Results for "Play This!"

Michael Leonhart Orchestra: Silent Night

by Ludovico Granvassu
December 15, 2023

Conceptually, I find holiday music puzzling. How can it be that, year after year, it keeps being churned out? Even by jazz musicians, who are usually not driven by commercial considerations? Then why not spring-break albums? Or something more meaningful like World Oceans Day jazz music? Or Martin Luther King day songs? I presume ...

Mike Reed / The Separatist Party: A Low Frequency Nightmare

by John Chacona
December 13, 2023

In 2021, the Chicago instrumental drone trio Bitchin Bajas dropped Switched on Ra (Drag City), a collection of Sun Ra covers for synthesizers. Drummer, bandleader and scenemaker Mike Reed probably heard the cassette-only release and he almost certainly heard the band's October 2021 performance of that material at his Hungry Brain venue. They must have made ...

LRK Trio: Plyasovaya

by Geno Thackara
December 9, 2023

Siril Malmedal Hauge and Jacob Young: Little Wing

by Geno Thackara
December 4, 2023

"Butterflies and zebras and moonbeams and fairy tales"--even if they're separated by decades, Siril Malmedal Hauge has just the kind of voice Jimi Hendrix could have written those dreamy lines about. She and Jacob Young are a sleeper duo that rarely need anything but voice and guitar, but use those simple means to a wide and ...

Yuhan Su: Naked Swimmer

by John Chacona
December 2, 2023

For Liberated Gesture, her fourth release, Taiwan-born, New York vibraphonist Yuhan Su assembled a band of saxophonist Caroline Davis, pianist Matt Mitchell, bassist Marty Kenney and drummer Dan Weiss, all of whom play at their usual exalted level. That's fast company, but Su holds her own, moving smoothly in and out of taut ensemble passages and ...

The Hermanators: But What About Me?

by Mike Jacobs
November 30, 2023

Guitarist Mitch Stein, bassist Kip Reed and drummer Rodney Holmes had a great thing going with their trio, The Hermanators. Despite making a studio album--Twisted--and something of a splash in the '90s NYC club scene, it remains almost criminal that this group didn't take off. Thankfully, the talent of the trio's members didn't go unnoticed, leading ...

Fima Ephron: Hasidic Folk Song

by Mike Jacobs
November 29, 2023

Though it lacks many of the fascinating David Torn-produced, sonic manipulations strewn throughout Soul Machine (Tzadik, 2001), “Hasidic Folk Song" is emblematic of the ethno-electric-jazz explorations on bassist Fima Ephron's debut as a leader and a sizzler to boot. The track features Ephron's former Lost Tribe cohorts Adam Rogers and David Binney, as well as Edward ...

Carles Benavent: Three Women / Good Morning Anya (Pastorius)

by Mike Jacobs
November 28, 2023

Like many icons that leave the world too soon, the late Jaco Pastorius' surviving catalog has been pored over ad nauseam in the years since his death, and rightfully so. But perhaps one of the most rewarding examples of this is the Pastorius composition “Three Women" and its rescue from obscurity by arranger / keyboardist Gil ...

Ossi Maristo: Supernovae

by Mike Jacobs
November 27, 2023

John Patitucci: Backwoods

by Mike Jacobs
November 26, 2023