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Afrobeat: An Alternative Top Ten
by Chris May
It would be hard if not impossible to compile an Afrobeat Top Ten which was not wholly made up of Fela Anikulapo Kuti albums. Such was Kuti's centrality in the creation and development of Afrobeat, such was the productivity of his recording career--his catalogue totals more than fifty albums, not counting reissues and compilations--and such was ...
Heroes Are Gang Leaders: Artificial Happiness Button
by Mark Corroto
We can be pretty sure that in heaven the champion poet is heard saying, “I'm Gil Scott Heron and I approve of this message." The same can be said of the late Amiri Baraka whom the art, poetry and music troupe Heroes Are Gang Leaders was created to honor with their first release in 2014. What ...
David Lavoie Quartet: Juno
by John Bricker
The experimental and avant-garde side of jazz can be incredibly rewarding and a whole lot of fun, whether delivering the adventurous dynamics of a Sun Ra epic or a maelstrom of dissonance at the climax of an Angles 9 track. But, despite the value of risk-taking and innovation, straight-forward and focused jam albums will always have ...
AACM: Together We Are Stronger
by Chris May
With the passing in 2017 of the pianist Muhal Richard Abrams and trumpeter Phil Cohran, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, formed in Chicago in 1965, lost the last two of the four musicians who organised its inaugural meeting. But with two succeeding generations of standard bearers stepping up to the plate, the AACM ...
Pigfoot: Pigfoot Shuffle
by Ian Patterson
Once a taste for mischief is acquired it's hard to rein it in. Pigfoot was having way, way too much fun on 21st Century Acid Trad (Village Life Records, 2014) to go straight on this, its second outing. If the former happily warped New Orleans jazz, Pigfoot Shuffle applies a similar concept to a broader pool ...
Matthew Shipp: The Piano Equation
by Mark Corroto
Let the celebration of pianist Matthew Shipp's 60th birthday year 2020 commence with The Piano Equation. Having released a dozen or so prior solo sessions, this also is a recording sans nostalgia. Shipp, like Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, or Thelonious Monk before him, does not pine for the past, but ceaselessly forges a path onward. And ...
Strata-East: Seizing the Time
by Chris May
Operating on minimum finance and maximum passion, Brooklyn's Strata-East label was a pivotal platform for the spiritual-jazz movement that emerged during the Civil Rights struggle of the 1970s. Its closest contemporary comparator was Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Both were non-profit organisations. The AACM was non-profit by design. With Strata-East, co-founder Charles Tolliver ...
Roberto Magris: Suite!
by Dan McClenaghan
Italian pianist Roberto Magris began his jazz career in the late 1970s, releasing a handful of excellent albums on Soul Note Records. He picked up steam in his collaboration with Kansas City's JMood Records in 2008 on Kansas City Outbound. As a pianist and a bandleader, Magris seems to have soaked up numerous influences--mid-sixties Blue Note ...
David Sanborn: Night Music and Beyond with Hal Willner
by Ludovico Granvassu
Could you imagine tuning in to national network TV today and finding a 60-minute weekly music show focusing on forward-looking musicians driven by a desire to push the envelope rather than to “entertain?" A music show sponsored by a beer company, on top of that? It's hard to believe today. But for two seasons at the ...
George Garzone: Sax In The City
by Jim Worsley
George Garzone is not the mayor of the city of Boston. If he was appointed to a position it would more likely be king. He is, at the very least, the toast of the town. This isn't news. King George has reigned with a firm grasp of his mighty tenor saxophone for close to half a ...
