Author Archives: Mel Minter

Double-Hearted Jazz: Part I

Anthony 0255Two accomplished jazz musicians residing in New Mexico—guitarist Michael Anthony and woodwind specialist Arlen Asher—will be
featured in a Valentine’s Day concert, In Love with Jazz, presented
by Victoria Rogers and Cal Haines.

Both photos by and courtesy of Jim Gale.

Both photos by and courtesy of Jim Gale.

Part I will take a look at the making of
Anthony’s swinging CD, First Take,
featuring the First Take Trio, with
Michael Glynn on bass and Haines on drums. They’ll be celebrating
the CD’s release in the concert’s first set.

Part II will spotlight Asher, who will lead the second set of the evening, backed by the trio.  Continue reading →

An Exotic Detour into Familiar Territory

A Review:
Third World Love, Songs and Portraits (Anzic Records)

2716194549-1I meant to review Songs and Portraits, the fourth release from Third World Love, almost a year ago, but the entire universe conspired against it. The universe now appears to be occupied with other things, so here we go.

Unafraid of melody and committed to the groove, Third World Love comprises Avishai Cohen (brother to Anat) on trumpet, Yonatan Avishai on piano, Omer Avital on bass, and Daniel Freedman on drums. The first three guys hail from Israel, and they bring strong Middle Eastern influences to the table. (Freedman is a native Brooklynite.) All four of them share a willingness to entertain other musical influences, from rock to Arabic to African. They may also share a single brain; it’s hard to explain the tightness of their ensemble playing otherwise. And what playing it is—spontaneous and combustible jazz at a very high level of technical proficiency. Continue reading →

Omar Sosa Invokes the Spirits of the Ancestors

A Review:
Omar Sosa, Eggun: the Afri-Lectric Experience (Otá Records)

I’ve seen it happen in live performances: Some interior door swings cover_eggunopen, and the musician connects with something else. Music pours out
irresistibly, the performer as much in its thrall as the audience, an open channel between this world and another—a messenger of light.

Cuban-born pianist/composer Omar Sosa is one of those musicians, and as with all of them—Ravi Shankar, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Regina Carter, to name a few—I now listen to his work with my ears tuned to a slightly different frequency, alert for the transformative communion. Eggun, like many a Sosa recording, opens that channel.  Continue reading →

She Flew Away

On Thursday, January 17, at 4:30 p.m., Albuquerquejenportrait and the wider world lost one of its fiercest spirits and one of its gentlest in one fell swoop when singer/songwriter Jennifer Robin flew away from us into the Great Unknown.

The first time I saw her perform—at Annapurna, on Silver and Yale—I was taken by the warm embrace of her voice, by the vulnerability twined around strength. I was preparing to write a piece about her, and between sets, we talked—as if we had know each other for donkey’s years. She had by then been wrestling with cancer for 11 years. She spoke candidly and without drama about facing her mortality every day. About the pain. About the deals she cut with the cancer when her meds interfered with her ability to play guitar, ceding a little bit of time for a little bit of art. About her love of color. About returning to New Mexico in 2009 to “get closer to the sky” and to her sister. About
wanting to get her Beatles album finished (and boy, did she ever).

Now, the sky has got her, and I already miss her laughter, but I have her jazzy folky music and the edification of having known her grace and grit. Continue reading →

Dancing about Architecture

“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” The quote is often attributed to Thelonious Monk, and though it may not have been original with him, it certainly has his koanesque humor.

Yes, writing about music is an absurd venture into a laughable incongruence—a fool’s errand. How does one capture the most immediate and slippery of the arts with these clumsy words, and what would be the point?

I get it, but fool that I am, I can’t entirely agree.

Smile

Continue reading →