Playing a 1920 guitar banjo, 1925 tenor banjo, a 1989 Fender Telecaster guitar, 1998 Neptune 12 stringer and using a 1991 Tascam Cassette Recorder, Brandon Seabrook mixes strings, strums tapes and loops to create a kaleidoscopic album of ambitious sounds…
Category: Reviews
Calgareal: Vanishing Points
The collective team of Aurelien Tomasi/reeds, Mathieu Langlois/sax/flg, Jeremy Gignoux/vi-vn/key, Jiajia Li/fl-pic, Sebastien LeBlanc/g, Hugo Blouin/b and Robin Tufts/dr-perc mix and match ideas that focus on a mix of medieval tones and Irish folk but with a dash of free…
Ric Harris and The Heat Merchants: Along The Avenue
Rocking blues are served home style by singer/guitarist Ric Harris and his Heat Merchants of Steve Kostakes/key, Dany Gomez/b, Marty Binder/dr, Stan Karcz/acc and Andrea Miologos-Bree Gordon/voc. His voice has a dash of the Talking Heads’ David Byrne, with a…
Sahara von Hattenberger: 1Q84
Cellist Sahara von Hattenberger forms a jazzy chamber group with Joanne Kang/p, Adrian Vedady/b and Jim Doxas/dr, bringing ideas on this double disc set from both the Murakami fantasy novel 1Q84, but also from a classic 80s album from Claude…
****RINGER OF THE WEEK****Vanguard Jazz Orchestra: Centennial-The Music of Thad Jones
Directed by Dick Oatts, the venerable Vanguard Jazz Orchestra gives tribute to the jazz orchestra that essentially set the standard for all followers, the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. Essentially created in order to give a bit of complexity and modernity…
Ben Sutin: Mr. Inevitable AD
Violinist Ben Sutin bridges the link between the gypsy feel of Stephane Grappelli with modern post bop ideas on this enchantingly swinging session. He’s teamed with Ben Rosenblum, who provides both bopping piano and bohemian accordion, along with bassist Chris…
Eric Jacobson: Heading Home
Vintage hard bop in the realm of Horace Silver and Art Blakey is served up by trumpeter Eric Jacobson and his quintet of Geof Bradfield/ts, Bruce Barth/p, Dennis Carroll/b and George Fludas/dr on this album of Blue Note-based originals. Barth…
Russell Haight: Go Forth
Playing tenor and soprano sax, Russell Haight leads a team of Sean Giddings/p, Ryan Hagler/b and Daniel Dufour through a mix of originals and standards. Of the latter, his soprano goes modal over Dufour’s Elvin Jones-inspired drums on “Night and…
The Rare Sounds: Introducing
The quartet of Eddie Roberts/g, Robert Walter/org, Chris Stillwill/b and Zak Najor/dr focus on songs that sound like a soundtrack for Shaft or something starring Pam Grier. There’s a funky boogaloo a law the Famous Flames on jumpers like “Half…
THREE’S NOT A CROWD…Ize Trio: The Global Suites, Daniel Garcia Trio: Wonderland
A pair of threes… A wide world of sounds is delivered by Chase Morrin/p, George Lernis/p and Naseem Alatrash/cel along with guests John Patitucci/b with Farayi Malek-Heiraza/voc for a collection of 2-3 movement suites. The 3 part “Break G4S” includes…