Author: Hobart Taylor
Page: 2
John Petrucelli – Presence – (Self Released) Ambitious and astounding is this 2 CD suite by composer/saxophonist Petrucelli. Working in a variety of formats and voicings from solo sax to quintet with a string section, this relentlessly melodic composition with spiritually referenced titles , (“Field of Heaven”,”Summon the Spirit”), was recorded at a live performance […]
Makaya McRaven – Universal Beings – (International Anthem) There is jazzy music and there is something else. I choose to call it “jazz itself”. Jazz itself may or may not be music. It can be painting, conversation, a way of walking, a way of dreaming, a way of coughing. If it is music, it may […]
Xavier Davis – Rise Up Detroit – (Detroit Music Factory) Dave McMurray – Music Is Life – (Blue Note) Few cities have been as denigrated as Detroit. The stigma attached to the city by riots over half a century ago, the white flight that so severely decimated the city that whole swathes of the landscape […]
Rachel Barton Pine – Blues Dialogues – (Cedille Records) This is an essential document for our times. In this period of transition and re-assessment about race, culture, and gender in our social and political worlds, it is critical to have a genuine appreciation for the nuanced complexity of the diverse currents in the artistic world […]
James Francies – Flight – (Blue Note) At 22, composer-pianist Francies pushes past the ranks of the really wonderful pianists currently playing and stands near the front of the line. His playing style is personally precise, identifiable the way of a Tatum or Garner or Monk. It doesn’t hurt to have players of the caliber […]
Miggy Augmented Orchestra – Colorful – (Artists Share) Migiwa Miyajima is Japanese composer/pianist currently living in New York. With stunning arrangements and unbridled intellectual energy she layers melodic fragments and juxtaposes swing tropes with free jazz and neo-classical musics creating an amalgam both familiar and outlandishly different. If there is a difference in how many […]
Now let us celebrate the orchestra in a box, the piano. Shai Maestro – The Dream Thief – (ECM) Composer pianist Maestro, working here in a trio setting with bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Ofri Nehemya, is profoundly expressive in his writing and arrangements without being ponderous or overly assertive in differentiating his pianistic persona. […]
Note: We at KUCI are dedicated to championing the outstanding work of artists and composers regardless of fame or popularity. Many, I dare say most of the artists reviewed here may be completely new to you. Some others are more familiar and these we hope to contextualize in fresh and evocative ways. We carefully curate […]