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The Skip Heller Trio: Mean Things Happening In This Land
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
It's increasingly difficult to tell when someone is being ironic or sincere. Skip Heller, more than a little manic and an unquestionably gifted guitarist, might not be able to tell us himself where the sincerity ends and the irony begins on this record. Start with the music. It's an energetic guitar/organ trio date, driven by the ...
Stitt's Bits: The Bebop Recordings, 1949-1952
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Sonny StittStitt's Bits: The Bebop Recordings, 1949-1952Prestige2006 There are two stories detractors tell about saxophonist Sonny Stitt (1924-82). Actually, his detractors tell many stories, but these two are chiefly musical. The first says that Stitt's musical inventiveness amounted to no more than being a reasonably good Charlie ...
Gordon Grdina / Gary Peacock / Paul Motian: Think Like the Waves
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Vancouver electric guitarist Gordon Grdina's tone is clean and low-treble; this creates a kind of dreamy effect, like Jim Hall's sound on his classic duet with Bill Evans, Undercurrent (Blue Note, 1962). And speaking of Evans, Grdina scores an impressive coup by recording this trio album in the company of two Evans alumni, bassist Gary Peacock ...
A Love Supreme on the Paris Stage
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Congolese writer Emmanuel Dongala's novella “A love supreme" (1982) is the most moving and apposite tribute to the achievement of John Coltrane, in any medium, that I know. The account of a pair of encounters between a young African expatriate in New York and John Coltrane, motivated by the death of the latter in July 1967, ...
Jane Bunnett: Radio Guantánamo: Guantánamo Blues Project Vol. 1
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Canadian saxophonist/flautist Jane Bunnett's latest installment in her long and amply requited love affair with Cuban music directs our attention to changüi, a precursor to son from the eastern part of the island that dates back to the late eighteenth century. Two changüi ensembles, from Santiago and Guantánamo (the latter featuring the incredible singing of José ...
Yusef Lateef: Eastern Sounds
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Eastern Sounds, newly remastered by Rudy van Gelder (the storied engineer who recorded the original September 1961 session), marks an early stage in Yusef Lateef's development. In particular, the record highlights two characteristics that would come to define his artistic identity: a spiritual streak and a fascination with non-Western music. Like John Coltrane (whose path resembles ...
Winard Harper Sextet: Make It Happen
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Veteran drummer Winard Harper (who has played with Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin, Betty Carter, Ray Bryant, Abdullah Ibrahim, Pharoah Sanders, Clifford Jordan and others) gives us two albums in one on Make It Happen. The first is percussion-heavy. The opening tracks, for example, present an approach to ensemble sound that recalls Mosaic-era Jazz Messengers (carefully arranged ...
Laszlo Gardony: Natural Instinct
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
What with Nils Petter Molvaer and the Ilhan Ersahin/Erik Truffaz duo twiddling the knobs, working hard to create a kind of trumpet electronica (not to mention the chaabi-electronica experiments of Bugge Wesseltoft and Michy Mano, and whatever it is that Jim Black is creating), modern plugged-in jazz is beginning to resemble a research lab. Those kinds ...
Our Theory: Our Theory
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
Our Theory, indeed. “Their" theory seems to stand in relation to Miles Davis' theory in about the same way that Louis Althusser's philosophical theory does to Karl Marx's: it comes later; it's less substantial, and is in some ways a step back from the original; it has the potential to be rabidly fashionable among young people; ...
Esperanza Spalding: Junjo
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
The debut recording by this 22-year-old Berklee instructor and Portland, Oregon native features Brazilian-inflected jazz in the company of Cuban bandmates, released by a Spanish record label. Put that way, Junjo sounds terribly worldly and logistically complicated, but in fact the record comes across as an intimate affair executed with a light touch. The Brazilian accent ...
