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Vijay Iyer: Reimagining
by Paul Olson
New York pianist/composer Vijay Iyer continues his string of remarkable recordings with his Savoy debut, Reimagining, his first release with his quartet since 2003's Blood Sutra. I hesitate to call this new CD his most mature statement to date, since Iyer sounded pretty fully-formed--and hardly callow--on his 1995 debut, Memorophilia. But I'll say it anyway: Reimagining ...
Mice Parade: Bem-Vinda Vontade
by Paul Olson
New York musician Adam Pierce is Mice Parade--note the anagrammatic qualities of the names--but he's come a long time since he played every instrument on Mice Parade's 1998 debut The True Meaning of Boodleybaye. Pierce still plays the lion's share of instruments on the new Bem-Vinda Vontade, but he's supplemented by a host of other players ...
Ken Walker Sextet: Terra Firma
by Paul Olson
You don't hear much about the Denver jazz scene, but bassist Ken Walker's Terra Firma provides incontrovertible evidence that there are at least six splendid jazz musicians working in that city. Walker's sextet includes drummer Paul Romaine, tenor man Peter Sommer, trumpeter Al Hood, guitarist Dave Corbus, and pianist Jeff Jenkins. Their 2002 session is an ...
Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee: Borrowed Time
by Paul Olson
Bay Area bassist Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee writes in the liner notes to Borrowed Time, his second CD, that its music “grew out of a creative need to manifest the feelings [he] experienced becoming a father ; to convey “the joy, confusion, intimacy and sleeplessness of this defining period of life. I can't hear any of that on ...
Sonny Stitt: It's Magic
by Paul Olson
It isn't, though. Magic, that is. While jazz fans may perennially debate saxophonist Sonny Stitt's status as a bebop innovator (ie, how much of its vocabulary did he learn from Charlie Parker, and how much did he develop independently), no one is in disagreement about his being one of the most over-recorded of jazz players. Stitt ...
Denys Baptiste: Jazz Missionary, Part 2-2
by Paul Olson
Part 1 | Part 2 London saxophonist Denys Baptiste made a huge splash in the U.K. when his debut 1999 CD Be Where You Are was shortlisted as a prestigious Mercury Prize Album of the Year. Jazz fans were perhaps less surprised, as Baptiste had apprenticed for years on record and in concert with the likes ...
Joe Lovano: Joyous Encounter
by Paul Olson
A lot of people seemed to like Joe Lovano's all-ballads record from last year, I'm All For You (Blue Note), and I was one of them: I thought it was his best since Trio Fascination: Edition One (Blue Note, 1998). So it's not that surprising that the All For You quartet of Lovano, pianist Hank Jones, ...
Bright Light Group: Bright Light Group
by Paul Olson
Boston guitarist Jeff Platz's Bright Light Group combines free jazz noise with an underlying rock sensibility and feel. What's interesting about the group's eponymously titled debut CD is that these elements fuse to produce an oddly relaxed, even insouciant result. The quintet is composed of guitarist Platz, acoustic bassist Kit Demos, trumpeter Scott Getchell, altoist Jim ...
Denys Baptiste: Jazz Missionary, Part 1-2
by Paul Olson
Part 1 | Part 2 London saxophonist Denys Baptiste made a huge splash in the U.K. when his debut 1999 CD Be Where You Are was shortlisted as a prestigious Mercury Prize Album of the Year. Jazz fans were perhaps less surprised, as Baptiste had apprenticed for years on record and in concert with the likes ...
Mike Ladd: Cerebral Refugee, Part 2-2
by Paul Olson
Part 1 | Part 2 Spoken-word poet? Rapper? Alternative hip-hop producer? Sociology-minded conceptualist? Postmodernist? Mike Ladd is all of these. Ladd's 1997 debut album Easy Listening 4 Armageddon served notice that his was a major, original talent. Recent work--like his collaboration with Vijay Iyer, In What Language?, and his brand-new Thirsty Ear debut Negrophilia: the Album--stunningly ...
