Home » Search Center » Results: Robert Spencer
Results for "Robert Spencer"
The Fonda-Stevens Group: Evolution
by Robert Spencer
Reviewing can be difficult: there are an awful lot of discs out there that sound like all the rest. This ain't one of them. Evolution confirms that the Fonda-Stevens Group is one of the best-kept secrets in jazz. This fourth release from the quintet is one of the best showcases to date for five of the ...
Anthony Braxton/Stewart Gillmor Duo: 14 Compositions
by Robert Spencer
I could say this about virtually any other Anthony Braxton disc, but I'll say it about this one anyway: 14 Compositions (Traditional) 1996 is an example of both continuity and departure in his music. He has recorded several “standards" albums before, but those took up the song library that jazzmen drew from in the Fifties and ...
Gregorio/Gustafsson/Nordeson: Background Music
by Robert Spencer
“Unimagined hybrids of Richie Kamuca and Evan Parker, Shelly Manne and Paul Lovens, Jimmy Giuffre and Floros Floridos," says John Corbett in his liner notes. Cool free improv. Sound impossible? Guillermo Gregorio, Mats Gustafsson and Kjell Nordeson pull it off on Background Music. Background Music is music on the edge of silence, characterized by intricate mutual ...
Phil Minton: A Doughnut in Both Hands: Solo Singing 1975-1982
by Robert Spencer
A Doughnut in Both Hands is a collection of material recorded in 1975, 1980, 1981, and 1982. The first fifteen tracks were originally released in 1981, as Minton's first solo album; the last six were recorded at the same time or shortly thereafter, but not released until now. What is this, “Solo Singing 1975-1982"? Well, I ...
Ivo Perelman with C.T. String Quartet: The Alexander Suite
by Robert Spencer
The Alexander Suite is an eight-part piece performed by the unconventional orchestration of a tenor saxophonist (the brilliant Ivo Perelman) and a string quartet. Perelman is joined by the C.T. (Cecil Taylor) String Quartet, which consists of Dominic Duval (bass), Tomas Ulrich (cello), Jason Hwang (violin), and Ron Lawrence (viola). But the effect is nothing like ...
Steve Lacy: Saxophone Special +
by Robert Spencer
This welcome reissue fills a gap in Steve Lacy's recorded career from the days when he was exploring free music. These tracks, from two live dates in 1973 and 1974, capture Lacy's music at an arch, shambolic, querulous, clangorous point from which he slowly, steadily retreated. For evidence just compare the flame-throwing versions of “Flakes" here ...
Mal Waldron Quintet with Steve Lacy: One-Upmanship
by Robert Spencer
Over twenty years after its first release, One-Upmanship appears for the first time on compact disc, and it is a most welcome reappearance. The appearance of any recording by Mal Waldron should be a cause for celebration, but this one is particularly special for a number of reasons. Not only is Waldron joined by his longtime ...
Randy Weston: Khepera
by Robert Spencer
Randy Weston is in his Seventies, and Khepera is a mature recapitulation of his lifelong musical concerns. His playing is as strong as ever, as individualistic and yet redolent of Ellington and Monk as ever; his compositions are as tightly focused and yet as variegated as ever. The playing is superb. Weston's piano breathes as one ...
Lauren Newton: Filigree
by Robert Spencer
Listening to Lauren Newton sing is like listening to Cathy Berberian, Ella Fitzgerald, and Yoko Ono, if someone cut up tapes of these three and mixed them together in small bits without transition. She is an abstract expressionist singer, working in the realm of pure sound with a voice that is pure in its beauty and ...
Andy Bey: Shades of Bey
by Robert Spencer
On Shades of Bey, his latest Evidence release, Andy Bey's voice smolders and flashes, and burns with a quiet fire. Continuing the intimate atmosphere he so memorably established on the piano/vocal Ballads, Blues, and Bey, he sings two tracks here accompanied just by a guitar: “Like a Lover," which is a vocal adaptation of “O Cantador," ...
