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Hilario Durán and his Latin Jazz Big Band: Cry Me A River
by John Chacona
Believe it or not, people were writing kiss-off songs long before Taylor Swift and Justin Timberlake. This one was made famous by the unjustly neglected Julie London in 1955, but you've never heard it done like this before. Havana-born pianist Hilario Duran arranged this title song from a 2023 recording on his own Alma Records label ...
Mike Reed / The Separatist Party: A Low Frequency Nightmare
by John Chacona
In 2021, the Chicago instrumental drone trio Bitchin Bajas dropped Switched on Ra (Drag City), a collection of Sun Ra covers for synthesizers. Drummer, bandleader and scenemaker Mike Reed probably heard the cassette-only release and he almost certainly heard the band's October 2021 performance of that material at his Hungry Brain venue. They must have made ...
Yuhan Su: Naked Swimmer
by John Chacona
For Liberated Gesture, her fourth release, Taiwan-born, New York vibraphonist Yuhan Su assembled a band of saxophonist Caroline Davis, pianist Matt Mitchell, bassist Marty Kenney and drummer Dan Weiss, all of whom play at their usual exalted level. That's fast company, but Su holds her own, moving smoothly in and out of taut ensemble passages and ...
Ethan Philion: Gnosis
by John Chacona
When it comes to making memorable entrances, Ethan Philion is on a par with Seinfeld's Kramer. The Chicago bassist burst into the scene with Meditations on Mingus (Sunnyside Records, 2022), an audacious debut recording on which he arranged familiar selections and deep cuts from the towering jazz bassist Charles Mingus. On Gnosis, the forces are smaller ...
Michelle Lordi: Only Love Can Break Your Heart
by John Chacona
"Only Love Can Break Your Heart," a minor 1970 Neil Young hit, was ostensibly written for Graham Nash after the latter's split from Joni Mitchell (a claim Young later walked back), a breakup song then. It's a lilting waltz with a simple melody more sweet than sad. Cycling eight-bar verse and chorus sections without a bridge ...
Anthony Fung: Boo Boo's Birthday
by John Chacona
Show business savants know the power of a marquee name in the credits, and the lesson has not been lost on jazz musicians. So it's no surprise that Canadian-born drummer Anthony Fung invited fellow Angeleno Mark Turner to guest on Fo(u)rth (Self Produced, 2023). The risk of being upstaged is always present, even with an artist ...
Dave Meder: Modern Gothic
by John Chacona
Hymn tunes are having a bit of a moment with players such as Dave Douglas and James Brandon Lewis calling on these sturdy old melodies for projects that often wander far from their plain, homespun source material. On New American Hymnal (Outside in Music, 2023), pianist Dave Meder goes a step further by making the communal ...
Jacques Schwarz-Bart: The Harlem Suite
by John Chacona
Tenor saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart has lived in Paris, Senegal, and Switzerland as well as his native island of Guadeloupe, but his 18 years in Harlem were crucial to his life and career. It was there that he found himself at an inflection point in the dynamic music scene of the late '90s, playing with such transformative ...
Dorothy Ashby: With Strings Attached, 1957-1965
by John Chacona
Imagine if Sidney Bechet, Charlie Christian and Jimmy Smith were barely remembered and recordings of their music were long unavailable and known only on the geekiest corners of Discogs. That is essentially the status of harpist Dorothy Ashby. Like the three figures cited above, Ashby essentially created a language for her chosen instrument, the harp, where ...
The Nimmons Tribute: Volume 2 - Generational
by John Chacona
Anyone who listened to Canadian radio after the adoption of the so-called Canadian Content requirement in the '70s probably heard a lot of Phil Nimmons' music. To be sure, the clarinetist, composer and arranger had achieved some recognition south of the 49th parallel through his RCA recordings of the '50s but, by choosing to base his ...
