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Results for "Troy Dostert"
Julian Shore: Where We Started
by Troy Dostert
A pianist of uncommon sensitivity and graceful temperament, Julian Shore crafts music with atmosphere and feeling, aiming for emotional depth rather than settling for typical jazz devices. On Where We Started, his third release, he offers eight well-honed tracks which are both evocative and nuanced; while they might not win over the uninitiated in a crowded ...
Susan Tobocman: Touch & Go
by Troy Dostert
A triple-threat musician with significant talent as a vocalist, composer and arranger, Susan Tobocman's path to jazz was an unconventional one. Her early interest in poetry led to a scholarship that took her from her hometown, Detroit, to New York, for study at Columbia University. That in turn led to an interest in musical theater, followed ...
Collage Project: Off Brand
by Troy Dostert
Listeners who crave a bit of classical rigor with their jazz--or, conversely, those who enjoy improvisational freedom within a classical chamber setting--should investigate the work of the Collage Project. Built around the trio of guitarists Dan Bruce and Daniel Lippel and bassist Aidan Plank, and complemented by drummer Nathan Douds, saxophonist Noa Even and trombonist Chris ...
Kadi Vija Key Project: Roaming in the Contemporary Society to Make Peace With It
by Troy Dostert
Although her album's title is a bit unwieldy, vocalist Kadi Vija's summer 2020 release does convey the artist's distinctive approach to living in challenging times. Rather than aiming for dramatic gestures or the boldest imaginable change, perhaps the more sensible strategy is simply to figure out how to keep going—not resignation, exactly, but a willingness to ...
Pedro Melo Alves: In Igma
by Troy Dostert
Since his remarkable debut as a leader in 2017, Omniae Ensemble (Nischo Records), drummer and composer Pedro Melo Alves has quickly established himself as a vital force in the Portuguese jazz scene. With an uncompromising sensibility equally committed to avant-garde jazz and contemporary classical music, not to mention the jazz-rock experimentalism of his work with Rite ...
Drew Wesely/Kenneth Jimenez/Francisco Mela: Triangulate the Landscape
by Troy Dostert
An interesting trio comprised of a well-established veteran percussionist, Francisco Mela, and two relative newcomers, bassist Kenneth Jimenez and guitarist Drew Wesely, the musicians behind Triangulate the Landscape are engaged in that age-old challenge of free improvisation: how to create a substantial musical conversation that combines separate, independently-determined voices into a larger whole. While the three ...
World Jazz Quintet: Live At QPAC Theatre
by Troy Dostert
Although all the members of the World Jazz Quintet are New York-based, the group's name does evoke the global palette of its music. Led by pianist Francis Hon—who, on his trio outing Before Dawn (2018), worked within pop and classical idioms in addition to conventional jazz—the World Jazz Quintet incorporates traditional Asian folk musics and a ...
Eli Wallace and Ben Cohen: Evaporation
by Troy Dostert
In a series of imaginative projects, pianist Eli Wallace and saxophonist Ben Cohen have shown themselves to have a remarkable range of creative impulses. Wallace has thrived in a powerful duo with percussionist Rob Pumpelly called Dialectical Imagination; the two create furious intensity with a substratum of romanticism, as on The Angel and the Brute Sing ...
Deerhoof and Wadada Leo Smith: To Be Surrounded By Beautiful, Curious, Breathing, Laughing Flesh Is Enough
by Troy Dostert
When it comes to combining the anarchic spirit of punk rock with whip-smart musicianship and a penchant for unbelievably catchy grooves, few bands come close to Deerhoof. Since the 1990s, the group has been cherished by indie rock cognoscenti, and they've also earned the respect of a large swath of the non-rock community as well, working ...
Jeff Cosgrove/John Medeski/Jeff Lederer: History Gets Ahead of the Story
by Troy Dostert
As he has been one of the most influential and prolific musicians in the jazz avant-garde since the 1980s, it is surprising that bassist William Parker hasn't gotten more credit as a composer. Perhaps due in part to the sheer volume of his recordings--including every imaginable context, from solo bass to small/medium-sized groups to big-band outings--it ...
