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Results for "Play This!"
Magnus Ostrom: Dancing At The Dutchtreat
by Mike Jacobs
Searching For Jupiter (Act, 2013) was Magnus Ostrom's second outing as a leader and, as evidenced by this track, saw his group really finding their stride. “Dancing At The Dutchtreat" joyously wields all the things that would become the Ostrom band's trademarks: the accessible (yet sometimes dizzying) metric proclivities, the rhythmically-bonded (yet natural-sounding) melodicism, the (ever ...
Art Farmer: Work of Art
by Jon Block
My favorite (jazz) album is The Art Farmer Septet (1956 Prestige PRLP 7031 of 1953-54 sessions previously released on 10" disks). It features the arrangements and compositions of Art Farmer, Gigi Gryce and Quincy Jones. It still makes me move and groove, from the first clave click on the steaming hot Afro-Cuban “Mau Mau" all the ...
Donald Byrd: Black Byrd
by Ian Patterson
It's time to celebrate. Nearly fifty years after the event, Donald Byrd's 1973 performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival finally sees the light of day. Like many of his contemporaries, Byrd had turned to electric jazz-fusion towards the end of the '60s, and this live set bears all the hallmarks of a hard bopper who had ...
Donald Byrd: The Emperor
by Chris May
"The Emperor" is the killer track on Donald Byrd's 1972 masterpiece Ethiopian Knights (Blue Note), an album which took Miles Davis' contemporaneous electric experiments, stripped them of their wannabe rockstar aspirations and reframed them with a deep funk sensibility. Byrd, tenor saxophonist Harold Land, trombonist Thurman Green, vibes player Bobby Hutcherson and others bounce off plugged-in ...
Michael Blake: Afro Blake
by Ludovico Granvassu
Africa seems to have been a special source of inspiration for Michael Blake, as compositions like “Addis Abeba" (Elevated), “Malagasy" (Combobulate), “Mauritania" (Buzz), “Road to Lusaka" (In the Grand Scheme of Things), “Africa Used to Be Home" (More Like Us) or “Surfing Sahara" (Elevated ) attest. They are all characterized by memorable themes and an instantly ...
Derek Brown: Whatever the Case May Be
by Geno Thackara
From his social-media-famous trick of analogue beatboxing to here, literally, beating on a box, Derek Brown never runs short on tricks. Just as importantly, those fun little ideas aren't gimmicks but building blocks to be used in ways both clever and musical. Whatever the context, the sonic coloring is just the topping while there's always a ...
Melanie De Biasio: The Flow
by Jerome Wilson
Melanie De Biasio is a vocalist from Belgium who sings in a low-pitched, affectless voice over seductive electronically treated vamps. it is a spare, hypnotic sound best heard on this track from her 2014 album, No Deal, (Play It Again Sam, 2014). “The Flow" creeps along on a hypnotic mix of off-center drum beats, brooding keyboards, ...
Michael Shrieve: Palace Of Dreams
by Mike Jacobs
From the dual-project, double album Two Doors (CMP, 1995) that features drummer Michael Shrieve manning the drum kit in two different trios, it's arguably the Deep Umbra disc with bassist Jonas Hellborg and guitarist Shawn Lane that is the brighter half of that binary star. Shrieve may indeed get top billing here but like so many ...
Garth Alper: Spider's Web
by Edward Blanco
An original composition by educator and pianist Garth Alper. “Bop-Wanna-Be" is an upbeat bop-filled five-minutes of riveting jazz bringing the swinging saxophone voice of Lucas Munce, bassist Bob Nash and drummer Chris Munson to the fore from the sturdy and animated Spider's Web album sure to resonate with jazz audiences everywhere. The track is a teaser, ...
