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Results for "Pheeroan AkLaff"
Tom Pierson: Last Works
by Friedrich Kunzmann
Ominously slow, swinging cymbal stabs guide low left- hand bass lines played on black and white for the menacing opening cut of this double disc set by Japan-based composer and arranger Tom Pierson, curiously titled Last Works. Whimsical improvisations on muted trumpet to the right and right-hand piano runs on the left, bring some ease to ...
The Creative Musicians Improvisers Forum: New Haven's AACM
by Daniel Barbiero
The late 1960s through the 1970s and '80s were difficult years for jazz and jazz-derived improvised music, but they were also years that saw musiciansby necessityrespond to these difficulties with creative solutions. With first the rise and then the commercial dominance during those years of rock music and the corresponding eclipse of jazz, creative musicians in ...
Terry Riley, Gyan Riley, Oliver Lake, Amir ElSaffar & Tommy Castro
by Martin Longley
Terry Riley & Gyan Riley (le) Poisson Rouge April 3, 2019 Terry Riley and his son Gyan Riley enjoy an ongoing duo performance situation, in a forum where the elder composer places the emphasis on spontaneous improvisation, impromptu sonic texturing and intimate musical dialogue. Catching him in this setting, it's ...
Tom Pierson: Last Works
by Doug Hall
As musicians make choices and pursue a passion for music which also directs their musical orbit, looking at jazz composer, arranger and pianist Tom Pierson's resume, it is clear that a creative search for originality and exploration was paramount, from the very beginning. Gifted at the start, Pierson was a piano prodigy and a soloist with ...
Wadada Leo Smith: Rosa Parks: Pure Love
by Jerome Wilson
Wadada Leo Smith has been on a roll in the 2010s, recording and composing in several formats, including ambitious, long-form works such as the Pulitzer-nominated Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform, 2012,) which dealt mostly with the history of race relations in America. His latest work concentrates on one specific figure mentioned in that suite, Rosa Parks, the ...
Michael Gregory Jackson Clarity Quartet: WHENUFINDITUWILLKNOW
by Troy Dostert
A guitarist with a prodigious recorded legacy and an omnivorous stylistic range, Michael Gregory Jackson's return to his avant-jazz roots during the past couple of decades has been a welcome, if under-recognized, development. While he cut his teeth in the '70s loft scene in the company of luminaries such as Wadada Leo Smith, Oliver Lake, Julius ...
Wadada Leo Smith: Rosa Parks: Pure Love. An Oratorio of Seven Songs
by John Sharpe
Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith's prolonged late career flowering shows no sign of abating with the creation of yet another epic work, following on the heels of his monumental Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform, 2012), Great Lakes Suite (TUM, 2014) and America's National Parks (Cuneiform, 2016). For his inspiration he takes the story of Rosa Parks, one of ...
Tomasz Dabrowski: Ninjazz
by Don Phipps
Dark and foreboding, with a slight touch of heat, Polish trumpeter Tomasz Dąbrowski's album Ninjazz offers up a selection of work that reminds one of his mentor, the late great Tomasz Stanko, with a bit of Enrico Rava, Kenny Wheeler, and Mark Isham thrown in for good measure. Dabrowski is joined on this effort ...
Wadada Leo Smith: Rosa Parks: Pure Love. An Oratorio of Seven Songs
by Doug Hall
Acclaimed trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and educator Wadada Leo Smith has released an oratorio of seven songs inspired by the iconic civil rights leader Rosa Parks. In his own words, Rosa Parks: Pure Love. An Oratorio of Seven Songs is concerned with ideas of freedom, liberty and justice, a meditation centered around the civil rights movement." Looking ...
Big in Japan, Part 3: Satoko Fujii’s Year of Living Dangerously
by Karl Ackermann
In the first two parts of this series we looked at the origins of jazz in Japan and its adherence to the American style of composing, arranging and playing. Though jazz has been popular in Japan from the earliest days, it was--as in the United States--hardly met with unanimous approval in a country that prized classical ...



