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Sylvain Del Campo: Eclipsis
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Saxophonist Sylvain del Campo's quartet is the sort of group favored by Aphrodite Records label boss Jean-Jacques Grabowski: earnest journeymen who, in the midst of uniformly good performances, manage from time to time to pull off remarkable moments.For del Campo, the remarkable moments begin early on Eclipsis, with a frenetic sax-plus-drums passage midway through ...
Plamen Karadonev: Crossing Lines
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Pianist and accordionist Plamen Karadonev has been down more than a few musical roads in his comparatively young life--playing folk music on television and radio in his native Bulgaria, studying classical music in Sofia, studying jazz at Berklee, gigging around Boston--and many of these meanderings are echoed in the varied music presented on Crossing Lines, his ...
John Chin: Blackout Conception
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
The début recording by pianist John Chin features two compositions by Kenny Barron, and fans of the great Philadelphia pianist will most probably like Blackout Conception for the elements it shares with Barron's playing: a strong, deliberate touch, bluesy delivery, well-argued improvisation, a streak of sentimentality.The songs on this record are long-ish. This is ...
Stephane Morilla 5tet: Facon Puzzle
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
These are boom times indeed for fans of the Fender Rhodes in jazz. You have Craig Taborn in Chris Potter's Underground and Uri Caine in Dave Douglas's Quintet. Not so far back, we were even treated to six newly issued hours of Keith Jarrett's gloriously mind-bending early experiments with the instrument with Miles Davis on The ...
Cuong Vu: Vu-tet
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
It's a funny sensation of displacement, the “Vu effect." One moment, you're embraced by a warm and almost New Age-y sense of wholeness. This is the case of leader Cuong Vu's airy, ethereal trumpet playing on “Intro" or “Now I Know." In the same vein, bassist Stomu Takeishi borrows liberally from Jaco Pastorious' trick bag (e.g. ...
Guillaume de Chassy: Faraway So Close
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
On the heels of two highly-acclaimed duet recordings with bassist Daniel Yvinec (the latter recently named to head France's National Jazz Orchestra), pianist Guillaume de Chassy last year released a remarkable Piano solo (Bee Jazz, 2007). You see the trend: duo, solo--the band can't get any smaller, so de Chassy has released a record for piano ...
Leslie Pintchik: Quartets
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
How to keep the exacting piano-trio format fresh sounding? Leslie Pintchik rises to that challenge by making the trio a quartet. Not one or many quartets, but two quartets. The strategy is a successful one.On five tracks, pianist Pintchik, bassist Scott Hardy and drummer Mark Dodge are joined by percussionist Satoshi Takeishi (the brother ...
Frank Macchia: Landscapes
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
The prospect of a saxophone and strings record is likely to call to mind Charlie Parker's controversial Bird With Strings (Mercury, 1949), but that's not the obvious reference point once you've listened to this recording. Saxophonist Frank Macchia's Landscapes is a saxophone concerto for classical orchestra, framed by treatments of classic American songs in the same ...
Olivier Robin / Sebastien Jarrousse Quintet: Dream Time
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Since Van Halen II (1979), if not before, the sophomore curse has beset bands' second albums. After a lifetime of collecting material for the first record, the short calendar for the follow-up imposes a harsh discipline that is not always friendly to the artist. Well, that might have been Van Halen's excuse, anyway; in jazz, the ...
Jeff Dayton-Johnson's Best of 2007
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Identifying the best releases of the year is a simple matter. There are only two conditions: (1) Have unerring critical judgment; and (2) Listen to every release of the year. The rest falls into place. Both are necessary conditions, by the way--even if you have unerring taste, you might miss a masterpiece if you slack off ...
