicago Jazz Festival Chicago, IL August 31st 2014 The last evening of the festival was pleasantly warm and mild and the millennium park, around the Jay Pritzker Pavilion band shell was packed with people. The Frank Gehry designed signature stainless ...
Paul Giallorenzo's Git Go: Force Majeure
by Hrayr Attarian
Pianist Paul Giallorenzo's Force Majeure, his second album with his ensemble GitGo, covers a wide variety of motifs but maintains a consistently stimulating, darkly hued ambience. This and Giallorenzo's unique style and modal harmonies give the disc its cohesive character. The music ranges from the free flowing, five-way conversation on “A Tone" to the ...
Mark Guiliana: Emulating The Source
by Ben Scholz
Over the past ten years, electronic music and jazz have developed a curious relationship. As programmers and DJs sought to remove the human element from their beats and loops, acoustic musicians sought to apply the tight, complex patterns of house and trance music to their traditional instruments. Drummer Mark Guiliana is at the forefront of this ...
Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra: Matter Anti-Matter
by John Sharpe
When he was under contract with Arista in the 1970s, reedman Anthony Braxton discovered that he was able to slip under the rug the release of some of his less commercially viable works, such as the mammoth For Four Orchestras (1978), by alternating them with more traditional quartet material. While electro-acoustic composer and cornetist Rob Mazurek ...
Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble: Intergalactic Beings
by John Sharpe
Intergalactic Beings forms the second chapter in flutist Nicole Mitchell's science fiction derived discographical strand. Like the first, Xenogenesis Suite (Firehouse 12, 2008), it showcases Mitchell the composer, again drawing her inspiration from the Afrofuturist novels of Octavia Butler, in which survivors of nuclear holocaust are plucked from earth by aliens who believe that interbreeding is ...
Spiral Mercury - Chicago/Sao Paulo Underground featuring Pharoah Sanders: Pharoah & The Underground
by Glenn Astarita
Renowned tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and new music, jazz-centric pioneer, cornetist Rob Mazurek bridge alternate generations of avant-gard-isms with this highly persuasive and indubitably, audacious production. It's an electro-acoustic meeting of futuristic minds, intersecting the trumpeter's Sao Paulo Underground and Chicago Underground ensembles. Moreover, they yield intergalactic nods to classic space rock via Guilherme Granado's inventive ...
Simon Phillips: Protocol II
by Ben Scholz
It has been 14 years since the release of Vantage Point, Simon Phillips' last project as a leader, and nearly 26 years since his debut album Protocol. In these years, Phillips has become a drummer to the stars, recording and performing with the likes of Jeff Beck, The Who, and Judas Priest. In '92, following the ...
Pat Mallinger Quartet With Bill Carrothers: Elevate
by Dan McClenaghan
Chicago-based saxophonist Pat Mallinger's Home on Richmond (Self Produced, 2011), featuring pianist Bill Carrothers, introduced a superb teaming of talents. Mallinger could be tagged as a mainstreamer, but only in an elastic interpretation of the label, something like calling sax man Jackie McLean a straight ahead jazz guy. Maybe, but he, like Mallinger sure does test ...
Jason Ajemian: A Way A Land Of Life
by John Sharpe
While the talented cast dazzles, what comes across most strongly on this 42-minute LP is the controlling mind of bassist Jason Ajemian. Part of the fertile underground scene in Chicago, Ajemian has featured with Ken Vandermark and Matt Bauder, as well as cornetist Rob Mazurek's Exploding Star Orchestra. But none of that really prepares one for ...
John Riley: Inspiring Innovation
by Ben Scholz
Foremost an innovator, John Riley has always been a “drummer's drummer" in the world of straight-ahead jazz. With nearly a hundred recordings, a dozen videos, and five books under his belt, Riley is a veritable font of knowledge in the bebop realm. In this article, we take a look back at some of his musical endeavors ...
