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| Jenny Scheinman and Allison Miller |
Violinist, composer, improviser, bandleader, and singer Jenny Scheinman has established herself as a major force in avant jazz and roots-oriented creative music on both coasts of America, making a particular impact in the Brooklyn creative jazz scene following her arrival in the borough from the West Coast in 1999.
Allison Miller / Jenny Scheinman - Play Money from Parlour Game
While violinist Jenny Scheinman has been a longtime contributor to drummer Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom band, Parlour Game marks the first co-billed outing between the two veteran players and bandleaders. The quartet featured here, which also includes pianist Carmen Staaf and bassist Tony Scherr, is a nimble troupe whose sparkling folk-jazz interplay and deep musical vocabulary make for an immediately pleasing listen. From the start, the band's chemistry is apparent with concise arrangements that still retain a breezy, casual air..
Yazz Ahmed - Ruby Bridges (Yazz Ahmed) from Polyhymnia
Polyhymnia is the third full-length from British-Bahraini trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Yazz Ahmed. Her remarkable meld of post-bop jazz, Arabic folk traditions, and electronic sound design has brought her to a prominent and influential place on London's vibrant jazz scene... The music here is an extended suite-like work commissioned by Tomorrow's Warriors in 2015. It was performed by members of the Nu Civilisation Orchestra in a concert at the Women of the World Festival on International Women's Day. The album is titled for the name of its inspiration: ancient Greece's muse of poetry, music, and dance... Composed lines and improvisations are intertwined in Ahmed's arrangement. In "Ruby Bridges," loping post-bop framed by flugelhorn and guitar meet a funky, pulsing bass line, swinging drums, and expansive, polytonal reeds and brass...
Theo Croker - Subconscious Flirtations & Titillations (Theo Croker) from Star People Nation
Since 2014's Afrophysicist, trumpeter Theo Croker has been expanding upon his funky, stylistically far-reaching jazz sound with ever more electric and electronic influences. He takes this approach even further on 2019's cosmically expansive Star People Nation. The album follows his equally ambitious 2016 effort Escape Velocity and once again finds him backed by his ensemble featuring saxophonist Irwin Hall, keyboardist Michael King, bassist Eric Wheeler, and drummer Kassa Overall. Also joining him again is co-executive producer Karriem Riggins, who previously played drums on Afrophysicist... Similarly spacy, "Subconscious Flirtations & Titillations" finds Croker evoking a dreamy, Miles Davis-esque futurism as he contrasts his warm, breathy horn against bug-like digital motifs, sparkling piano, and an analog bass'n'drum rhythm...
The Comet Is Coming - Birth of Creation (Betamax / Danalogue / King Shabaka) from Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery
England's sci-fi jazz trio the Comet Is Coming have been exploring the cosmos since 2015 when drummer Maxwell Hallett (Betamax) and keyboardist Dan Leavers (Danalogue) were playing a gig as futurist duo Soccer96 when they encountered Shabaka Hutchings (King Shabaka) hanging near the stage with a saxophone. They invited him up and improvised. Received enthusiastically, the trio formed the Comet Is Coming to explore a mutual love of Sun Ra, John and Alice Coltrane, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and future-forward electronica... It remains held in a state of tension before "Birth of Creation," prefaced by the rhythm section, articulates a frame for Hutchings' spidery bass clarinet melody that builds on their multidimensional textures...
Bremer / McCoy - Utopia
There are some albums that beg to be listened to from beginning to end in one sitting; Brian Eno's Music for Airports, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, and Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians come to mind. The fourth album (and Luaka Bop debut) from Danish instrumentalists Bremer/McCoy, 2019's Utopia, is also one of those albums. Featuring the talents of bassist Jonathan Bremer and keyboardist/tape delay artist Morten McCoy, Utopia showcases the duo's expansive, often hypnotic jazz-, dub-, and classical-influenced sound. Aesthetically, their intimate sound falls somewhere in between Keith Jarrett, Paul Winter, and Mike Oldfield without ever borrowing too heavily from any one source.
Brian Krock - Heart Machine from liddle
The follow-up to 2018's ambitiously realized big-band work Big Heart Machine, saxophonist Brian Krock offers a smaller, if no less aggressive solo debut with 2019's inventive Liddle. As with Big Heart Machine, Liddle finds Krock drawing inspiration from his dynamic mix of stylistic influences including avant-garde modern creative artists like Anthony Braxton and John Zorn and the M-Base funk of Steve Coleman to the brutal power metal and prog rock that informed his teen years. In that sense, Liddle plays like a micro-version of Big Heart Machine, and even features several of his big-band cohorts in guitarist Olli Hirvonen and bassist Marty Kenney...
Nérija - Rieverfest (Nérija) from Blume
The debut full-length album by Britain's Nérija, 2019's Blume, features the female-led jazz ensemble on a set of original tunes that showcases their earthy brand of modern jazz. Together since 2016, Nérija was initially formed while the members were students in the London jazz initiative Tomorrow's Warriors. Included are trumpeter Sheila Maurice-Grey, trombonist Rosie Turton, saxophonists Cassie Kinoshi and Nubya Garcia, guitarist Shirley Tetteh, drummer Lizy Exell, and the band's sole male member, bassist Rio Kai. Together, they play a richly harmonious style of jazz that balances the swinging, straight-ahead hard bop of the Jazz Messengers with the late-'60s and early-'70s African jazz of trumpet icon Hugh Masekela... However, what's particularly compelling about Nérija's take on cross-pollinated jazz is that it never sounds like they are trying to imitate one particular sound or era. Instead, they offer a set of contemporary tracks that feel connected to their diverse London roots.
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| Kneebody |
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| Becca Stevens |
Kneebody feat. Becca Stevens - Wounds Let in the Light (Becca Stevens / Ben Wendel) from Chapters
Kneebody's tenth studio album, 2019's Chapters, is one of their most accessible albums to date, featuring a handful of guest vocalists on songs that ably straddle the line between hooky post-rock and exploratory jazz. It's an aesthetic the forward-thinking Los Angeles outfit featuring saxophonist Ben Wendel, trumpeter Shane Endsley, keyboardist Adam Benjamin, drummer/bassist Nate Wood, and bassist Kaveh Rastegar have been forging since the early 2000s, combining fusion-esque group arrangements with propulsive exploratory improvisation. Chapters is no exception and in many ways showcases an almost perfect balance of compositional songwriting, post-bop soloing, and lyrical vocal melodies. The latter commands the most attention here as Kneebody bring on board guest singers Michael Mayo, Gretchen Parlato, Josh Dion, and singer/guitarist Becca Stevens, each of whom either wrote or co-wrote their song...
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| Brooklyn Rider |
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| Joshua Redman |
Founded in 2005, New York string quartet Brooklyn Rider are known for their accessible but genre- and boundary-challenging repertoire. In addition to recording works by the likes of Beethoven and Philip Glass, they draw focus on emerging composers and contribute their own original compositions. The ensemble's many collaborations include recordings by artists spanning Béla Fleck, Suzanne Vega, Kojiro Umezaki, and Gabriel Kahane.
Joshua Redman / Brooklyn Rider - Between Dog and Wolf (with Scott Colley & Satoshi Takeishi) from Sun on Sand
A collaboration between saxophonist Joshua Redman, forward-thinking chamber string ensemble Brooklyn Rider, and composer Patrick Zimmerli, 2019's Sun on Sand is a kinetic, richly attenuated album that straddles the line between jazz and modern classical. The album is comprised of eight compositions culled from a suite by Zimmerli which he and Redman originally premiered in London in 2014. Zimmerli, a jazz-trained saxophonist himself who has garnered acclaim for his hybrid orchestrations, previously supplied orchestral arrangements for Redman on his 2013 album Walking Shadows, and for Brooklyn Rider on their similar collaboration with vocalist Anne Sofie von Otter, 2016's So Many Things. He's also worked on projects with luminaries like the Bad Plus, Brad Mehldau, Ben Monder, and others. Consequently, as a composer, he brings a wide-ranging ear to Sun on Sand, ably straddling the line between exploratory modern creative jazz and more highly structured classical soundscapes...
Carmen Sandim - Waiting for Art from Play Doh
Pianist Carmen Sandim's sophomore album, 2019's Play Doh, is a harmonically dense and artful production borne of several years of difficult life circumstances. The Brazilian-born/Boulder, Colorado-based performer and teacher had initially intended to finish the album soon after her 2011 debut, Brand New. However, in the years following, she gave birth to her children, went through a break-up, and found herself having to balance teaching, performing, and being a single mother. She eventually began pulling all-nighters to finish writing the charts for Play Doh, a choice that no doubt led to some tired days, but ultimately resulted in an album rich with themes of openness and fluidity; one that feels directly connected to her transformative experiences. Helping her achieve this fresh quality is longtime friend, producer Art Lande, who again helmed the sessions as he did on Brand New. Also coming along are Kneebody trumpeter Shane Endsley, saxophonist/clarinetist Bruce Williamson, trombonist Alex Heitlinger, guitarist Khabu Doug Young, bassist Bill McCrossen, and drummer Dru Heller. Together, Sandim and her group play with a searching, forward-thinking quality that balances kinetic group arrangements with adventurous soloing...
Itamar Borochov - Right Now (Itamar Borochov) from Blue Nights
Israeli-born trumpeter Itamar Borochov plays a cross-pollinated style of jazz that brings together his love of Sephardic Jewish music, Arabic maquam, and richly textured modal post-bop. It's a sound that informed 2014's Outset and 2016's Boomerang, and one he further develops on 2019's atmospherically engaging Blue Nights. As a trumpeter, Borochov has a soft, warm sound that brings to mind the sultry, late-night style of artists like Miles Davis and Chet Baker. In fact, the opening track "Right Now" is just the kind of slow-burn anthem Baker might have recorded in the 1980s. It's a style that grounds much of Blue Nights, as Borochov builds upon this lyricism with songs that grow increasingly kinetic as he weaves in yet more of his Middle-Eastern and African influences...
Branford Marsalis Quartet - Snake Hip Waltz from The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul
Since the mid-'80s, Branford Marsalis has led various incarnations of his quartet, issuing a bevy of highly inventive and playful albums like Random Abstract, Crazy People Music, and Braggtown, all of which showcase his love of swinging acoustic jazz and dynamic group interplay. 2019's The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul is no exception and finds the saxophonist balancing an expressive maturity with a continued sense of fun. Following up 2012's Four MFs Playin' Tunes, as well their 2016 Kurt Elling collaboration Upward Spiral, this iteration of the quartet features pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis, and drummer Justin Faulkner (who replaced Jeff "Tain" Watts in 2009). Together, they play with a deft abandon that often borders on focused chaos...
Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom - Glitter Wolf from Glitter Wolf
Following two years of extensive touring, drummer Allison Miller brings a sense of road-tested swagger and global inspiration to her fourth Boom Tic Boom album, 2019's vibrant Glitter Wolf. Recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California with producer and longtime friend Julie Wolf, Glitter Wolf finds Miller further coalescing many of the cross-pollinated rhythms and harmonic ideas that have informed her and the band's music since their eponymous 2010 debut. Once again joining the drummer are bandmates bassist Todd Sickafoose, pianist Myra Melford, violinist Jenny Scheinman, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, and cornetist Kirk Knuffke. Together, they play an investigative style of modern creative jazz that touches upon a bevy of stylistic influences and allows for plenty of improvisation and group interplay...
Christian Scott - Before (feat. Elena Pinderhughes) from Ancestral Recall
Coming off his ambitious 2017 trilogy (Rebel Ruler, Diaspora, and the Grammy-nominated Emancipation Proclamation), trumpeter Christian Scott delivers yet another ambitious, cross-pollinated epic with 2019's Ancestral Recall. Along with producing and playing a cadre of distinctively named brass instruments (among them his reverse-flügelhorn, Siren, and Sirenette), Scott also plays pretty much every other instrument here, including keyboards, synth bass, synth percussion, and what he calls "sonic architecture." That enigmatic term most likely refers to the overall production, but could easily describe the genre-defying music Scott has crafted on Ancestral Recall. Thematically, the album feels like a companion piece to his 2012 album, Christian aTunde Adjuah (his adopted West African name), as he continues to make broad musical and cultural connections...
Dave Meder - Work from Passage
A graduate of Florida State University, NYU, and Juilliard, as well as an Assistant Professor of Jazz Piano at the University of North Texas, pianist Dave Meder is the epitome of the intellectual jazz musician. He's also an immensely gifted, often soulful performer, whose playing on his 2019 debut Passage reveals a balance of influences, from the angular bop of Thelonious Monk to the atmospheric modern classical of Philip Glass. He also displays an unexpected flair for church music. Joining him at various times are bassists Tamir Shmerling and Marty Jaffe, and drummer Kush Abadey. As a player, Meder brings to mind the sophisticated style of pianists like Fred Hersch, and Brad Mehldau, with a bit of the soulfulness of Mulgrew Miller or George Cables. The opening "Work" is a lesser-performed Monk composition that Meder tackles nicely with his descending dissonant lines evoking the feeling of a dancer leaping down a flight of stairs.
Israeli-born trumpeter/composer Avishai Cohen is an adventurous, forward-thinking musician who has performed in various ensembles mixing avant-garde jazz, post-bop, and klezmer. Initially emerging as a fiery young lion on the East Coast in the late '90s.
Yonathan Avishai / Avishai Cohen - Ralph's New Blues (Milt Jackson) from Playing the Room
Longtime bandmates in the expansive Third World Love quartet, Israeli-born duo trumpeter Avishai Cohen and pianist Yonathan Avishai display their vibrantly empathetic interplay on their 2019 ECM album Playing the Room. In many ways, the album is a continuation of the work the pair did on Cohen's 2016's ECM debut, Into the Silence, and 2017 follow-up Cross My Palm with Silver. As with those works, Playing the Room is an intensely lyrical album that finds the duo in thoughtful harmonic conversation. There's a symbiotic, teeter-totter-esque balance to Cohen's and Avishai's playing that goes far beyond their first name/last name connection. They clearly listen to each other, and play off each other's lines with a warm, almost intuitive empathy...
Ralph Alessi - Improper Authorities (Ralph Alessi) from Imaginary Friends
For trumpeter Ralph Alessi's third ECM date, 2019's vividly realized Imaginary Friends, he's reunited his This Against That ensemble with longtime friend and associate saxophonist Ravi Coltrane. The two like-minded artists initially met while students at the California Institute of the Arts in the late '80s, and have played together on and off since. An inventive improvisor in the Kenny Wheeler mold, Alessi makes modern creative jazz that is aware of tradition but rarely evinces it. He's well-matched by his partner. The son of John and Alice Coltrane, Ravi Coltrane has spent much of his career bucking obvious comparisons to his iconic father, while conversely living up to his family lineage with his own deeply cerebral style of post-bop. This album follows Alessi's two previous ECM outings, 2013's Baida and 2016's Quiver, and it's the first to feature This Against That since 2011's Wiry Strong. As with Wiry Strong, Alessi and Coltrane are joined by bandmates pianist Andy Milne, drummer Mark Ferber, and bassist Drew Gress...
Wallace Roney - Wolfbane (Lenny White) from Blue Dawn-Blue Nights
Wallace Roney's eighth album for the HighNote label, 2019's Blue Dawn-Blue Nights, finds the trumpeter collaborating with a cadre of young lions and balancing dusky after-hours warmth and propulsive post-bop modalism. The album comes three years after the similarly expansive A Place in Time, which featured veterans Gary Bartz, Lenny White, and Patrice Rushen. From that album, only White returns here, playing on half of Blue Dawn-Blue Nights. He and Roney are also joined by an invigorating ensemble including Roney's nephew drummer Kojo Odu Roney, tenor saxophonist Emilio Modeste, pianist Oscar Williams II, and bassist Paul Cuffari. Somewhat of a departure from Roney's past work, Blue Dawn-Blue Nights features songs written by his bandmates, along with a handful of deftly curated covers. The result is a surprisingly cohesive album that benefits from each player's unique yet clearly like-minded point-of-view... Contrasting that is White's funky "Wolfbane," a circular groover in which Roney smears and glides against the drummer's dynamic percussion waves...
Muriel Grossmann - Water Bowl from Reverence
In 2018, saxophonist Muriel Grossmann's fine Ibiza-based quartet issued Golden Rule on the tiny Estonian RRGems label. It showcased a band that had come fully into its own after three albums. Its passionate articulation of John Coltrane's technical and spiritual inspirations were woven through intensely focused rhythmic and globally infused harmonic aesthetics. Grossmann has worked with Serbian guitarist Radomir Milojkovic since Homecoming Reunion in 2007. Austrian bassist Gina Schwarz and Serbian drummer Uros Stamenkovic joined her in 2016 for three albums. That group is appended here by Catalonian Hammond B-3 organist Llorenç Barceló, whose playing creates a wide palette of tonal, rhythmic, and textural possibilities... "Water Bowl" commences with a slippery guitar vamp buoyed by Schwarz's woody bass swinging underneath. Hovering B-3 and layers of percussion frame the bassline as Grossmann's alto goes full-on blues wail in a loping, soulful melody...
The Bad Plus - Undersea Reflection (Reid Anderson) from Activate Infinity
When the Bad Plus released Never Stop II in 2018, new pianist Orrin Evans had been in the group for less than a year. He's since logged thousands of miles with them, playing concert halls and bandstands across the globe. That makes Activate Infinity, their second album together, a much more integrated affair. Evans' decades of experience as a bandleader and inventive hard bop-inspired pianist lend immeasurably to the quirk and instinct of this trio...
Ethan Iverson Quartet with Tom Harrell - Sentimental Journey (Les Brown / Bud Green / Benjamin Homer ) from Common Practice
Following his expansive 2018 duo album with saxophonist Mark Turner, Temporary Kings, pianist and former Bad Plus member Ethan Iverson offers an intimate concert collaboration with trumpeter Tom Harrell on 2019's Common Practice. Recorded live at New York's famed Village Vanguard in 2017, Common Practice finds the inventive keyboardist joining forces with Harrell, as well as his longtime rhythm section associates bassist Ben Street and drummer Eric McPherson. Whereas Temporary Kings showcased a mix of original compositions, here Iverson and Harrell move through a set of well-curated standards in the style of classic jazz albums of the '50s and '60s; albeit in their own harmonically inventive fashion.
Todd Marcus - How Deep Is the Ocean (Irving Berlin) from Trio+
Baltimore's Todd Marcus has distinguished himself among his post-bop contemporaries as a harmonically engaging soloist whose propulsive architectural lines are made even more distinctive by his choice of instrument, the bass clarinet. A favorite of luminaries like the late Eric Dolphy, David Murray, and Don Byron, the bass clarinet is nonetheless a less-played, and therefore less-appreciated instrument in jazz. In Marcus' hands, however, it's in full flower, grabbing the spotlight in ways normally heard by the trumpet and tenor sax. Marcus spotlights his dynamic low-end sound to superb effect on his fourth album, 2019's Trio+. Joining him are an equally adventurous cadre of associates including, at various times, veteran drummer Ralph Peterson, bassist Jeff Reed, drummer Eric Kennedy, and bassist Ameen Saleem. Also adding his own high-energy dynamism is former Jazz at Lincoln Center trumpeter and Peabody Jazz Department head Sean Jones...
Hiromi - Spectrum (Hiromi) from Spectrum
Since making her recorded debut in the 1990s, Hiromi Uehara has established herself as one of the most gifted jazz pianists of her generation. She issued Spectrum on the eve of her fortieth birthday as an overview of what she learned as a musician in her thirties. It's the second time she's done this; her debut solo offering, Place to Be, in 2009 that surveyed her twenties. Hiromi conjures up the same power and creative facility solo as she does with her Trio Project... Spectrum addresses a guiding notion imposed by her piano teacher: that she quite literally envision prismatic color through music. .. This 75-minute recital portrays the nearly spiritual command Hiromi has of her instrument and its various languages to extend her astonishing technical facility. More than this, however, it underscores the visionary, authoritative place her pianism commands in modern jazz.
Jon Batiste - Higher (Jon Batiste) from Chronology of a Dream
The second of Jon Batiste's recordings to emerge from his November 2018 residency at New York's Village Vanguard, Chronology of a Dream: Live at the Village Vanguard is a vibrant set showcasing the keyboardist and his earthy ensemble. As with 2019's Anatomy of Angels, Chronology of a Dream highlights Batiste's jazz roots with a set of primarily original songs that find him drawing upon funky, '60s- and '70s-style hard bop and soul. Joining him in his group are a cadre of adept, high-energy players including drummer Joe Saylor, bassist Phil Kuehn, percussionist Negan Santos, trumpeter Giveton Gelin, saxophonists Tivon Pennicott and Patrick Bartley, tubist/trumpeter Jon Lampley, and guitarist Louis Cato, all of whom get moments to shine here...
Jeremy Pelt - The Rodin Suite, Pt. 1: L'Appel aux armes (Jeremy Pelt) from The Artist
Showcasing a five-part suite based on the work of French sculptor Auguste Rodin, Jeremy Pelt's 2019 album, The Artist, finds the trumpeter translating his love of the visual arts into a set of deeply textured compositions that touch upon harmonically rich modalism, driving post-bop, and lyrical balladry. Beginning with the hypnotic "The Rodin Suite, Pt. 1: L'Appel aux armes," which translates fittingly as "the call to arms," The Artist evokes the '70s jazz of artists like Woody Shaw and Bobby Hutcherson. It's a sound Pelt has long embraced, at least as far back 2013's fusion-influenced Water and Earth, and one that he has increasingly made his own. Which is to say, while The Artist brings to mind the vibes, keyboard, and groove-oriented aesthetics of '70s jazz, it never sounds like pastiche, and remains a nuanced palette for Pelt to draw from. Adding rich colors to this palette are Pelt's bandmates: pianist Victor Gould, bassist Vicente Archer, guitarist Alex Wintz, marimba player Chien Chien Lu, and percussionist Ismel Wignall...
Jim Snidero - Truth from Waves of Calm
Saxophonist Jim Snidero turns his adept post-bop skills inward on the introspective, if still engaging 2019 session Waves of Calm. The album, which comes on the heels of several exuberant projects including 2016's Miles Davis-influenced MD66, and 2018's Jubilation! Celebrating Cannonball Adderley, is in part a response to his father's battle with Parkinson's Disease -- a struggle that ended with his passing shortly after the album was finished... bandmate trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, as well as pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Nat Reeves, and drummer Jonathan Barber. Together they play with a warmth and style that is the epitome of post-bop sophistication. In some ways, the album is a balanced mix of the influences Snidero has been investigating since the early 2010s...
Idan Morim - As If (It Was All a Dream) from I.M.
The debut album from guitarist Idan Morim, 2019's I.M., is an atmospheric production that showcases the Israeli-born/New York-based jazz musician's nuanced and fluid fretboard style. Joining Morim are his equally adept quintet bandmates trumpeter Adam O'Farrill, pianist Micha Gilad, bassist Almog Sharvit, and drummer Colin Stranahan. Each of these players are established artists in their own right and play with a similarly engaging balance of harmonic intellectualism and visceral group sonority. It's a style that evokes the expansive work of guitarists like Pat Martino, Bill Frisell, and Pat Metheny. The album title, a play on both Morim's initials and the phrase "I Am," brings to mind a philosophical search for the self and one's place in the world... Equally evocative, "As If (It Was All a Dream)" with its minor- key bassline sounds like background music to a '70s detective noir show like Rockford Files...
Joey DeFrancesco - In the Key of the Universe (Joey DeFrancesco) from In the Key of the Universe
Following up his 2018 collaboration with Van Morrison, You're Driving Me Crazy, Joey DeFrancesco returns to his own work with his quartet on 2019's spiritually inspired In the Key of the Universe. Produced by DeFrancesco and his wife, Gloria, the album finds the organist tapping into the hypnotic, deeply soulful metaphysical jazz that artists like Pharoah Sanders, Don Cherry, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk further explored in the wake of spiritual jazz pioneer John Coltrane's death in 1967. In fact, DeFrancesco showcases Sanders here on three tracks. Joining them are several longtime associates including legendary drummer Billy Hart, saxophonist Troy Roberts, and percussionist Sammy Figueroa...
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| Terri Lyne Carrington & Social Science |
Terri Lyne Carrington & Social Science - Trapped in the American Dream (Kassa Overall / Aaron Parks) from Waiting Game
The Waiting Game is a double album that showcases the musical range of her new band, Social Science, as they engage enormous creativity and political protest. Its members include Aaron Parks (piano), Matthew Stevens (guitar), Morgan Guerin (bass and saxophone), vocalist Dèbo Ray, and DJ Kassa Overall... Disc one opens with "Trapped in the American Dream," with a manifesto narrated by Overall. A melancholy piano figure is repeated atop Carrington's restrained, martial snare, guest Derrick Hodge's bubbling electric bass, and Stevens' poignant single-string guitar playing. Guerin's saxophone solo moves the track beyond the emergent hip-hop frame and into elegant post-bop. Ray's operatic soprano winds in from the margins, adding drama and tension that is transformed into a meld of hip-hop and rock..
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| Snarky Puppy |
Snarky Puppy - Bigly Strictness (Michael League) from Immigrance
Snarky Puppy helped bring '70s-style fusion into the jam band era with a series of Grammy-winning albums that found them incorporating elements of funk, jazz-rock, and blues. Produced by bassist and bandleader Michael League, 2019's Immigrance continues this trajectory with a set of highly kinetic instrumental tracks (purportedly inspired by the band's travels around the globe) that balance exploratory improvisation with intricately arranged group interplay. As with past Snarky Puppy albums, Immigrance is less about each bandmember's individual improvisational contribution (though there are moments of brilliant soloing), and more focused on the group's intricate, mutative arrangements...
Julian Lage - Trudgin' (Jimmy Giuffre) from Love Hurts
Love Hurts marks guitarist Julian Lage's third trio date for Mack Avenue. The previous two, Arclight (2016) and Modern Lore (2018), were with bassist Scott Colley and drummer/vibraphonist Kenny Wollesen. The Love Hurts sessions were inspired by some live dates where Lage and bassist Jorge Roeder (who worked with Lage on 2009's Sounding Point) were joined by Bad Plus drummer Dave King. The trio recorded at the Loft (Wilco's recording studio in Chicago). Lage set down his trademark Telecaster for this date and picked up Jeff Tweedy's Gretsch Duo Jet instead... Jimmy Giuffre's classic "Trudgin" is given an unusual arrangement that commences as noirish, rootsy blues and moves into dramatic, spiky dissonance and ringing, spacy psychedelia...
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| From left: pianist Marilyn Crispell, saxophonist Joe Lovano and drummer Carmen Castaldi. |
Joe Lovano - Rare Beauty (Joe Lovano) from Trio Tapestry
Though most often associated with his swinging post-bop albums for Blue Note, saxophonist Joe Lovano is no stranger to the ECM label. He first recorded with producer Manfred Eicher's storied German institution in 1981 for drummer Paul Motian's album Psalm, playing alongside bassist Ed Schuller and guitarist Bill Frisell. Since then he has made several appearances on the label, including further hits with Motian (who died in 2011), as well as pianist Steve Kuhn and guitarist John Abercrombie. With 2019's deeply atmospheric Trio Tapestry, Lovano takes his relationship with ECM to the next logical and long-awaited plateau: by leading his first session for the label. Joining him are longtime associates in pianist Marilyn Crispell and fellow Cleveland native/drummer Carmen Castaldi...
Poncho Sanchez - Blue Train (John Coltrane) from Trane's Delight
In 1962, Poncho Sanchez purchased the album Coltrane on Impulse. He was 14. It was the first album he'd bought with his own money. He'd been under the saxophonist's spell for years, listening to him on the radio in Los Angeles. Trane's Delight, the first album by Sanchez in seven years, is a thank you, a tribute to one of his musical pillars. Issued by Concord, the conguero's home since 1982, the date is a heartfelt homage to the saxophonist's influence as well as a seamless extension of Sanchez's signature brand of Latin jazz... The 11-track set features Sanchez's longtime band: trombonist and musical director Francisco Torres, trumpet and flügelhorn master Ron Blake, saxophonist Robert Hardt, pianist Andy Langham, bassists Rene Camacho and Ross Schodek, and percussionists Joey DeLeon and Giancarlo Anderson...
