Jazz : Not Jazz
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Miki Yamanaka – Miki – (Cellar Live) Composer/pianist Yamanaka is joined here by my favorite drummer this week, Bill Stewart, renowned vibraphone player, Steve Nelson, and bassist Orlando le Fleming in a stunning debut. A master at “comping”, providing support for other soloists, she shapes each of these basically joyous dashes through the changes by […]
Jessica Jones Quartet – Moxie – (New Artists Records) Jessica Jones. Why isn’t played all the time on the radio is beyond me. If I have anything to do with it, and I probably don’t, I will scream from the rafters, or at least post on this website JESSICA JONES. Tenor saxophonist/composer Jones along with […]
The BABA Orchestra – Another Ride on the Elephant Slide – ( Thirsty Owl Records) Composer/conductor Lauren Elizabeth Baba has staked out her corner of the Stravinsky inflected jazz rock that critics like to call Zappaesque. Zappa was definitely a popularizer of this admixture, but artists from Don Ellis to Roscoe Mitchell and Carla Bley […]
As I write this today July 17th 2018 is the fifty first anniversary of the passing of John Coltrane. Often “passing” is a euphemism for dying, but occasionally it is an accurate description of the transition from the corporeal to the spiritual state, and I don’t mean New Jersey. Everything that follows here is a […]
“The past,” said Faulkner, “is never dead. It’s not even past.” The power of great music, when attended to without the filters of expectation or reputation can effectively provide listeners with surprise and delight. If I were to write a standard review which imposes those filters I would begin like this: This three-CD set memorializes […]