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The Sardonics: This, That & the Other Thing
by Todd S. Jenkins
Northern California’s oddball post-bop quartet has at it again with a funked-up foray into original sounds and retro fun. Why these guys haven’t been signed by a good-sized label yet is a mystery one could ponder for days, but it’s best to just cut to the chase, take the song titles with a grain of salt, ...
Mantra: IntotheOut
by Todd S. Jenkins
As might be gathered from the setlist, Mantra draws rich inspiration from the early fusion movement of the 1970s. Not your average hippy-trippy apes, the trio remain perhaps closer to the true spirit of the Miles Revolution than projects like Leo Smith’s Yo Miles! For all the sampling and wanna-be funk that has clogged the market ...
Ernesto Diaz-Infante and Rotcod Zzaj: Sirius Intrigues
by Todd S. Jenkins
Futuristic free music from the Bay Area. A member of W.O.O. Revelator and The Abstractions, Ernesto Diaz-Infante is one of San Francisco’s most promising young improvisers. Rotcod Zzaj (you figure it out), aka Dick Metcalf, is a veteran experimenter and head of Zzaj Productions. They explore a wide variety of soundscapes and textures on this blissfully ...
Gambale/Hamm/Smith: GHS 3
by Todd S. Jenkins
Fusion’s hottest current power trio returns with a third offering on Tone Center. All the elements of outstanding modern fusion are present on GHS3 -- powerful guitar leads, pounding and complex basslines, intricate driving rhythms -- with few of the clichés that characterize lesser organizations. With only a few hitches in the mix this time, Gambale, ...
Dennis Chambers: Outbreak
by Todd S. Jenkins
Dennis Chambers, the reigning master of all beats funky, presents a panorama of groove stylings in the vein of Les McCann and the Headhunters. In fact, this session initially feels similar in spirit to labelmate Bill Evans' recent Big Fun, which featured McCann himself. But in the big picture the two releases have little in common ...
Steve Lacy
by Todd S. Jenkins
Soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy is not only one of the few players since Sidney Bechet to specialize on the straight horn, he has become one of the most prolifically recorded musicians in jazz during a career that has spanned nearly fifty years. Though his early roots were in Dixieland, where he freely drew from Bechet's legacy, ...
Arthur Blythe: Focus
by Todd S. Jenkins
After what many considered a dry period in the early 1990s, Arthur Blythe gently began his return to alto prominence through exotic collaborations with cellist David Eyges and mallets player Gust William Tsilis. Focus presents one of his most unusual ensembles since the early '80s tuba/cello/guitar quintet. The sparse, foreign sound of this new quartet takes ...
Bill Fulton: Time
by Todd S. Jenkins
Keyboardist, composer and arranger Bill Fulton has achieved an amazing coup for contemporary jazz with Time. He has successfully broken the curse that has hung over jazz keyboards since the early 1980s, using excellent arrangements and a tight group of performers to give these combo tracks the sense of a larger ensemble. Bright production and a ...
Mike McAllister Group: Urban Sprawl
by Todd S. Jenkins
Urban Sprawl is a bright, infectious exercise in jazz-funk from a quintet of promising Berklee-ites. The Mike MacAllister Group takes fusion in bold new directions with a hot, funk-simmered sound and the surprisingly fun inclusion of marimba. All the compositions were written by MacAllister, who shows as much potential as a writer as he does on ...
Rachel Z Trio: Moon at the Window
by Todd S. Jenkins
Rachel Z's tribute to Joni Mitchell has perhaps arrived at just the right time, hot on the heels of Mitchell's decision to never record again. No doubt her die-hard fans will be clamoring for as much original and tribute material as possible, and a good many will find joy in this comfortable instrumental release. It's impossible ...
