Home » Search Center » Results: Reassessing

Results for "Reassessing"

231

Article: Reassessing

Donald Byrd: Slow Drag

by Greg Simmons
July 2, 2011

Donald ByrdSlow DragBlue Note2011 (1967) In 1967 trumpeter Donald Byrd was a busy guy, teaching or lecturing at no fewer than four universities. It's a wonder he had time to play, let alone record. Fortunately, he did find the time, and the resulting Slow Drag takes an ...

236

Article: Reassessing

John and Beverley Martyn: The Road To Ruin

by Chris May
June 10, 2011

John and Beverley MartynThe Road To RuinUniversal/Island2005 (1970) The posthumous release of guitarist/vocalist/songwriter John Martyn's Heaven And Earth (Hole In The Rain, 2011)--the basic tracks extensively overdubbed, though not edited, by producers Garry Pollitt and Jim Tullio following Martyn's death in 2009--is welcome. Compositionally, it is not ...

511

Article: Reassessing

Santana: Festival

by Jeff Winbush
November 3, 2006

SantanaFestivalColumbia Records1977 The year 1977 was another period of transition for guitarist Carlos Santana. He was going into the studio to craft a follow-up to Amigos, the highly successful 1976 return to Top 10 Billboard status after abandoning a four-year immersion in jazz fusion. During that phase, ...

808

Article: Reassessing

Steely Dan: Aja

by Craig M. Cortello
August 6, 2006

Steely Dan Aja MCA 1977 In the movie Mr. Holland's Opus, Richard Dreyfuss, playing a high school music director, recounts his childhood memory of first hearing a John Coltrane album. He recalls how he hated the music, but couldn't stop listening to it. He played the album over and over ...

1,111

Article: Reassessing

Isaac Hayes: Shaft

by Trevor MacLaren
July 3, 2006

Isaac HayesShaftStax Records1971 “Who's that black private dick who's a sex machine with all the chicks? Shaft! Damn right!... The opening lines to Isaac Hayes' score for the seminal 1971 movie, Shaft, sound like a camp put-on today--but in the early '70s ...

510

Article: Reassessing

James Taylor Quartet's The First Sixty Four Minutes

by Trevor MacLaren
April 6, 2006

James Taylor Quartet The First Sixty Four Minutes Re-elect The President/Acid Jazz 1988 Though virtually unknown in North America, the James Taylor Quartet has been a cult phenomenon in the UK for the past twenty years. The group began by revitalizing the great soul jazz of Blue Note's ...

579

Article: Reassessing

Antony and The Johnsons: I Am a Bird Now

by Trevor MacLaren
February 28, 2006

Antony and The Johnsons I Am a Bird Now Secretly Canadian 2005 This column rarely examines new music, but I am a Bird Now, released in February of 2005, is a notable exception. The record and its composer have been slowly building a cult following in the alternative ...

846

Article: Reassessing

Black Flag: Family Man & The Process of Weeding Out

by Trevor MacLaren
February 1, 2006

Black Flag Family Man SST 1984 & Black Flag The Process of Weeding Out SST 1985 It is hard to convince many jazz fans that the most influential hardcore punk band of all time created some of the ...

619

Article: Reassessing

The Tony Williams Lifetime: Emergency!

by Trevor MacLaren
November 16, 2005

The Tony Williams Lifetime Emergency! Polydor 1969 A few months back I came across a great book written on the last forty years of jazz, Howard Mandel's Future Jazz. The book covered a lot of stylistic ground, including avant-garde, fusion, and free. It basically touched on ...

367

Article: Reassessing

Pharoah Sanders: Karma

by Trevor MacLaren
October 5, 2005

Pharoah Sanders Karma Impulse! 1969 John Coltrane left behind a legacy of experimental and extremely spiritual work whose timeless quality still reverberates today. After his untimely death many poseurs came out to stake their claim as the next Coltrane. Many tried and many failed. Then in 1969 a ...