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The Bert van den Brink Trio with Rick Margitza: Conversations
by Robert Spencer
Conversations is a soulful disc of jazz and jazz/funk. Often the latter comes in unexpectedly: John Coltrane's “Naima" is invested by drummer Hans van Oosterhout with a heavy funk beat, although tenor saxophonist Rick Margitza plays rather conventionally over it. But of course this is no indication that this quartet isn't capable of shifting down to ...
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey: Welcome Home
by Robert Spencer
The Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey is a funky jazz group featuring trumpeter Kyle Wright, trombonist Matt Leland, Rhodes man Brian Haas, bassist Reed Mathis, drummer Sean Layton, guitarist Dove McHargue, and percussionist Matthew Edwards. Of these eight originals, Wright wrote three, Leland one, Layton one, and Haas one. Plus there's one by the mysterious Jacob Fred ...
Sidney Bechet: Up a Lazy River
by Robert Spencer
Sidney Bechet was the first master of the soprano saxophone, and indeed, the father of all the others: when the instrument was almost forgotten, Steve Lacy heard Bechet play Duke Ellington's “The Mooche." Then John Coltrane was somehow (there are different versions of the story) introduced to the soprano by Lacy. And the rest is history. ...
Count Basic: Trust Your Instincts
by Robert Spencer
As you might expect from the Count at this point, Trust Your Instincts is funky, glossy, shimmery, soulful, wailing, smooth, and incredibly booty-shaking. The Count (is he this slick-headed gentleman accompanied by the amply-endowed woman in the liners?) delivers up, amid deft shifts of personnel, a nonstop funkfest enlivened by vocals as strong as those of ...
Kenny Wheeler: All the More
by Robert Spencer
Kenny Wheeler's gorgeous trumpet anchors these tracks, but also attracting attention here is the understated beauty and subtle adventurousness of John Taylor's piano. With that kind of combination in his playing, Taylor is a perfect match for Wheeler, who has straddled a few divides in his time. Much of this disc features the ethereal ECM-ish music ...
The Protruders: A Recipe for the Body & Soul
by Robert Spencer
On the back of this one it says, “Instructions: 1. Take six world-class jazz musicians; 2. Remove their adult conformity glands; 3. Render the musicians imaginative, whimsical, mischievous." And you get - the Protruders. What is it? Well, sometimes it's Dixieland: the New Orleans Rhythm Kings' “Tin Roof Blues" starts things off in a rollicking, shambolic ...
Scott Miller - Joe Fonda: Bottoms Out
by Robert Spencer
Bottoms Out features some of the most innovative and imaginative improvisers on the scene today - musicians who have mastered the blues and bop but are also aware of the musical developments of the last thirty years in what is often pejoratively or derisively labeled “free" music. These five performances capture a large ensemble as exciting ...
Various Artists: 10 New Smooth Jazz Releases from Instinct Jazz
by Robert Spencer
Just when you think the music can't get any slicker, or groovier, or smoother, Instinct Jazz does it again. Smoothie jazz fans, get on your dancing shoes and lower the lights; it just doesn't get any smoother than these ten. Bill Sharpe,State of the Heart, Instinct 426 Keyboard sharpie extraordinaire Bill Sharpe lets the rhythm take ...
Steven Lantner / Mat Maneri: Reaching
by Robert Spencer
This one is aptly named. Steven Lantner and Mat Maneri are indeed reaching: for new combinations, new sounds, new potentialities to realize. This is extraordinarily active music, lurching every which way, jumping, skating, flying, and swooping down into a brood. Microtonality - the huge caverns between the conventional pitches, explored by Mat Maneri's father Joe - ...
The John Bickerton Trio: Shadow Boxes
by Robert Spencer
Sometimes an artist doesn't need a big canvas on which to work. Miniatures can be just as artistically exacting and just as pleasing to the audience. John Bickerton is a worker in miniatures: he favors little phrases, not simply repeated but re-aired, re- floated, remade in different conjunctions and combinations. Matthew Heyner (bass) and Rashid Bakr ...
