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Immanuel Wilkins: The 7th Hand
by Mike Jurkovic
That we are free to think saxophone firebrand Immanuel Wilkins' 2020 Blue Note debut Omega served as a sign of hope amid a particularly hopeless year puts an awful lot of weight on the shoulders of a 25-year-old and, beyond doubt, colors the fate of The 7th Hand. Humbly and characteristically, Wilkins and company meet the ...
Melissa Aldana: 12 Stars
by Mike Jurkovic
Many musicians have chosen their Blue Note moment to reveal themselves as the artist they are or intend to be. So it is not surprising that a young, gifted artist such as Grammy nominee Melissa Aldana, riding a sure, ascendant arc both creatively and professionally, goes big on her Blue Note debut. From the ...
The Nu Band: In Memory of Mark Whitecage: The Nu Band Live At The Bopshop
by Mike Jurkovic
The fearless improvised legacy of veteran, free bop sax man Mark Whitecage may not hold a prominent place in the immediate lexicon of upstarts and legends, but the man could blow his horn. Whitecage could dice and slice a piece of music, solemn or otherwise, to shreds with his sharp metallic, testosterone tone then reassemble it ...
Pasquale Stafano: Sparks
by Mike Jurkovic
Funny how it seems to be that we're forever catching up to jazz no matter how astute or socially notified we believe ourselves to be. Case in point is Sparks, pianist Pasquale Stafano's stylistic and creative balancing act. Released in the pre-omicron haze of September 2021, Sparks delivers more and more as one surrenders ...
Joaquin Muro: Contracara
by Mike Jurkovic
Recorded in the same sessions and presented (digitally only) as the B-side to his first album--the fully careening Oxymoron (ears&eyes, 2021)--Brazilian trumpeter Joaquin Muro, with his high powered, firebrand peer, tenor saxophonist Camila Nebbia wailing bravely at his side, sets Contracara ablaze. The music is at its overheating core is a fiery, free jazz ...
Julie Sassoon Quartet: Voyages
by Mike Jurkovic
As on a high speed, downhill slalom chase, listeners are suddenly, nakedly and without poles hurled into “Missed Calls"; the opening burst of sublime energy and groupthink cracks Voyages wide open, sets the mad, determined pace and tone for a craftily organic, six-song, free-jazz adventure which never lets up. It is breakneck rhythm churning, keening, into ...
Mike Jurkovic's Best Recordings of 2021
by Mike Jurkovic
Once again we give thanks to the artists that kept us real. Kept us sane. Kept us from going off the rails like the whole rest of the reality around us. Fortunately there was so much more than this. Here is the music that hit in a big way and that stays foremost on the radar. ...
Enrico Rava: Edizione Speciale
by Mike Jurkovic
At the time of this fascinating live gig from 2019, trumpeter/flugelhornist/composer/mentor Enrico Rava, at 80 years of age, hadn't lost his knack for catching you off guard. Take “Infant" from Edizione Speciale as a prime example and let the rest of the disc sweep you off your perceptions. “Infant" emerges from a lone Rava ...
Craig Taborn: Shadow Plays
by Mike Jurkovic
Recorded with stunning clarity of sound and a brave vision, at Vienna's Mozart-Saal of the Wiener Konzerthaus in March 2020, Craig Taborn's visceral variations on a theme and quixotic poetics rise and fall majestically on Shadow Plays, a bold, fully-rendered successor to his last solo ECM outing Avenging Angel (2011) The rapturously inquisitive Taborn ...
Christian McBride & Inside Straight: Live at the Village Vanguard
by Mike Jurkovic
You may feel a whole lot better about things after checking out Live at the Village Vanguard. Now, without argument or scholarly discourse, that can be said for any of the time honored performances captured under that heady title, but here it's Christian McBride and Inside Straight and seriously, this one has fun written all over ...
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