Pianist and composer Bill O’Connell brings out his pent up frustrations with themes of protest and justice on this album mixed and matched with Craig Handy/ts-ss, Lincoln Goines/b, Steve Jordan/dr and Pedrito Martinez/perc. The famed Sam Cooke title tune has…
Month: February 2022
Kit Downes, Petter Eldh, James Maddren: Vermillian
Gentle and reflective moods dominate this trio album of pianist Kit Downes, bassist Petter Eldh and drummer James Maddren. The songs are almost all originals, with Downes showing a dash of Jarrett and Evans, gracious over Maddren’s brushes on “Minus…
WHEN ROCK STILL SWUNG…Sun Records-The Best of Sun Records Volume Two
Still active and in use in the 21st Century, Memphis’ Sun Records was one of the original record labels that brought America what came to be called ‘rock and roll’. But if you judge that genre in retrospect, as on…
TAYLOR MADE RETURN…Cecil Taylor: The Complete, Legendary Live Return Concert
If nothing else, pianist Cecil Taylor was provocative. One of the first of the then-called “avant garde” or “free” pianists, Taylor hit the music scene like a Nike missile, and, unlike most of the artists of his genre, his recordings…
A MISSED LEGEND….Larry Coryell (with Paul Wertico and Marc Egan): Tricycles
One of the overlooked giants of jazz has been the recently departed Larry Coryell (1942-2017). Best known as one of the very first jazz guitarists to embrace rock sounds and create what came to be known as “fusion”, his last…
Adi Meyerson @ Mr. Musichead 02.16.22
“It’s all based on love” So said emcee LeRoy Downs as he introduced bassist Adi Meyerson’s band, which took the evening to present the entire album suite from her latest album I Want To Sing My Heart Out In Praise…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****THIS IS SMALL GROUP SWING 101…Al Cohn and Joe Newman featuring Freddie Green: The Swingin’ Sessions 1954-55
I’ve you’ve only experienced jazz from the hard and raucous beats and intricate time signatures of technical acuity with now heart, you’re in for a treat with this 3 disc set from Fresh Sound Records. Initially, jazz was defined by…
Putumayo Presents: Acoustic Paris
Putamayo takes you to the Left Bank on this latest release, with a mix of gypsy and chanson. Echoes of Django Reinhardt are heard from Clementine’s “Quel Temps Fai-il a Paris” and the uptempo’d “J’attendrai” by Swing de Gitanes and…
LARGER MODERN ENSEMBLES…Carn Davidson 9: The History of Us, Amir Elasaffar’s Rivers of Sound: The Other Side
Modern musings mixing classical, jazz and exotica… William Carn plays trombone and bass trombone with a team of Tara Davidson/wwinds, Kelly Jefferson/reeds, Shirantha Beddage/reeds, Jason Logue/tp-fh, Kevin Turcotte/tp-fh, Christian Overton/btb, Andrew Downing/b and Ernesto Cervini/dr-perc. The albums is divided intwo…
Dave Sewelson: Smooth Free Jazz
The unorthodox combo of baritone saxist and leader Dave Sewelson includes lap steel guitarist Mike Neer along with bassist Dave Hofstra and drummer Bernice “Boom Boom” Brooks for a handful of elastic tunes. There are two takes of the standard…