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Uri Caine: Transformation, Improvisation and Context
by Paul Olson
Keyboardist/composer Uri Caine was born and raised in Philadelphia. He began playing piano at an early age, and, while still a Philadephian, played with jazz leaders like drummer “Phillie Joe Jones, bassist Jymie Merritt and trumpeter Johnny Coles. While attending the University of Pennsylvania, he studied composition with George Crumb and George Rochberg. Caine soon moved ...
Branford Marsalis Quartet: Braggtown
by Paul Olson
There's a huge difference between live jazz performances and studio jazz recordings. Neatly concise pieces that thrill on record can feel overly cautious on the stage, and stretched-out open forms that make audiences hoarse from cheering can simply be boring on CD. That's not to say that the only good jazz recordings feature tight arrangements and ...
Jason Moran: Artist in Residence
by Paul Olson
Pianist/composer Jason Moran has never made the same album twice. While his Bandwagon group with bassist Tarus Mateen, drummer Nasheet Waits and, of late, guitarist Marvin Sewell, remains a constant presence on all but his 2002 solo record Modernistic, it's the only constant in a recorded career marked by a restless insistence on trying out new ...
David Binney: Airplanes, Cities, Moods and Vibes
by Paul Olson
New York altoist David Binney is a tremendous improviser, a prolific composer, a tireless bandleader and a reliable sideman. Although he was born in Florida and grew up in Southern California, he's been a gigging New York musician since he was 19 years old. He used the proceeds of a 1989 NEA grant to record his ...
Jack DeJohnette: Colors, Grooves, Golden Beams
by Paul Olson
When you hear Jack DeJohnette's playing, you know it's him. No living jazz drummer is more accomplished, better-known or more technically equipped than the 64-year-old, Chicago-born DeJohnette, and no other drummer plays with his particular blend of unerring time, power and groove. After some years as a Chicago musician (as much in demand as a pianist ...
Dave Rempis: Communication, Improvisation and No Screwing Around
by Paul Olson
Saxophonist Dave Rempis embodies all of the best qualities of the Chicago improvisational music scene: he's a gifted but disciplined player who knows his instruments inside and out; he's a fearless, imaginative improviser; and he uncomplainingly works his ass off.Although he also plays tenor and baritone saxophones, Rempis is best known as an altoist. ...
Kenny Wheeler: It Takes Two!
by Paul Olson
Two guitarists, that is. While Kenny Wheeler has recorded with John Abercrombie and John Parricelli before, he hasn't done so on the same session. Until now, anyway: It Takes Two! matches the veteran trumpeter with the two guitarists and acoustic bassist Anders Jormin. The results are spacious, calm, and at times broodingly pensive.Parricelli and ...
Nik Bartsch: Commitment, Movement, and the Batman Spirit
by Paul Olson
Swiss composer/keyboardist Nik Bärtsch doesn't play jazz, pop, or classical music. Rather, he and his groups Mobile and Ronin play a remarkable synthesis of the above genres, and the result is something Bärtsch calls “ritual groove music." Although Bärtsch has been developing this music--and the elaborate aesthetic and philosophical aesthetic that support and surrounds ...
Dom Minasi: Vampires, Chaos in Time, and Total Control
by Paul Olson
Even in the notoriously difficult jazz music business, Dom Minasi's had a rough time of it. The 63-year-old New-York-born-and-bred guitarist/composer was playing in a jazz trio by the time he was 15 and had an extremely full teaching/gigging schedule up until 1973, he was signed to Blue Note Records. Unfortunately, the George Butler-led 1970s Blue Note ...
Chris Cheek: Blues Cruise
by Paul Olson
Saxophonist Chris Cheek is such a hardworking New York sideman that it's understandable that he hasn't been recording prolifically as a leader. Still, his last CD, Vine, appeared in 1999, so his new quartet set, Blues Cruise, is his first release in six years.The long hiatus certainly seems not to have produced any sense of anxiety ...
