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Rich Halley 4: The Wisdom of Rocks
by John Sharpe
Portland-based saxophonist Rich Halley mines a rich seam, despite plying his wares away from the limelight. Halley has been fortunate to overcome the plight of anyone working outside the main centers of jazz activity by finding a coterie of like-minded talents to sympathetically explore his inside/outside conundrums. As a result his discography contains a stream of ...
RED Trio and Mattias Ståhl: North And The Red Stream
by John Sharpe
On their fifth album, Swedish vibraphonist Mattias Ståhl joins the Portuguese Red Trio as a guest. He's the latest in a sequence which includes alliances with saxophonist John Butcher and trumpeter Nate Wooley on disc, and reedman Ken Vandermark in performance. The product, North And The Red Stream, comprises three collective improvisations recorded at the VDU ...
Trio 3 + Vijay Iyer: Wiring
by John Sharpe
It really should be Trio 4 by now! For their previous four albums the threesome has added a pianist to the ranks, first Geri Allen, then Irene Schweizer, then Allen again, and lastly Jason Moran. Now on Wiring Vijay Iyer takes over the piano stool. You could argue that with their credentials saxophonist Oliver Lake (World ...
Alexander Hawkins: Song Singular
by John Sharpe
Pianist Alexander Hawkins shines brightly in the firmament of the UK jazz scene. Already his resume is impressive. As well as leading his own ensemble, he features as part of outstanding collectives like the transatlantic Convergence Quartet with cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum and drummer Harris Eisenstadt, and Decoy with fellow countrymen bassist John Edwards and drummer ...
Nicole Mitchell's Sonic Projections: The Secret Escapades of Velvet Anderson
by John Sharpe
Sonic Projections must be flautist Nicole Mitchell's hardest blowing band. For their second outing after Emerald Hills (Rogue Art, 2010) she draws inspiration from another hard blowing source in Chicago legend Fred Anderson. Not only a mentor to many young musicians in the Windy City, the saxophonist also ran the renowned Velvet Lounge tavern. That required ...
Wadada Leo Smith: The Great Lakes Suites
by John Sharpe
Trumpet and composer Wadada Leo Smith remains in one of the most fertile phases of his long and storied career. His prodigious output now enjoys the outlets it needs, courtesy of the Finnish TUM imprint and the US-based Cuneiform Records. And other recordings appear on a variety of independent labels. At least in part that is ...
Craig Taborn Trio at Gent Jazz Club
by John Sharpe
Craig Taborn Trio Belfort Café Gent, Belgium October 13, 2014 For some an enforced line up change mid tour might have spelled disaster. But pianist Craig Taborn's trio rode their fortune and delivered a, likely adrenaline-fuelled, wonderful performance. When drummer Gerald Cleaver, Taborn's most longstanding accomplice, pulled out ...
Satoko Fujii Orchestra New York: Shiki
by John Sharpe
Even among established groupings Japanese composer and pianist Satoko Fujii continues to search for new means of expression. For the ninth disc from her New York Orchestra, Fujii departs from accustomed practice, particularly in the 36-minute plus title track which dominates proceedings. Truly orchestral in its scope, Fujii wields her composer's wand in a way which ...
Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra: Matter Anti-Matter
by John Sharpe
When he was under contract with Arista in the 1970s, reedman Anthony Braxton discovered that he was able to slip under the rug the release of some of his less commercially viable works, such as the mammoth For Four Orchestras (1978), by alternating them with more traditional quartet material. While electro-acoustic composer and cornetist Rob Mazurek ...
Alexander Hawkins Ensemble: Alexander Hawkins: Step Wide, Step Deep
by John Sharpe
You don't need to spend long in the company of pianist Alexander Hawkins to realize that his encyclopedic knowledge of jazz encompasses everything from Duke Ellington to the avant-garde. That's as true of recordings as it is in person, and amply demonstrated on Step Wide, Step Deep, where the moods range from lazy Sunday afternoon to ...


