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Dan McClenaghan's Best Releases of 2012
by Dan McClenaghan
Scores of excellent CDs were released in 2012. These are some of the finest. Click on the CD titles for more in depth reviews. Hal Galper Airegin Revisited Origin Records Pianist Hal Galper has been delving deeply into his rubato explorations of the standards, along with his ...
Barcelona Voll-Damm Jazz Festival: Barcelona, Spain, November 24-30, 2012
by Bruce Lindsay
Barcelona Voll-Damm International Jazz FestivalBarcelona, SpainNovember 24-30, 2012Sometimes picking a few festival highlights is easy. A big name turns on the charm, one or two young Turks announce their arrival on the scene, someone famous steps up at a jam session--the rest is okay, just nothing special. The Barcelona Voll-Damm Internacional Jazz Festival ...
Kurt Rosenwinkel: Star of Jupiter
by John Kelman
How time flies. While he's been busy with a number of other projects--his collaboration with the Portuguese Orchestra de Jazz de Mataosinhos on the ambitious Our Secret World (Wommusic, 2010) and the intimate, standards-laden Reflections (Wommusic, 2009)--it's been four years since guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel last released a small group record focusing largely on new original music. ...
Brad Mehldau Trio: Where Do You Start
by John Kelman
Hot on the heels of Brad Mehldau's Ode (Nonesuch, 2012)--the pianist's first all-original set with his current trio--comes Where Do You Start, culled from the same recording sessions but, with the exception of one Mehldau tune, all cover material. This isn't the first time Mehldau has split a particularly fruitful session down the same compositional line: ...
Gent Jazz Festival: Days 1-4: July 5-8, 2012
by Martin Longley
Gent Jazz Festival Bijloke Gent, Belgium July 5-8, 2012 All parts of northern Europe had already been suffering an intense rainfall throughout the month of June. There was no abating once July was in swing. The forecast was pretty much for a daily downpour, and for once ...
Fly: Year of the Snake
by Mark F. Turner
While there are numerous jazz trios, few leave a lasting impression. This is not the case for Fly, consisting of younger but fully established jazz artists-- saxophonist extraordinaire Mark Turner and his equally talented cohorts, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard. At just over ten minutes, the episodic “Kingston," from the trio's ...
Unity Band
by John Kelman
In a time when compressed music is the norm—often removing the details an artist has worked so hard to capture in recording—it's great to have someone like guitarist Pat Metheny still paying attention to the very minutiae that can make a very, very good record great. Unity Band would be a very, very good record under ...
Year of the Snake
by John Kelman
When a group of musicians works together more often in extracurricular configurations with other leaders, what do they do when they come together for their own project? In the case of saxophonist Mark Turner, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard-- who, individually and collectively, have worked with everyone from pianist Brad Mehldau and guitarist Kurt ...
Brad Mehldau Trio: Denver, CO, May 11, 2012
by Geoff Anderson
Brad Mehldau TrioNewman CenterDenver, COMay 11, 2012Pianist Brad Mehldau takes jazz seriously. He named his second album as a leader The Art of the Trio (Warner Bros., 1997). But wait, he didn't use that name for just one album; he released five albums, as a series, under that name. Those albums ...
Dan Cavanagh Trio: The Heart of the Geyser
by Dan McClenaghan
There's no arguing that the best of the best in the piano trio field comes from the longterm units: on the younger end of the spectrum there's Brad Mehldau's group with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard, who replaced his long term predecessor in that chair, Jorge Rossy; and, of course, on the legendary end, ...
