Each highly regarded as individual players, Susan Alcorn, Joe McPhee and Ken Vandermark have thrown their lot in together for the first time on Invitation to a Dream. It is an understated beauty. The three are not complete strangers. Alcorn (on pedal steel guitar here) and McPhee (soprano saxophone and pocket trumpet) first played together … Continue reading Alcorn/McPhee/Vandermark – Invitation To A Dream
Category: Jazz
Chase Baird – A Life Between
That piano-and-electric-guitar opening may sound like the next in a long line of post-rock releases, but don’t be put off. Chase Baird’s first as a bandleader since 2010’s Crosscurrent is all jazz. It is warm, energetic and packed with spectacular performances. The 31-year-old American is for real. Baird plays with a rich, full-bodied sound that … Continue reading Chase Baird – A Life Between
Mats Eilertsen – Reveries and Revelations
Our ability to share large files of data with collaborators around the world electronically is still a relatively recent development. The practice has become central to many musicians’ process. The opportunity to partner with like-minded artists around the world from the comfort of a home studio has given us countless recordings that would have otherwise … Continue reading Mats Eilertsen – Reveries and Revelations
Frode Gjerstad/Fred Lonberg-Holm/Matthew Shipp – Season of Sadness
Pankaj Mishara’s Age of Anger: A History of the Present offers a detailed, compelling review of the various tensions – some more than two centuries in the making – behind the troubled state of today’s politics. But of course anger is not the only emotion at work in international affairs. The pain that rage produces … Continue reading Frode Gjerstad/Fred Lonberg-Holm/Matthew Shipp – Season of Sadness
Michele Rabbia/Gianluca Petrella/Eivind Aarset – Lost River
It is not unreasonable, now more than five months into the year, to begin compiling our favourite recordings of 2019. Albums that stand out in January or February tend not to face the stiffest competition. It’s far too early to place bets on this or that disc standing up against what’s to come. By the … Continue reading Michele Rabbia/Gianluca Petrella/Eivind Aarset – Lost River
Knots – Sing, Shattering, a Poem in Reverse
It will be Eduardo Cossio’s electric guitar that delivers your first impression of this intense new disc by Australian trio Knots. He doesn’t so much play it as push and pull it in unexpected directions. The album squeaks, growls and bangs, thanks in large part to the hostility with which he approaches the instrument. As … Continue reading Knots – Sing, Shattering, a Poem in Reverse
Ruby Rushton – Ironside
Nothing wrong with standing on shoulders if you do it with respect. London quartet Ruby Rushton is back with its fourth disc today. It is a near-flawless gem of a record. While it owes a heavy debt to Yusef Lateef, The Headhunters and Weather Report (by their own account), it does so with a carefully … Continue reading Ruby Rushton – Ironside
