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Kora and Oud Explorer Kane Mathis Interviewed at All About Jazz
Seattle's Kane Mathis is one of the world's leading performers on the kora, the distinctive (usually) 21-stringed West African harp instrument that is the major instrument of the Mandinka people of Mali; the Malian equivalent of the Western keyboard. Mathis has studied the instrument since the age of twenty, making several trips to The Gambia to ...
Mercury Prize-Nominated Pianist Kit Downes Interviewed at All About Jazz
Kit Downes' career as a jazz musician has, indeed, taken off in a very short time. He's still in his mid-20s, but such is his talent and appetite for music that Downes has become one of the most sought-after keyboardist in Britain, and he's a key presence in a series of cutting-edge bands, with The Golden ...
Punkt Festival 2010
by John Kelman
The trials and tribulations of international travel--flight delays, missing or damaged baggage, and increasing limitations on said baggage--can be enough to frustrate even the most patient and seasoned world traveler. But despite an almost incredible confluence of problems flying to Kristiansand, Norway, for Punkt 2010, once there all such problems were forgotten. Punkt is simply too ...
Anat Fort: And If
by John Kelman
Pianist Anat Fort's ECM debut, A Long Story (2007) may have featured her “dream team"--and was all the better for it--but there's something to be said for the comfort and chemistry of longtime collaborators. Bassist Gary Wang and drummer Roland Schneider may not have the cachet of Ed Schuller or Paul Motian, but having worked with ...
Norma Winstone: Stories Yet to Tell
by John Kelman
Distances (ECM, 2008) wasn't British vocalist Norma Winstone's first release to feature her current trio of reedman Klaus Gesing and pianist Glauco Venier, but with ECM Records' greater exposure and reputation, it was the first to reach a broader international audience. With Distance a largely lyric-based alternative to Winstone's always lovely wordless vocals on Chamber Music ...
Charles Lloyd Quartet: Mirror
by John Kelman
Sometimes the trust in knowing can yield more than the excitement of uncharted territory. Charles Lloyd ratchets down the energy from Rabo De Nube (ECM, 2008), one of the most exciting, free-wheeling albums and new groups of the saxophonist's half century career. Relying on the quartet's increasingly profound chemistry--and mostly recycled material rather than Rabo's largely ...
Dave Liebman: Live / As Always and Quest for Freedom
by John Kelman
Quite possibly the hardest-working saxophonist--if not the hardest working musician, period--these days, not a month goes by when there doesn't seem to be a new release from veteran jazzer Dave Liebman.In the twelve months since autumn 2009 alone, Liebman has been spotted in freer terrain, collaborating with another active saxophonist, Evan Parker, ...
Quest: Searching for the New Sound of Be-Bop
by John Kelman
QuestSearching for the New Sound of Be-BopStoryville Records2010 There are groups that become legends in their own time and others that only gain momentum after that time has come and gone. Quest was by no means unsuccessful during its ten-year run beginning with its self-titled, Japan-only, 1981 debut, ...
Dave Holland & Pepe Habichuela: Hands
by John Kelman
Sometimes the best indicator of an artist's versatility is in the side projects they accept. Bassist Dave Holland's career could hardly be described as monolithic, with his discography as a leader--ranging from his quintet (Critical Mass (Dare2, 2006)) to his big band (Overtime (Dare2, 2005)) --nothing short of but exemplary. Still, some of the most unexpected ...
Larry Carlton / Tak Matsumoto: Take Your Pick
by John Kelman
It's a shame that artists' careers are reduced to oversimplifications of who they are and what they're capable of. Guitarist Larry Carlton, for example--despite releasing kick-ass blues-centric records like Sapphire Blue (Bluebird, 2004) and, more recently, the exciting yet unfailingly tasty Live in Tokyo (335 Records, 2007), not to mention delivering iconic solos on Steely Dan ...
