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Rosemary Clooney: A Seventieth Birthday Celebration
by Robert Spencer
Rosemary Clooney's career spans the decades, and you can see it on this disc: from “It's Only a Paper Moon" and “Ol' Man River" to James Taylor's “Secret of Life." Other tracks include Rodgers and Hammerstein's “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning," Gershwin's “(Our) Love is Here to Stay" and “Long Ago and Far Away," Irving Berlin's ...
Mats Gustafsson / Barry Guy: Frogging
by Robert Spencer
Intriguing. This disc is a counterpart to Obliquities, Guy's 1994 duets with his longtime trio partner Evan Parker. But Mats Gustafsson, who like Parker plays tenor but also baritone sax, flute, fluteophone and French flageolet, is an even more acerbic player than Parker. His playing is even farther removed from conventional reed playing than Guy's more ...
Paul Plimley / Barry Guy: Sensology
by Robert Spencer
Paul Plimley is a remarkable pianist who can play with as much power as any free player can muster (yes, even as much as Cecil Taylor, whom he echoes here on occasion – although I don't think Plimley has played the tremendous marathons of energy that are Taylor's specialty), as well as with surpassing delicacy and ...
Lol Coxhill / Veryan Weston: Boundless
by Robert Spencer
Lol Coxhill is quite a case, eh wot? He can gibber on his soprano saxophone with the best of them (cf. the brief opener, “School Test"), but he can also play acidly lyrical lines (which may be why the second track is named “Slurry," which as far as I know is the gooey sweet stuff that ...
Randy Sandke: Awakening
by Robert Spencer
Awakening is a release from Concord's classical division, Concerto, and does it ever sound like one. It isn't quite “Wynton plays Handel," but here trumpeter Randy Sandke fronts the Bulgarian National Symphony (Ljubomir Denev, conductor) in a program of mostly originals (plus a little Ellingtonia) played by what sounds like a full orchestra. The orchestra is ...
Eric Allison: After Hours
by Robert Spencer
Remember Bob Weinstock? He ran Prestige Records in the 1950's and 1960's: Home of Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk (before an acrimonious parting of the ways), Eric Dolphy, and all the rest. Bob Weinstock, along with Orrin Keepnews at Riverside and Alfred Lion at Blue Note, brought modern jazz to the world. Now ...
John Pisano: Conversation Pieces
by Robert Spencer
Conversation Pieces is a follow-up to Pisano's 1995 Among Friends,, and like its successful predecessor it consists of a series of “conversations" Pisano holds with other guitarists: the returning Lee Ritenour, Phil Upchurch, Ted Greene, and Dori Caymmi, plus Joe Diorio and Gene Bertoncini. Actually, all the tracks here were recorded in 1994 and 1995. Pisano ...
The Dave Weckl Band: Rhythm of the Soul
by Robert Spencer
One interesting fact about the Dave Weckl Band's Rhythm of the Soul is that it will soon be available in five different music-minus-one play-along formats: one each for drummers, keyboardists, bassists, guitarists and saxophonists. So if you want to strike a monster groove like the Davemeister himself, now's your chance. Rhythm of the Soul is muscular ...
Robben Ford: The Authorized Bootleg
by Robert Spencer
Here's Robben Ford on acoustic guitar at Oakland's fabled Yoshi's in December 1995. The Blue Line is with him: Roscoe Beck on bass, Tom Brechtlein on drums, and Bill Boublitz on piano and organ. The place is packed and the crowd is wildly enthusiastic. As well it should be. Acoustic Ford reveals him as supreme blues ...
Vijay Iyer: Architextures
by Robert Spencer
Vijay Iyer is “one of the most fascinating jazz pianists around," says Berkeley's East Bay Express, and I couldn't have said it better myself. It is getting ever more difficult to hear someone with something really new to say, but Architextures should establish Vijay Iyer as a pianist to be reckoned with. He credits Duke, Monk ...
