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ECM at 40: Enjoy Jazz Festival: Days 3-6, October 22-25, 2009
by John Kelman
Days 1-2 | Day 3-6 | Days 7-10 | Days 11-12 ECM at 40. It's hard to believe that a record label responsible for stretching the boundaries of modern music has survived the various crises that have threatened and, in some cases, decimated so many others. With Enjoy Jazz's “The Blue Sound: 40 Years ...
Mads Tolling: The Playmaker
by John Kelman
He's been around for a few years as a member of the Turtle Island Quartet, but for some he's best known for his work on Stanley Clarke's welcome return to fusion, The Toys of Men (Heads Up, 2007). Either way, The Playmaker isn't the violinist's first release as a leader--that would be Speed of Light (Self ...
Fire!: You Liked Me Five Minutes Ago
by John Kelman
Mats Gustafsson and the word “accessible" are rarely found in the same sentence. For over two decades, this Swedish reed player has been mining the extreme end of free improvisation and cued composition with like-minded players including Peter Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark, and The Thing, his ongoing collective with bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love. ...
Enjoy Jazz Festival: Days 1-2, October 20-21, 2009
by John Kelman
Days 1-2 | Day 3-6 | Days 7-10 | Days 11-12 Situated along the Neckar River in the central part of Germany, Heidelberg may seem like an unlikely place for a six-week jazz festival in the middle of the fall each year. But Enjoy Jazz, now in its eleventh year, has been bringing an ...
Various Artists: Hur! Hommage a la Musique de Christian Vander
by John Kelman
When French drummer/composer Christian Vander put together the first incarnation of his since-enduring group Magma, releasing Kobaïa (Seventh Records) in 1970, it's unlikely that he'd have known the musical subculture he was spawning. A unique blend of fusion, neoclassicism, symphonic, and progressive rock, heavily reliant on relentless repetition and chanting in Vander's created Kobaïan language, Zeuhl ...
Lama: Look What You Made Us Do
by John Kelman
Its performance rattled more than a few cages at Punkt 2008, in Kristiansand, Norway. Still, Lama's debut, Guidebook to Lamaland (Spoon Train Audio, 2008), was really a solo album hiding beneath a group name, with the exception of one cathartic live track that featured the full group. Lama's sophomore disc, Look What You Made Us Do, ...
Pat Metheny: One Quiet Night
by John Kelman
Guitarist Pat Metheny has, over the past couple years, been reissuing his Geffen-era albums, with and without his flagship Pat Metheny Group. These Nonesuch releases have all benefited from improved sonics and, in the case of Song X (1985), a well-needed remix and the addition of six tracks, completely altering the arc of this classic collaboration ...
Nguyen Le: Saiyuki
by John Kelman
He's not the first guitarist to explore the nexus of east and west--the legendary John McLaughlin is, at the very least, the first well-known six-stringer to do so--but, over the past couple decades, Nguyên Lê has been finding his own junctures. McLaughlin may have dug deep into the place where western harmony and Indian linearity meet, ...
Al Orkestra: Where Are We Now?
by John Kelman
Sometimes the best music comes from the most unexpected places. British ex-pat Joe Higham has been living in Belgium for 20 years--first studying, now teaching and gigging with a cadre of undervalued Belgian players. Plenty of artists cite a collection of influences, but this saxophonist/clarinetist and his Al Orkestra concoct a truly wonderful mélange, with touchstones ...
Stefano Bollani / Jesper Bodilsen / Morten Lund: Stone In The Water
by John Kelman
Serendipity can be a wonderful thing. Invited to perform with 2002 JazzPar prize-winner, trumpeter Enrico Rava, pianist and fellow Italian Stefano Bollani first encountered bassist Jesper Bodilsen and drummer Morten Lund when they were proposed as the rhythm section for the Danish award show and a brief tour. The chemistry was on such a deep level ...
