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Soft Works: Abracadabra
by Todd S. Jenkins
Four legendary old friends reunite here to dig deeply into new material. On first listen it seems the energy level doesn't rise about a simmer much of the time, though Allan Holdsworth does kick things up a notch now and then. But repeated listens reveal the multiple layers of what is going on here, reminding us ...
Nguyen Le: Purple: Celebrating Jimi Hendrix
by Todd S. Jenkins
Hallelujah, somebody got it right! One of the banes of the fusion desk is the number of Hendrix knock-offs that come across it. Whether it be an outright tribute or just someone copping a half-dozen licks, nary a guitarist seems to be able to go long without conjuring up Jimi's long-dead ghost. So the arrival of ...
Greg Howe/Victor Wooten/Dennis Chambers: Extraction
by Todd S. Jenkins
In his acclaimed bass camps, Vic Wooten counsels his students that the spaces between the notes are as important as the notes themselves. Greg Howe doesn’t seem to have taken that lesson to heart, considering the number of notes per second on this release. Extraction is just about evenly divided between well-crafted, thoughtful compositions and dead-end ...
Schfvilkus: Genrealization
by Todd S. Jenkins
Schfvilkus (pronounced “shpil-kuss,” Yiddish for being on pins and needles) is a band with its hand on the new century’s pulse. These Nashville cats throw everything into the blender: rock, funk, hip-hop, bluegrass, Arabic music, and good old jazz, to name but a few. What is surprising is how completely everything coheres instead of becoming the ...
Hellborg/Lane/Sipe (Apt. Q258): Temporal Analogues of Paradise
by Todd S. Jenkins
Temporal Analogues of Paradise was originally issued in 1996, it stood the fusion world on its ear. The uncanny melodicism of the three performers--Jeff Sipe being the most surprising--set a new standard for electric improvisation. Jonas Hellborg has now remastered the disc and reissued it on his own label, brightening up the sound for an even ...
Kinda Dixie Jazz Band: Treasures
by Todd S. Jenkins
The Kinda Dixie Jazz Band were one of the big hits of the 2003 Mammoth Lakes Jazz Jubilee in California's Sierra Nevadas. Trombonist/leader Jim Fitzgerald, who wears the raconteur hat as if he were born to it, led his eminently entertaining sextet through an upbeat, wild-eyed set that ranged from vibrant Four Freshmen vocal arrangements to ...
Scott Henderson: Well to the Bone
by Todd S. Jenkins
Scott Henderson is nothing if not unpredictable. In Tribal Tech and Vital Tech Tones he has distinguished himself as an endlessly creative performer with impeccable musicianship. Well to the Bone also bears a heavy dose of creativity, to be sure, yet many of the selections come off as oddly disconcerting. Despite its label, the disc has ...
Randy Weston African Rhythms Quintet: Spirit! The Power of Music
by Todd S. Jenkins
Ever since Ornette Coleman and journalist Robert Palmer ventured to Joujouka in the late 1970s, traditional Moroccan musicians have had sporadic, generally fruitful meetings with American jazzmen. Many of those projects -- Coleman’s Dancing In Your Head and Pharoah Sanders’ Trance of the Seven Colors come straight to mind -- have leaned heavily towards the traditional ...
Jing Chi: Jing Chi Live!
by Todd S. Jenkins
Jing Chi’s 2001 debut was eagerly anticipated by contemporary jazz fans worldwide. For the most part it satisfied, save for feeling a bit too loose around the edges. One whole point of the project was to explore more open-ended improvisation in an electric fusion context, at which the disc succeeded admirably. Hindsight is always 20/20, however, ...
Randy Brecker: 34th N Lex
by Todd S. Jenkins
Randy Brecker's last release ( Hangin' in the City ) was one strange puppy, a handful of serviceable tunes wound tightly around the convoluted perversion of “Randroid," the trumpeter's streetwise cabbie alter-ego. Brecker wisely got back to the groove this time around, leaving this disc's few vocals to more capable hands. The result is a highly ...
