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DJ Spooky vs Dave Lombardo: Drums of Death
by Paul Olson
There have been about thirty thousand attempts to fuse hip-hop and heavy metal music since the Beastie Boys tried it first on Licensed to Ill back in 1986. Most of these attempts fall somewhere in the continuum between “unsuccessful-but-well-meaning (Ice-T's metal band Body Count) and outright bad (the odious nü-metal of Korn and Limp Bizkit).
Mike Ladd: Cerebral Refugee, Part 1-2
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 ...
Brian Woestehoff Quartet: Organic Chemistry
by Paul Olson
Philadelphia saxophonist Brian Woestehoff and his quartet make their recording debut with Organic Chemistry. Woestehoff plays soprano and tenor sax, and he's accompanied by Erik Dutko on guitar, Brian Howell on bass, and Dan Monaghan on drums. It's post-bop jazz all the way on this collection of Woestehoff originals (supplemented by one Gary Peacock and one ...
Sam Prekop: Who's Your New Professor
by Paul Olson
Chicago singer/songwriter Sam Prekop steps away from his group The Sea and Cake for Who's Your New Professor, his second solo album. Gone are the West African influences of Prekop's eponymously titled 1999 solo CD; instead, Prekop opts for an austere, even airier group sound. Fortunately the group is a great one, comprised as it is ...
BeatleJazz: With a Little Help From Our Friends
by Paul Olson
Let me be the first to admit that I am prejudiced against jazz musicians covering the Beatles. This is in no way related to the source material: like all sentient mammals on the Planet Earth, I adore pretty much every note the Fabs recorded. It's just that their material is so weighted with cultural and nostalgic ...
Denys Baptiste: Let Freedom Ring!
by Paul Olson
London tenor saxophonist Denys Baptiste aims for the sun and stars with his four-part, large-ensemble suite Let Freedom Ring! What is striking is just how wildly, and wonderfully, his ambitions are realized by the final product. The piece was commissioned by the Cheltenham International Jazz Festival to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's ...
John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble: A Blessing
by Paul Olson
Jazz and contemporary composition, playfulness and prayer, intensity and sweetness: in the musical world of composer/percussionist John Hollenbeck and on the brand new CD by his Large Ensemble, A Blessing, all these elements mingle. Fans of Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet or any of his other groups (Quartet Lucy, Bleckmann/Hollenbeck Duo) will be prepared for just how well ...
Pamela Hines: Jazz Meditations
by Paul Olson
When I reviewed Massachusetts pianist Pamela Hines' 2004 small-group CD Twilight World, I criticized Hines for not showing enough of herself on the recording and letting her fellow players overwhelm the proceedings. “There simply isn't enough of the group's alleged leader, I wrote. “Let's hope that next time Pamela Hines steps forward in a more egotistical ...
Merle Haggard: That Blue Flame
by Paul Olson
Arguably the world's greatest living country music singer and undeniably the greatest living country music songwriter, Merle Haggard has been writing, recording and performing for over forty years. He's charted over forty number-one country hits. While considered the most truly “country" of country artists, there has always been a strong influence of blues and especially jazz ...
Jim Belushi: Has Never Eaten of the Whimpering Kiss My Only Dog
by Paul Olson
"Cigars, cigars, I enjoy them, howls actor-turned-free jazz vocalist Jim Belushi atonally on the song “C/Garz/Garz/Attenuation3, at eighteen minutes the shortest of the tracks on his new four-CD album Has Never Eaten of the Whimpering Kiss My Only Dog's Collar Return. Belushi's vocal improvisations are supported by the drums and percussion of Han Bennink and, surprisingly, ...
