Jazz

Cal Haines Trio | The Bright Side

Posted by

0

In 2005, Lewis Winn composed “Count Me In” after seeing a Basie band video. The fast-moving line that has him and Michael playing like a horn section pays homage to the swinging sound. There is an unusual element similar to a shout chorus where guitar and drums “solo” together, launching the remaining guitar solo. “So Near, So Far” had to be on my first CD because I tried but couldn’t get any band I’m in to play the tune. The guitar counter-melody is a joyous line against which to play the afro-cuban 12/8 rhythm, and the Joe Gilman lyrics gave new interpretations to the meaning of the title. Michael’s 2008 “Middle Side Topwise” uses the changes to a familiar standard as a vehicle for the bass and borrows a quote from the Simpsons for the title. Continue reading →

Cal Haines | John Rangel | Michael Glynn | Tribute Trio | Dedications Vol. II

Posted by

0

BEST JAZZ CD 2013 NEW MEXICO MUSIC AWARDS The outcome of two years of concert performances and a sequel to the historically focused straight-ahead swinging tunes of Volume I, the new CD is perhaps more forward-looking in its theme of tributing the ideas of jazz. The original compositions are by each of the trio members, some in collaboration. They reflect both the further gelling of the trio in their dynamics and the conceptual growth of the group. Songs such as “Not So Easy” and “Horace-Play” have clear ties to styles heard in the music of Bobby Timmons and Horace Silver, but “Time” is a tribute to the flow in the changes of the great song, “Just In Time.” There is a worldly jazz concept in “A Time for Parting”. Volume II accurately displays the Tribute Trio musicians’ personal compositional styles, while still incorporating learnings from the legends. The range includes swing, ballads and some unique odd-meter tunes. Continue reading →

Cal Haines | John Rangel | Michael Glynn | Tribute Trio | Dedications Vol. I

Posted by

0

BEST JAZZ CD 2012 NEW MEXICO MUSIC AWARDS The original compositions in this Tribute Trio debut CD were inspired by the melodies, styles, rhythms, and arrangements of some of the 11 composers tributed in the 2010-2011 concert series. Pianist and prolific composer John Rangel dedicates compositions to Oscar Peterson, Bud Powell, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and Bill Evans. Bassist Michael Glynn composed two pieces dedicated to Lennie Tristano. The composer notes inside the CD jacket give insight into the connection between the tributed composer and the inspired composition. The music showcases the depth of individual musicianship and extraordinary combined dynamics of the trio gained from a solid year of delving into and performing concerts of complex works by jazz pianist/composer legends. Continue reading →

Misha Mengelberg | Dirk Bell | Ryan Carniaux | Gerd Dudek | Joscha Oetz | Nils Tegen | Nunc! | Nemu Records

Posted by

0

I once asked Misha how many steps to his front door and he said: “eleven” —sheer fantasy. I’m here to pick him up for a concert at the Loft in Cologne. We have a cup of coffee toebroek: a personal ritual of his that he performs for his visitors. And off we go to Cologne, to meet the rest of the band at my place — dinnertime. Ryan Carniaux, from New York, professor for jazz trumpet in Essen. We’re both members of gRoBA, an orches-tra in Cologne. Gerd Dudek, a German jazz-legend, knows Misha for decades. Nils Tegen, a composer and piano player in his other life. Joscha Oetz, back from Lima — when he’s playing the bass, you feel at home. These musicians have been working together for years in numerous combinations all over the world. And we’re all fans of Misha Mengelberg.– Dirk Bell Continue reading →

Chris Weller’s Hanging Hearts | Chris Weller | Cole DeGenova | Devin Drobka

Posted by

1

Chris Weller’s Hanging Hearts formed 2013, is a dynamic musical trio dedicated to the fearless exploration of group improvisation. Their music, organic and raw, bridges the gap between jazz, rock, and experimental music. The band features it’s leader Chris Weller on tenor saxophone and compositions, Cole DeGenova on keyboards, and Devin Drobka on drums. While Chris and Cole grew up in Chicago, playing professionally in jazz and blues clubs by the age of 15, the trio was completed at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where all three members graduated. While the trio’s repertoire consists mostly of Weller’s original compositions, they are also known to deconstruct popular songs and freely improvise. Continue reading →

Mofrancesco Quintetto | Maloca

Posted by

3

MoFrancesco Quintetto The project was born at the end of the academic year 2010/11 of the degree in Jazz Music at ESML, Escola Superior de Musica de Lisboa. On the occasion of the last recital of Francesco Valente, on 28/06/11, this quintet has emerged that exhibited with original compositions. Following training began acting in Lisbon in several places where there is a weekly Jazz agenda, and began to act also outside this context (Italian Film Festival, Volvo Ocean Race, Universidade Nova with David Murray, Quinta da Regaleira Jazz etc.). In this past year the quintet have recorded his first album “Maloca”, wich it was released by Art of Life Records. The Quintet proposes a modern jazz and fusion music with Mediterranean and Iberian classic and traditional music. The aim is to join the universal language of jazz music and an array improvisative original arrangements and also expressing the essence of the music from the land of origin of the musicians, in particular different styles and sounds of the Mediterranean. Continue reading →

Erika Dagnino & Stefano Pastor | Cycles | Slam Productions

Posted by

0

Cycles is a remarkable work with literary and psycho-philosphical groundings and overtones, by a remarkable violinist, Stefano Pastor, in equal collaboration with poet Erika Dagnino. Pastor has, of course, a European sensibility—he and Dagnino are, after all, Italian—but his innovative improvisational conception is rooted in the development of the jazz tradition; it is not a eurocentric classical derivation. I shall not say much about either the music or the words, which, with attention, will sound and speak for themselves. And attention is in order—in the order and the chaos. — Anthony Barnett Continue reading →

Nate Wooley | Hugo Antunes | Chris Corsano | MALUS | No Business Records

Posted by

5

An often inspired study in post-noise atmospherics, Malus brings together three pioneering improvisers in their late thirties. Nate Wooley deploys vocalisation and extreme extended technique to turn his trumpet into a hissing steam engine and a bubbling cauldron, channelling electricity to create groggy lo-fi textures. Chris Corsano is in a reflective, exploratory mood, dragging objects across amplified skins to create queasy high-pitched drones and dull metallic rings. Double bassist Hugo Antunes steadies the ship while Wooley and Corsano scramble up the rigging, yet he’s far from conventional: hear him loom into orbit on ‘Seven Miles From The Moon’, carving monolithic obsidian slabs out of deep space silence. The trio’s sense of timing, texture and space is impeccable. In ‘4 Cornered’, a manic Wooley declaims over Corsano’s accelerating scuttle before Antunes walks the muttering trumpeter home. Wooley’s compositional nous, meanwhile, radiates in the Andalucian blues ‘Gentleman of Four Outs’. — Stewart Smith Continue reading →

Jason Ajemian | Tony Malaby | Rob Mazurek | Chad Taylor | A Way A Land Of Life | No Business Records

Posted by

0

Jason Ajemian, bassist, has developed a high profile in the improvised music scene over the years, performing with Rob Mazurek’s Mandarin Movie, Exploding Star Orchestra, and Chicago Underground Trio; Ken Vandermark’s Crisis Ensemble; and currently with Marc Ribot’s new group Sun Ship. Ajemian’s curiosity has ranged far and wide – he’s just as comfortable in the hushed, folksy setting of Born Heller, his duo with Josephine Foster, as he is in the breath-processed arrangements of his large ensemble Who Cares How Long You Sink. Given such a variety of musical interests, a detour like “From Beyond,” Ajemian’s backward version of Black Sabbath’s “Into the Void” for chamber ensemble, begins to seem like an obvious stop on his journey from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains to Chicago and his current home in New York City. Continue reading →