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Stephan Thelen: Fractal Sextet
by Mark Sullivan
Swiss composer/guitarist Stephan Thelen's two Fractal Guitar albums were largely multi-tracked affairs, involving considerable file sharing. The idea of organizing a band to perform the music live may have been inevitable. The resulting Fractal Sextet is an international project consisting of guitarist Jon Durant (USA), keyboard player and composer Fabio Anile (Italy), bassist Colin Edwin (UK), ...
Yelena Eckemoff: I Am a Stranger in This World
by Mark Sullivan
Russian-born pianist/composer Yelena Eckemoff began setting verses from the Bible's Book of Psalms shortly after her conversion to Christianity, even before her emigration to the United States. But she waited until she had considerable experience working with jazz musicians before producing her jazz arrangements. They were first recorded on her album Better Than Gold and Silver ...
Mountain Coast: Phases
by Mark Sullivan
Mountain Coast is a Denver-based collective which comes out of a 15-year partnership between guitarist Dave Devine and synthesist Michael Bailey. Phases follows their debut recording Watch Peak (Self Produced, 2021), with Devine and Bailey joined by new band mate trumpeter Kenny Warren. It is a true pandemic album, recorded remotely but with some interaction between ...
Stephan Thelen: Fractal Guitar 3
by Mark Sullivan
Guitarist/composer Stephan Thelen presents the third installment of his Fractal Guitar series. Like the previous albums, the emphasis is on multiple guitars, layered in kaleidoscopic arrangements based on his compositions and guitar playing, but significantly colored by the contributions of his collaborators. This edition was also influenced by the other albums that he was working on ...
Mata Atlantica: Retiro e Ritmo
by Mark Sullivan
Retiro e Ritmo is a love letter to Mata Atlântica, the coastal rain forest of Brazil, and a call to help preserve and protect this beautiful habitat. The music supports that goal not by quoting or referencing Brazilian music directly, but by building a complex musical ecosystem that evokes it, obliquely creating a sense of place. ...
Mark Sullivan's Best Jazz & Beyond Albums Of 2022
by Mark Sullivan
Another great year for recordings. The pandemic's influence faded, but several of the albums on my list were still created remotely. My picks leaned towards the experimental side: a bit more “beyond" than “jazz." I could have easily listed another ten albums released by ECM Records and Blue Note Records--to name two established labels I have ...
The Muffins: Baker's Dozen
by Mark Sullivan
The Muffins were a Washington, D.C. area progressive rock band who were active from 1974-81 and then again (with their best-known line-up still intact) from 1993-2015. It is rare for any group to reform after more than a decade apart, and still rarer for them to resume their creative life rather than indulge in nostalgia. But ...
Vince Guaraldi: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: Music from the Soundtrack
by Mark Sullivan
The 2018 release of this 1966 animated television special soundtrack made the music available for the first time. Pianist/composer Vince Guaraldi led a sextet (rather than his usual trio), resulting in richer-sounding, more complex arrangements. This is arguably the best expression of classic Peanuts music. But since the session tapes could not be found, the producers ...
Roger Clark Miller: Eight Dream Interpretations for Solo Electric Guitar Ensemble
by Mark Sullivan
Roger Clark Miller (who has simply been “Roger Miler" on many prior recordings) has a hell of a resume. He is best known for his guitar-playing in the experimental rock band Mission of Burma, which he co-founded in 1979. But he has also made piano-based music with Maximum Electric Piano, The Binary System and Birdsongs of ...
Theo Croker: Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic XII: Sketches of Miles
by Mark Sullivan
Let us just cut to the chase and say this is a terrific collection of live concert interpretations and arrangements of acoustic Miles Davis music, drawing from recordings originally released between 1956 and 1968. This period arguably includes his most beloved output, with a place in the hearts of most jazz fans. The first disc in ...
