Michael Marcus | The Magic Door | Not Two Records

The first album I heard with Michael Marcus was “Ithem” a sax trio with William Parker and Dennis Charles, and I was immediately charmed by this excellent musician. He has a very strong sense of melody and pitch when improvizing, a great sense of swing in his compositions, a clear respect for the traditional form which he recreates in a very open modern format. Whether he plays with Jaki Byard, the Cosmosamatics or in other bands, his core characteristics are always present as they are on this record. He sticks to his clarinet on all songs, with Jay Rosen on drums and François Grillot on bass on most tracks. Daniel Levin plays cello on three pieces and Rahsaan Carter and Eric Revis play bass on one track each, and Newton Taylor Baker drums on one track. Anyone interested in melodic free jazz with a great swing feeling, should look this one up.– Stef’s blog Continue reading