The lines between classical and jazz get blurred on these releases. Produced by William Susman, the Octet Ensemble of Alan Ferber/tb, Mellissa Hughes/voc, Eleanore Oppenheim/b, William Susman/p, Mike Gurfield/tp, Elain Kwon/p, Demetrius Spaneas/sax and Greg Zuber/dr-perc mix impressionistic moods with…
Month: May 2020
BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL COPENHAGEN…Tommy Flanagan: Flanagans Shenanigans, Roy Haynes: My Shining Hour, Geri Allen : Some Aspects of Water
Here are three albums from Storyville Records that feature concerts from winners of the Denmark Jazzpar Award in respective years 1993 (Flanagan), 1994 (Haynes) and 1996 (Allen). Not sure what went wrong in 1995, but be glad for what we’ve…
THE FEMALE VOICE…Suzanna Ross: Is Bewitched, Duchess: Live At Jazz Standard, Denise Mangiardi: Brown Book, Joyce Grant: Surrounded By Blue, Clairdee: A Love Letter To Lena
Ladies and song… Suzanna Ross is clear and casual, teaming up with Gregory Torcian/p-arr, Skp Ward/b and David Silliman/dr for a mix of movie themes and French chasson. She’s delicate and bohemian on the latter on “Ces Petits Riens” and…
Shunzo Ohno: Runner
Trumpeter and composer Shunzo Ohno mixes ethereal and dreamy moods on this collection of originals. The late guitarist Vic Juris is included along with Thierry Arpino/dr, Aska Elias/cl, Sasha Ono/cel, Shotaro Mori/bassoon, Ira Coleman-Dave Anderson/b and Clifford Carter/clav, with the…
PIANO TRIO TIME…Andy Milne and Unison: The reMission, Claude Diallo Situation: I Found A New Home
Classic jazz trio with timeless results. Pianist Andy Milne joins forces with bassist John Hebert and drummer Clarence Penn for a rich melding of self-penned tunes and a couple bopping covers. He takes McCoy Tyner’s “Passion Dance” and gives extra…
Dylan Hayes Electric Band: Songs For Rooms and People
Playing piano, keyboards, key bass and synthesizer, Dylan Hayes sounds like a modernized Weather Report on this fusiony album teamed with a hard hitting rhythm team of Xavier Lecouturier/dr and Tim Carey/eb with a front line of Jay Thomas/tp, Santosh…
Karuna Trio: Imaginary Archipelago
Lots of rustling sounds are created by Adam Rudolph, Ralph M. Jones and Hamid Drake on this recent album. I had to look up in the dictionary what “membranophones”, “aerophones”, “chordophones” and “idiophones” actually were, as that is the list…
DAVID LIEBMAN’S EXPANSIONS
ONE OF THE TRUE GIANTS IN INTEGRATING AMERICAN JAZZ WITH INDIAN MUSIC HAS BEEN DAVID LIEBMAN. BACK IN THE LATE SIXTIES AND EARLY 70S, WHEN FUSION WAS JUST BEGINNING, LIEBMAN WAS ONE OF THE VERY FIRST TO MELD THE RICH…
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN-IS THAT SO?
FANS GUITAR LEGEND JOHN MCLAUGHLIN HAVE SEEN HIS MUSIC TAKEN THE FORMS OF PLUGGED IN ROCK AS WELL AS ACOUSTIC INDIAN TRADITIONAL TONES. HIS LATEST ALBUM, IS THAT SO?, IS A STEP IN A WHOLE NEW DIRECTION. WHILE STILL PLAYING…
SONGS OF INDIA…
Since this month we are featuring two musicians (Dave Liebman and John McLaughlin) who have helped put Indian music on the map, we thought it might be a good time to recommend some albums of jazz-India ventures. Most of our…