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Jim Snidero: Far Far Away
by Dan Bilawsky
Far Far Away brings us ever so close to the genius of Jim Snidero. An incandescent affair built upon the pillars of new partnership and continuing collaboration, it showcases a marked consistency in craftsmanship and inventiveness that leaves no doubt as to this artist's place in the jazz firmament. Of course, seasoned listeners need no reminders ...
Larry Coryell: Improvisations: Best of the Vanguard Years
by Josef Woodard
There have been many smoother operators in the world of jazz guitar than Larry Coryell, the brainy rough rider who was a natural-born fusioneer, in the best sense. There have been cleaner technicians on the instrument, with a more lucid sense of identity and careers that have followed a logical, rolling landscape. But not many have ...
Espen Berg: The Trondheim Concert
by Chris May
The idea of free improvisation means different things to different people. For some it suggests the lineage that began with the so-called “energy players" of the late 1960s, musically untutored berserkers whose enthusiasm for Albert Ayler, John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders inspired them to pick up a horn and play whatever notes fell at random under ...
Fela Anikulapo Kuti: Original Sufferhead
by Chris May
Original Sufferhead was the first album Fela released under Egypt 80's name, having disbanded Afrika 70 in 1979; the only musician held over was baritone saxophonist Lekan Animashaun, who had been with Fela since 1965 and who took over from the departing Tony Allen as bandleader. The album was recorded in early 1981, ...
Espen Berg Trio: Free To Play
by Chris May
If you ask a jazz fan to name the greatest piano-trio albums ever made, the probability is that their top twenty choices will include most, if not all, of the following: Erroll Garner's Concert By The Sea (Columbia, 1955), Ahmad Jamal's But Not For Me (Argo, 1958), Bill Evans's Sunday At The Village Vanguard (Riverside, 1961), ...
David Binney: Barefooted Town
by Josef Woodard
Continuing Saga of the Strong Seeker I remember distinctly during the 2007 Montreal Jazz Festival, sifting through and measuring up the usual blur of stimuli, seeking out the prizes among prizes in the program. In one corner, there was Wayne Shorter, in the finest of his performance I'd ever heard—playing up his suits as composer and ...
Opus 5: Introducing Opus 5
by Josef Woodard
The Evident Charms and Secret Powers of Five For all the myriad varieties and contextual possibilities under the rubric of what makes for a valid jazz group, there is something distinctively powerful and tradition-enriched about the number five. Smaller groups tighten up the focus on individual voices involved, and often frame a specified protagonist leader, while ...
Terje Rypdal: Odyssey: In Studio and In Concert
by John Kelman
To achieve confluence, an artist must first demonstrate multiplicity. With the benefit of hindsight, the meeting of disparate concepts might appear inevitable when reassessing a decades-long career, but few artists actually possess not only the building blocks but the intuition and acumen to achieve what is, in Sanskrit, called Sangam. That ECM has two recordings using ...
Grant Stewart: Rise and Shine
by C. Andrew Hovan
Over the past twenty-five years, the jazz world has seen its share of stylistic ups and downs. Often changing with chameleon-like character, the music's popularity has come and gone based on the trends of the time and the success of musicians capable of connecting with broader audiences beyond the established cognoscenti. In looking back at the ...
Hal Galper: Ivory Forest Redux
by Paul Rauch
There are a myriad of reasons as to why two musicians may have a special chemistry. They may be aesthetic pertaining to style, or philosophical in terms of what direction their personal musical journeys are headed. For pianist Hal Galper and guitarist John Scofield, two recordings on the German Enja label in 1979 and 1980 demonstrated ...
