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Sha: Monbijou
by Mike Jacobs
Aside from an existing appreciation of the saxophonist's creativity, it would be a mistake to approach Sha's Monbijou with any preconceptions. While this is a notion that has applied to his main group, Nik Bärtsch's Ronin, the tack Sha takes on this album is well removed from even that. Considering the integrated groupthink which ...
Live, Eclectic, And Electrifying
by Mike Jacobs
Live albums. Love them, hate them, they are definitely a different animal from the studio album. It may be argued--especially with all of the tools available currently--that the “studio" recording is the means by which music can be crafted and honed into the most accurate representation of the artist's vision. And yes, live albums can be ...
Five Albums From Bands That Broadened The Jazz Paradigm
by Mike Jacobs
In this installment of BackTracks we take a look at five albums that not only helped expand the jazz paradigm, but also helped establish the band as a re-merging entity (and an ethos) in jazz. Lost TribeMany Lifetimes Arabesque Jazz 1998 In 1998, a first listen to this album ...
Lyle Workman: Uncommon Measures
by Mike Jacobs
If there's a major takeaway to be had from listening to guitarist Lyle Workman's Uncommon Measures, it's the palpable sense that all of his impressive musical experience has been poured into it. And to that end, Workman certainly doesn't bury the lead. The epic opening track “North Star" can single-handedly make sense of Workman's entire decades-long ...
Five From Four
by Mike Jacobs
Welcome to the inaugural edition of BackTracks, where we look back at some notable albums that were somehow absent from All About Jazz's extensive 50,000 plus review archive (or are just plain worthy of another look). For the first installment we have five guitar-led projects from four artists that somehow got by us (but needn't get ...
Nir Felder: II
by Mike Jacobs
Six years after the release of his solo debut, Golden Age (Okeh, 2014), Nir Felder's follow-up II brings into sharper focus some of the guitarist's more compelling dichotomies as a player. His instrument of choice is the usually more crystalline-sounding Stratocaster but Felder somehow elicits a fatter-than-a-big-ol'-jazz-box tone from it. His style as ...
Scott Jones: Fictional Characters
by Mike Jacobs
Let's face it, if you're an electric guitarist with high-level jazz fusion chops, there are certain inevitabilities. Merely treading (or in this case stomping) through the stylistic domains of Tribal Tech, Allan Holdsworth, The Chick Corea Elektric Band and the like means stepping into the quicksand of comparison to such behemoths of the genre, so one ...
Oz Noy: Snapdragon
by Mike Jacobs
It's an old sentiment but it still holds that great instrumental chops, enthralling as they may be, are fairly meaningless on their own. And quite frankly, they are pretty ubiquitous these days with the internet exposure machine going full tilt. Given all that, it's quite easy for the listener to become inured with technical prowess-- especially ...
Ben Wendel: High Heart
by Mike Jacobs
If Ben Wendel's fifth outing as a leader High Heart shows anything, it's that the saxophonist is ever advancing. While this may seem a fait accompli for a card-carrying member of the shapeshifting collective Kneebody, Wendel's worthy solo efforts have been notably more in a traditionally-sounding vein and thus his innovations were perhaps a bit less ...
Meet Mike Jacobs
by AAJ Staff
I currently live in: Coatesville Pennsylvania USA--About 40 miles west of Philadelphia. I joined All About Jazz in: About 2010 but I didn't start contributing until 2016. Why did you decide to contribute to All About Jazz? Since the landscape of the music business started going into upheaval around 2000, the music ...
