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Karl Ackermann's Best Creative Music Albums Of 2022
by Karl Ackermann
For good, or bad, the “new normal" can finally be archived, and the club doors reopened to full rooms of unmasked patrons. 2022 marked an informal end to the Pandemic and a rebirth in live performing arts. Like similar periods in history, an unusual burst of creative energy followed isolation. Jazz was no exception; the resilience ...
Ahmad Jamal: Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse
by Karl Ackermann
2022 marks the ninety-second year of pianist and composer Ahmad Jamal. An NEA Jazz Master and Grammy winner, in 2007 he was designated a Kennedy Center honoree as a Living Jazz Legend. His first release was The Three Strings (Epic, 1951) and, throughout that decade, he recorded a dozen albums, all in a piano trio format. ...
Greg Stuart: Subtractions
by Karl Ackermann
Percussionist Greg Stuart is afflicted with focal dystonia, a neurological disorder which limits the motor function of one hand. Despite that physical challenge, Stuart has undertaken a sweeping and ambitious percussion album which goes beyond the traditional drum kit. He has co-led more than a dozen recordings including an impressive debut with bassist Barre Phillips. Subtractions ...
Xhosa Cole: Ibeji
by Karl Ackermann
Few places on the global jazz scene are enjoying the enthusiastic resurgence of the genre more than the UK. Names that are becoming more familiar—Binker Golding, Nubya Garcia, Idris Rahman, Shabaka Hutchings and others—have triggered something of a youth movement. Emerging in that group is yet another top-notch saxophonist, Xhosa Cole. Cole's sophomore release, Ibeji is ...
Esbjorn Svensson: HOME.S.
by Karl Ackermann
In 2022, it has been more than a decade since the influential Swedish pianist/composer Esbjörn Svensson passed. The measure of his impact can be calculated in the ongoing comparisons of up-and-coming piano trios to his groundbreaking Esbjörn Svensson Trio Trio. Several weeks before Svensson's untimely death his wife Eva heard him recording solo piano pieces in ...
Jussi Reijonen: Three Seconds | Kolme Toista
by Karl Ackermann
East/West jazz fusion has a long presence on the U.S. jazz scene and that foothold has been growing in the 2000s. Composer/guitarist/oud player Jussi Reijonen is uniquely qualified to bridge musical cultures. Nordic by birth, he has lived in the Middle East, Africa, and the U.S., absorbing native music at each stop. Reijonen's solo debut, Un ...
Mark Lomax, II and Edwin Bayard - Ogún Meji Duo: Freedom Suite
by Karl Ackermann
More than half a century after Sonny Rollins' civil rights statement Freedom Suite (Riverside, 1958), we have not advanced enough as a species to lay such sentiments to rest. The Ogún Meji Duo—drummer Mark Lomax, II and saxophonist Edwin Bayard—honor Rollins and the suite, with a new and different interpretation of his seminal work. This is ...
Taeko Kunishima: Dictionary Land
by Karl Ackermann
Known for her lyrical piano style, Japanese musician and composer Taeko Kunishima has her roots in classical music. While studying at university, she heard Miles Davis on the radio and the impact was life-altering. Kunishima was not content with simply adapting to Western jazz; her interests are far broader and have led her to Dictionary Land. ...
Steve Lehman & Sélébéyone: Xaybu: The Unseen
by Karl Ackermann
Alto saxophonist Steve Lehman debuted his Sélébéyone project in 2016 with a self-titled release on the Pi Recordings label. It was nothing short of revolutionary; an amalgamation of jazz improvisation and globalized hip-hop, it was an intrepid declaration. Originally a septet, Sélébéyone returns as a quintet on Xaybu: The Unseen. The five current members are from ...
Keith Jarrett: Bordeaux Concert
by Karl Ackermann
Recorded at the Bordeaux National Opera House, in July 2016, Bordeaux Concert marks Keith Jarrett's final solo performance in France. The improvised suite came from a prolific European tour which has produced three ECM releases to date. There is little doubt that the label will continue to extract Jarrett's live performances in the post-2018 period, which ...
