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Karl Ackermann's Best Releases of 2017
by Karl Ackermann
2017 was an exceptional year for artists who elude convention; veterans such as Wadada Leo Smith and relative newcomers like Abdul Moimême gave us unique musical insights. It was an outstanding year for solo recordings. Along with Smith and Moimême, Rob Mazurek, Matthew Shipp, Irish multi-instrumentalist Aine O'Dwyer, Cuban pianist Aruán Ortiz, Italian pianist Stefano Battaglia, ...
Troy Collins' Best Releases of 2017
by Troy Collins
Considering the quantity of recordings released in a year's time, attempting to compile a comprehensive end of the year list mentioning every first-rate session would be difficult at best. The ten titles listed below represent a fertile cross-section of some of the most compelling modern jazz heard in 2017. William Parker Quartets
Wadada Leo Smith: Solo: Reflections and Meditations on Monk
by Mark Corroto
The most fitting tribute to Thelonious Monk on the 100th anniversary of his birth was not by a pianist, but by a trumpeter, and not any ordinary trumpeter. Wadada Leo Smith, like Monk, is a musician's musician. While his peers have seemingly always investigated his music, it took the listening audience (and, ahem, critics) awhile to ...
Wadada Leo Smith: Najwa
by John Sharpe
Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith is no stranger to plugged-in performance. Like Ornette Coleman and Miles Davis, his musical systems prove just as applicable to electronic as to all-acoustic environments. Indeed one of Smith's earliest such immersions was Yo Miles! inspired by Miles' 1970s guitar shredding bands. Multiple electric strings have also formed an integral part of ...
Najwa
Album: Najwa
By Wadada Leo Smith
Label: TUM Records
Released: 2017
Duration: 3:36
Monk and His Five Point Ring at the Five Spot Cafe
Album: Solo: Reflections and Meditations on Monk
By Wadada Leo Smith
Label: TUM Records
Released: 2017
Duration: 7:53
Wadada Leo Smith: Najwa
by Jerome Wilson
Wadada Leo Smith has been on an amazingly productive streak the last few years, creating ambitious work for all kinds of configurations, large orchestras, string ensembles, quartets, duos and solo. About the only format he hadn't explored lately was the dense electronic jazz-rock he's played in the past with his groups Organic and Yo! Miles. With ...
Wadada Leo Smith: Solo: Reflections and Meditations on Monk
by John Sharpe
In the hundredth anniversary year of Thelonious Monk's birth, there won't be many better or more heartfelt tributes than this solo recital by trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. In an astonishing late career flowering Smith has released a string of stupendous recordings for everything from large ensembles to intimate duets, with his monumental Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform, ...
David Bindman Sextet: Ten Billion Versions of Reality
by Karl Ackermann
Saxophonist David Bindman reconvenes the ensemble that created Sunset Park Polyphony (Self Produced, 2012) for the eclectic Ten Billion Versions of Reality. Bindman had spent parts of two recent years in the upstate New York town of Cambridge, developing a suite that is meant to weave together varying perspectives across multiple sound surfaces. The title, in ...
Satoko Fujii, Wadada Leo Smith, Natsuki Tamura, Ikue Mori: Aspiration
by Alberto Bazzurro
Quattro pezzi di Satoko Fujii, uno di Natsuki Tamura e un'improvvisazione collettiva compongono questo album, riferibile in primo luogo alla pianista, ma che prosegue al tempo stesso la serie di produzioni discografiche della coppia Fujii/Tamura (che come molti sapranno sono moglie e marito), in questi ultimi anni particolarmente trafficata, con esiti non sempre all'altezza di quanto ...
