Hamid Drake | Nicole Mitchell | Harrison Bankhead | Michel Edelin | Indigo Trio | The Ethiopian Princess Meets The Tantric Priest | RogueArt Jazz

Nicole Mitchell and Michel Edelin are two of the most creative flutists in music of any sort today, brilliant improvisers with highly developed sensitivities to sound. Yet their personal approaches to playing one of the oldest instruments in the world represent two far ends of an esthetic spectrum… … So The Ethiopian Princess Meets the Tantric Priest demonstrates what happens when opposite poles touch. Like a marvel of physics, the reverberations generate something new: in this case, previously unimagined dimensions of pure song. The sonic spheres the Princess and the Priest conjure – with wonderful support from bassist/pianist Harrison Bankhead and drummer Hamid Drake – are akin to what’s born by a spirit of the air in congress with a guardian of the earth… — Howard Mandel, excerpts from the liner notes Continue reading

Nicole Mitchell & an_ARCHE NewMusic Ensemble | Arc of O | RogueArt Jazz

In the vibrant, searching solos of tenor saxophonist David Boykin, multiple-reed player Mwata Bowden, violinist Renee Baker, and Mitchell herself, we encounter a bright, buoyant sense of wonder. A breathless “oh!” set against the backdrop of her majestic, brilliantly textured themes. “We recognize the symbol of the ‘arc’ in the branches of trees, the shape of the sky, the passageways of thoughts moving through our brain, and the rivers and streams carved through sand and rock by water.” Mitchell’s is a deeply organic music, playful and joyous and wondrous, but also full of sophisticated layers of emotional complexity, a spectrum of human feeling, the same range succinctly captured in the simple exclamation: “Oh.” Board the arc, feel the curve, enjoy the ride. — John Corbett, excerpt from the liner notes Continue reading