Results for "Play This!"

Daniel Bennett Group: The Hills of Beijing

by Scott Lichtman
June 16, 2024

Daniel Bennett has carved out a unique jazz sound, recognized via numerous reviews and awards for the Daniel Bennett Group. Compositions change keys and meter quickly, sometimes from bar-to-bar-to-bar, yet the melody and improvisations follow a smooth, logical path. The arrangements are compact, with instrumentations that can hint at folk or soundtrack music. Bennett's tone across ...

Hill Collective: Tonal Prophecy

by Adam Nolan
June 15, 2024

Improvisation meets The Wizard of Oz. Sun Ra meets a community choir vibe. Saxophone, trombone, and trumpet shake the ceiling, and the electric bass takes us into some kind of rhumba. Hill Collective from Brighton, UK, has something to tell us. There is a hip vibe to this. Accessibility is visible, as is the accuracy of ...

Başak Yavuz: Promised Lands

by Scott Lichtman
June 9, 2024

Vocalist and composer Başak Yavuz is intense. The lyrics of “Promised Lands" state that “someone told me to release the animal," which is exactly she and her band do. Drums and electric bass propel a free jazz-like feel with tinges of James Brown, while the guitar and voice open by harmonizing a tight, descending harmony that ...

Angelique Kidjo: Crosseyed and Painless

by Geno Thackara
June 8, 2024

How to tackle a high-energy classic packed with layers of overlapping rhythms? Perhaps by giving it some unexpected breathing space. Angelique Kidjo's Afro-chant treatment (much like the Talking Heads whole-album cover from which it comes) is just as intense as the source, but interestingly smolders more than burns, in a way rather more moody and bewitching. ...

Troker: Principe Charro

by Mike Jacobs
June 7, 2024

World Saxophone Quartet: Take The 'A' Train

by Scott Lichtman
June 2, 2024

The World Saxophone Quartet has always created a buzz... literally. Pioneers in jazz woodwinds, WSO combined instrumental prowess with sophisticated orchestrations and a wide repertoire encompassing jazz standards, free jazz, blues, world rhythms, and politicized songs. The original group from the '70s and '80s featured Julius Hemphill and Oliver Lake on alto and soprano saxophones, David ...

Sun Ra Arkestra Directed By Marshall Allen: Marshall's Groove

by Ian Patterson
May 25, 2024

To celebrate the great Marshall Allen's 100th birthday, what better way than to immerse oneself in the all-enveloping, swinging, soaring, saxophone-singing, ensemble- roaring wonder that is “Marshall's Groove." After sixty-seven years in the Sun Ra Arkestra, and nearly thirty steering the ship since taking over the leadership role from John Gilmore, this occasion is not just ...

Säje: I Can't Help It

by Scott Lichtman
May 22, 2024

It is rare to encounter, an all-female, professional jazz vocal ensemble. The quartet säje (pronounced like “beige") not only has established itself in this genre with a Grammy nomination, but they raise the bar for all vocal groups. The singers--Sara Gazarek, Amanda Taylor, Erin Bentlage and Johnaye Kendrick--are practically telepathic in synchronizing their phrasing. Any big ...

Nicola Caminiti: Adam Arturo

by John Chacona
May 20, 2024

Every generation or so, a rhythm section comes along and changes the game. Think of Count Basie's “All-American Rhythm Section" with Freddie Green, Walter Page and Jo Jones, or Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams from Miles Davis' second great quintet. It's up to history to render the verdict about pianist Lex Korten, bassist Ben ...

Roxana Amed: A Prayer

by John Chacona
May 19, 2024

The U.S. recording career of Argentine-born vocalist Roxana Amed is a study in the frustration that assumptions about genre can create. Both 2021's Ontology and the following year's Unánime, released by Sony Music, were nominated for Latin Grammy Awards. That was well-deserved, yet these were also among the best jazz vocal recordings of those years. Her ...