Results for "Troy Dostert"
Berta Moreno Afro-Jazz Soul Project: Tumaini
by Troy Dostert
Tenor saxophonist Berta Moreno released her promising debut, Little Steps, in 2017. It signaled her debt to forbears such as Wayne Shorter and Joe Henderson, and displayed an impressive command of bop language. Tumaini, her engaging follow-up, moves in a rather different direction. Time well-spent in Kenya gave Moreno a wider focus for her compositions, as ...
Susan Alcorn, Leila Bordreuil, Ingrid Laubrock: Bird Meets Wire
by Troy Dostert
It may be impossible for anyone to free the pedal steel guitar entirely from its roots in country music but, if anyone can, Susan Alcorn would have to be the leading candidate. She has a phenomenal range on the instrument, capable of everything from folk-drenched Americana to abstract excursions, and she will sometimes combine her variegated ...
Irene Schweizer / Hamid Drake: Celebration
by Troy Dostert
If John Coltrane was the dominant figure behind the rise of Impulse Records in the 1960s, and Wayne Shorter played a similar role for Blue Note in the same decade, one could argue that pianist Irène Schweizer has placed her stamp upon Intakt Records. Certainly the Swiss avant-garde label has embraced that relationship, as aside from ...
Dan Pitt Quintet: Wrongs
by Troy Dostert
Maybe it's a case of false humility, or a stab at irony, but guitarist Dan Pitt seems to prefer self-deprecating album titles. The Toronto-based musician's 2019 trio release, Fundamentally Flawed (Self-Produced), featured bassist Alex Fournier and drummer Nick Fraser, and his current offering, Wrongs, adds saxophonists Naomi McCarroll-Butler and Patrick Smith to the mix. For an ...
Daniele Germani: A Congregation of Folks
by Troy Dostert
Ambition is not in short supply for up-and-coming alto saxophonist Daniele Germani. Back in 2019, the Berklee College of Music alumnus committed himself to writing a song a day, and ten are featured here on his debut disc, A Congregation of Folks. Nor are they easy-come, easy-go compositions; there is an innate restlessness in Germani's muse, ...
Matthew Alec: Cleveland Time
by Troy Dostert
Tenor saxophonist Matthew Alec is on a mission--and it's all about furthering the jazz scene in his native Cleveland. This starts with his own music, of course, going back to his first band Winslow, a fixture in the Cleveland scene from 2005-2016, and now continuing with his current ensemble, the Soul Electric. Its first release, Cleveland ...
Oliver Schwerdt with Barry Guy and Günter ‘Baby’ Sommer: One for My Baby and One More for the Bass
by Troy Dostert
There aren't many musicians who've loomed larger in European free improvisation since the 1970s than bassist Barry Guy and percussionist Günter 'Baby' Sommer. In addition to their own work as leaders (the former having much more of a presence in this regard than the latter, admittedly), each has collaborated with the heavyweights of the free music ...
[Ahmed]: Nights on Saturn (communication)
by Troy Dostert
When [Ahmed] released its debut album, Super Majnoon (Otoroku), in 2019, it provided not only an opportunity to revisit the under-heralded work of pathbreaking bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik. It also offered a bewildering, sometimes intoxicating stew of improvisation that relied equally on minimalist repetition and deeply-rooted grooves. This intrepid team of European musicians, consisting of saxophonist Seymour ...
Michael Gregory Jackson: Frequency Equilibrium Koan
by Troy Dostert
One of the undersung elder statesmen of the jazz avant-garde, guitarist Michael Gregory Jackson played a vital role in the burgeoning loft scene of the 1970s, where his work with Oliver Lake was especially noteworthy. On albums like Lake's Holding Together (Black Saint, 1976) and Zaki (hatOLOGY, 1979), Jackson brought a deep reservoir of influences, not ...
Hafez Modirzadeh with Kris Davis, Tyshawn Sorey and Craig Taborn: Facets
by Troy Dostert
A rigorous, sometimes imposingly cerebral innovator, tenor saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh has dedicated himself since the 1980s to ever more ambitious ways of opening up the Western musical tradition to scrutiny. A particular obsession is the restrictive quality of conventional instrumental tunings, which, as Modirzadeh perceives them, can limit the possibilities available to improvisers and composers alike, ...
Premium
Contest Giveaway
Days remaining: 26
