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Ola Onabule: Point Less
by Mark Sullivan
British-Nigerian singer/songwriter Ola Onabulé has a rich baritone voice and a commanding presence. He's a soul singer above all, but also draws on pop, world music and jazz. Despite its title, opener “Throwaway Notion" is a catchy tune with a Pan-African groove, and very dark lyrics about the current race to the bottom in politics all ...
Dan Arcamone: Psalm
by Mark Sullivan
A fusion guitar album with a difference: Connecticut guitarist/composer Dan Arcamone wrote pieces based on some of saxophonist John Coltrane's most complex chord progressions ("Giant Steps," “Countdown," “Satellite," and “26-2")—all dating from his Atlantic Records period, and sometimes called “Coltrane changes." He and his trio (bassist Panagiotis Andreou and drummer Steve Pruitt) then treated them as ...
Paul Austerlitz: The Vodou Horn
by Mark Sullivan
The Vodou Horn album is part of a trilogy called Marasa Twa: Vodou-Jazz-Merengue, exploring the spiritual traditions of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The focus here is on Haiti, with ethnomusicologist/bass clarinetist Paul Austerlitz combining his playing with Franck Desire's Asakivle drumming and singing group, which plays traditional ritual rhythms in concert settings. After recording live ...
David Helbock: Playing John Williams
by Mark Sullivan
Eclectic Austrian jazz pianist/composer David Helbock has devoted whole albums to other composers in the past, notably Prince on his solo piano album Purple (Traumton Records, 2012) and several influential modern jazz pianists on the album Tour d'Horizon (ACT, 2018) with his band David Helbock's Random/Control. Arrangements of multiple Oscar-and Grammy-winning American film composer John Williams' ...
Mark Wingfield & Gary Husband: Tor & Vale
by Mark Sullivan
Virtuoso guitarist Mark Wingfield was last heard leading a trio on Tales From The Dreaming City (MoonJune Records, 2018). He and pianist Gary Husband may have never played duets together before, but the results sound like it was inevitable--a fated meeting. Opener “Kittiwake" is the first of Wingfield's compositions, a lyrical legato guitar line over a ...
Refraction: The Outsider
by Mark Sullivan
Australian trio Refraction recorded this album just before drummer and bandleader Chris Broomhead's relocation to Nashville, Tennessee (which is now given as the group's home city on their Bandcamp page). As on the last two albums, Inerrant Space (Rare Colour Records, 2016) and Reimagined (Rare Colour Records, 2017), Broomhead is joined by pianist Brenton Foster and ...
Matt Olson: 789 Miles
by Mark Sullivan
Wisconsin-born tenor saxophonist/composer Matt Olson has traveled 789 miles from his childhood home to his current home in South Carolina, where he teaches at Furman University. His original compositions here aim to capture influences from his upbringing, but the present is well-represented by compositions from five Furman University students (graduates and current students). The format is ...
Charlie Ballantine: Cold Coffee
by Mark Sullivan
Indianapolis-born jazz guitarist/composer Charlie Ballantine has a special relationship with American music of all kinds: jazz, folk, the blues (his father was a blues guitarist, providing some of Ballantine's earliest musical memories) and contemporary rock. His previous album Life Is Brief: The Music Of Bob Dylan (Green Mind Records, 2018) made the inspiration outside of jazz ...
A World of Piano Trios
by Mark Sullivan
The piano trio format is alive and well, judging by this disparate collection of piano trio albums (mostly: a couple of them feature a guest vocalist on a track or two). They come from Israel (recorded in Berlin), Slovenia (recorded in New York City), Greece (recorded in Hungary), Boston, and Asheville, North Carolina. Traditionally the pianist ...
Yao/Smith/Hughes Sextet: The Gates
by Mark Sullivan
More water from the seemingly inexhaustible Detroit hard bop well. Saxophonist James Hughes and trumpeter Jimmy Smith are known for their own Hughes Smith Quintet, as heard on Motion (Self Produced, 2018) and Ever Up & Onward (Self Produced, 2016)--two red-hot recordings in that tradition. Here they are joined by co-leader John Yao on trombone, and ...
