Bassist/composer Gregg August evenly divides his material between both a quartet and a sextet on this impressive release of post-bop jazz. All of the songs have a sophistication to their melodies, harmonies and structure, and it’s a coin flip which…
Month: February 2013
Rudresh Mahanthappa: Gamak
OK, I get it that Indian music is the latest genre to mix with jazz, and many times it has worked amazingly well. This time out, alto saxist/composer Rudresh Mahanthappa teams up with David Fiucynski/g, Francois Moutin/b and Dan Weiss/dr…
Jan Garbarek/Egberto Gismonti/Charlie Haden: Magico-Carta de Amor
ECM Records has been cleaning out its attic lately, and finding some undiscovered joys in the dusty corners. They found a beaut of a Jarrett performance last year, and now they’ve found and put out a double album of a…
The Doobie Brothers: Let The Music Play-The Story of the Doobie Brothers
Where else, but in America could a band that is named after a marijuana joint make a popular hit out of Jesus being all right for them? The quintessential rock band The Doobie Brothers is joyfully chronicled in this in…
Blackmore’s Night: A Night In York
Who would have predicted in the early 70s, right after Deep Purple’s Machine Head came out, that the composer of “Smoke on the Water” would eventually live a quiet and domestic life and become part of a Renaissance/Minstrel band? I…
Emy Tseng: Sonho
Here’s a wonderfully understated disc by a lady I’ve never heard before. Emy Tseng takes on material from Brazil to Freddie Hubbard on this highly satisfying session. Her voice is Gilberto styled in its soft tones, and it fits perfectly…
Marc Myers: Why Jazz Happened
Most of the jazz books that you read focus on either specific artists like Coltrane, Armstrong or Duke, or into specific genres like Bebop or Free Jazz. Marc Myers takes the evolution of jazz from an entirely different and quite…
Gustavo Santaolalla: On The Road Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
At one time, it was de rigeur for a college student to read Jack Kerouac’s hip to be hep beatnik classic On The Road. Here, we’ve got the soundtrack to the movie, and it’s an excellent mix of vintage bebop…
Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra @ The Canyon Club 02.15.13
Like so many artists, it would be temptingly easy for guitarist Ottmar Liebert to simply cash in on the popularity that he developed 20 years ago and simply coast into town and play the songs that are expected of him.…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****Patsy Cline: On The Air-Her Best TV Performances
What Billie Holiday was to jazz, Patsy Cline was to country music. She didn’t have the largest range in the world, but her nuanced delivery told more than any improvisation or high C could ever deliver. Like Holiday, she held…