Among pianists that were part of the halcyon days of Hard Bop, George Cables is one of the last men standing and carrying the torch. This latest session has him in mostly a trio format, which is what you want,…
Month: March 2014
Vijay Iyer: Mutations
Vijay Iyer is nothing if he isn’t ambitious. The pianist never seems to sit still, releasing music ranging from traditional trios to background sounds for war veterans’ dreams. This time out, his first for ECM, he brings in a string…
Jeremy Pelt: Face Forward, Jeremy
Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt has had an impressive career straddling the worlds of acoustic and electric jazz. His last few releases have been of the hard bop/modal variety, with “Men of Honor” and “The Talented Mr. Pelt” being high water marks…
The Who: Sensation-The Story of Tommy
Duke Ellington tried, but didn’t complete it; Terence Blanchard did one this year. The rock band The Who did it back in 1969. What was it? Mix opera with another genre, in this case with rock music. This just under…
THE REAL DELTA BLUES…Tiecoro Sissoko: Keme Borama
The roots of the blues is not in the delta of Louisiana, but maybe closer to the Niger river in Mali. From ther, you have guitarist/vocalist Tiecoro Sissoko, kora (sort of an African sitaer)master Madouba Camara and Djeli N’goni (percussionist)…
Greg Amirault: East of the Sun
Here’s a Canadian guitarist that’s got a nice clean style. Greg Amirault leads a trio with Fraser Hollins/b and Dave Laing/dr for a soothing and sleek collection of standards and originals. The spaciousness laid out by his teammates gives him…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****David Helbock’s Random/Control: Think of Two
And now for something completely different… You want to try something that will push you a bit, but still sound accessible to the senses? David Helbock, Johannes Bar and Andreas Borger respectively play keyboards, brass and reeds, but in that…
Jeff Ballard Trio: Times Tales
Drummer Jeff Ballard is best known for his work with Brad Mehldau’s trio as well as his work with FLY, and this is his first as a bona fide “leader.” While still in a trio format, this one is quite…
MID EAST WONDERS…Dhafer Youssef: Bird’s Requiem
Mediterranean and Byzantine sounds float from this album produced by oud player Dhafer Youssef. He teams up and mixes and matches moods with clarinetist Husnu Senlendirici (is it a “C”?),Aytac Dogan’s kanun (similar to a zither), Eivind Aarset/g, Nil Petter…
VILLAGE VANGUARD ’61 ? Jon Di Fiore: Yellow Petals
If I didn’t know who the musicians were on this session, I would have thought that maybe the classic trio of Bill Evans, Paul Motian and Scott LaFaro had never been broken up, they were all still alive, and this…