This album is subtitled “Music for Percussion & Piano,” which is done by the hands of Joe Porter/perc and Joel Goodfellow/p in impressive fashion. They avoid the pitfalls of over indulgence and rabbit trails by focusing on lyricism as they…
Month: August 2015
The Gary McFarland Legacy Ensemble: Circulation-The Music of Gary McFarland
One of the overlooked renaissance men in jazz, Gary McFarland died back in 1971 after an all too short career mixing jazz and orchestra works for Impulse and Verve back in the day. Drummer Michael Benedict delves into McFarland’s book…
Alectro: School of Desire
Steve Kirkman and Jeff Eyrich make up the team Alectro, both singing, playing guitars, keyboards, percussion and Eyrich adding bass guitar on a mix of originals andcovers. Their sound most of the time comes off as being highly influenced by…
Alune Wade & Harold Lopez-Nussa: Havana Paris Dakar
Here’s a fun disc that takes you on a plane ride to parts of Europe, Africa and Cuba, sometimes presenting them in toto, and other times as a nice spicy sauce. At times as on “Aminata” and “Dom” you get…
Smadj: Spleen
Born in Paris, but raised in a Tunisian culture, guitarist Smadj mixes two world views that mix the mysticism of the Middle East and Mediterranean with modern pop senses. Much of the time, you get a mix of moody guitar/oud…
IT’S YOUR THING! The Isley Brothers: The RCA Victor and T-Neck Album Masters (1959-1983)
This sumptuous 23 disc box set covers all of the albums that were released by the long lasting and entertaining Isley Brothers. Not only are the “normal” releases included here, but you get for the first time in its entirety…
Ben Sidran: Blue Camus
How many artists describe themselves as “musician & intellectual”? Well, that’s Ben Sidran, who’s been mixing Mort Sahl intellectual insights to B3 blues and bop for years. Here, he mixes a bit of Michael Franks, Mose Allison and Steely Dan…
LADIES NIGHT…Stevie Holland: Life Goes On, Deborah Latz: Sur L’instant, Halie Loren: Butterfly Blue
Here are three varied releases by equally varied vocalists. Stevie Holland brings a rich and mature sounding vocal on this collection of vintage and modern tunes. The team of Randy Ingram/p, Peter Brendler/b, Jeff Davis/dr and Nicholas Payton/tp creates formidable…
Hayden Chisholm: Breve
Soft and feathery sounding alto saxist Hayden Chisholm teams up with stablemates John Taylor/p and Matt Penman/b for a gentle and impressionistic collection of originals. Chisholm takes the air tone of Paul Desmond and adds helium to it to make…
Samuel Torres Group: Forced Displacement
Lots of percussion bounces around on this session lead by conga player Samuel Torres. The impressive front line of Michael Rodrigue/tp-fh, Yosvany Terry/s-ss and Marshall Gilkes/tb performs the melodies of this ten movement suite which focuses on the forced displacement…