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Results for "Play This!"
Olga Amelchenko: Walking Shadows
by Ludovico Granvassu
Howling Silence is Olga Amelchenko's new album, a project that explores the tension between the urge to speak out and the weight of silence... “howling silence" indeed. That may be the reason why even though her saxophone shimmers throughout the album, it a shimmering that comes with gravitas, as you can hear here in the compelling ...
Jimmy Herring: Hope
by Mike Jacobs
Some bands' repertoire is so iconic that it rarely gets covered in any meaningful, updated way. Though it falls squarely into this category, Jimmy Herring's expanded 2013 revamp of the Mahavishnu Orchestra's stalwart piece, “Hope" was said to have moved composer John McLaughlin himself and planted the seeds for their subsequent collaborative “Meeting of the Spirits" ...
Smooth Elevator: Walking through the Suburbs of Rome Late at Night
by Ludovico Granvassu
In the midst of Italian bassist Danilo Gallo's busy release schedule, Moving Target stands out. Released on the Norwegian label Losen Records, the album showcases Smooth Elevator, the trio Gallo co-leads with guitarist Will Bernard and drummer Gioele Pagliaccia since 2011. Together, they fuse a downtown New York edge with an unmistakably Italian cinematic ...
Peter Epstein Quartet: In Your Voice
by Mike Jacobs
It could be said that jazz, at its best, is a confluence of musical personalities that form a unified collective spirit, brought forth with immediacy. Peter Epstein's “In Your Voice" epitomizes this ethos with remarkably empathetic and stylized performances from the saxophonist, Jamie Saft, Chris Dahlgren and Jim Black. This is further amplified by the one-point, ...
Fabia Mantwill Orchestra: Whirl the Wheel
by Ludovico Granvassu
German saxophonist Fabia Mantwill is also an adventurous composer and arranger for large ensembles. Her new album, In.Sight, is her most ambitious to date--a wide-ranging and deeply imaginative project recorded with the Fabia Mantwill Orchestra, which features a vibrant mix of young players from Berlin's buzzing jazz scene. The album also marks Mantwill's debut ...
Jon Batiste & Randy Newman: Lonely Avenue
by Ludovico Granvassu
Enjoy this soulful take on Doc Pomus' “Lonely Avenue"--a song immortalized by Ray Charles, the patron saint of Jon Batiste's musical world. To make this single an even more compelling preview of his upcoming album Big Money, Batiste enlisted a fellow Ray Charles devotee, the legendary Randy Newman. Though Newman has kept a lower ...
Daniel Casimir: Balance
by Carl Medsker
The dynamic London underground jazz scene has produced a stellar roster of innovative musicians over the last decade or so. Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia, Binker Golding, Moses Boyd and Theon Cross, to name a few, meld bebop, hip hop, grime, reggae, dub, calypso, afrobeat and classical musics into fresh, novel hybrids. Bassist and rising star Daniel ...
Majid Bekkas, Nguyên Lê, Hamid Drake: Boom Boom
by Ludovico Granvassu
At a time of daunting provincialism and tribal regression, jazz remains one of the few welcoming oases for the globally minded. If you're one of then, enjoy this track, feauturing a Moroccan oud and guembri player--and vocalist--Majid Bekkas, a Franco Vietnamese guitarist, Nguyen Le, and a living legend of the Chicago scene like drummer ...
Rikard From: Sun of June
by Scott Lichtman
Pianist and songwriter Rikard From may get 360,000 listeners per month on Spotify, but I suspect a larger, as-yet-unaware audience would benefit from a thorough listen of his music. His primary sound combines the maj6/9 embellishments of Bruce Hornsby with the rollicking gospel of Keith Jarrett on a song like “God Bless the Child." His body ...
