Category Archives: Reviews

Four Jazz Reviews

Ted Brown
Bill Frisell and Thomas Morgan. Photo by John Rogers.
Anyaa Arts Trio: Nii Otoo Annan, Steve Feld, Nii Noi Nortey.
Alex Coke (fourth member of the Anyaa Arts Quartet)
Fabian Almazan and Rhizome: Megan Gould, Linda Oh, Noah Hoffeld, Henry Cole, Almazan, Karen Waltuch, Tomoko Omura, Camila Meza. Photo by Robin Resch.

Just about every jazz fan should be able to find something they like among these four very different recordings from the Ted Brown Quartet, Bill Frisell and Thomas Morgan, the Anyaa Arts Quartet, and Fabian Almazan and Rhizome. Continue reading →

Masters at Play

Marc Copland, Ralph Alessi, Drew Gress, Joey Baron. © Lena T. 2015
Nicole Mitchell. Photo by Lauren Deutsch.

Two new releases spotlight masters of different territories in the musical universe, pianist Marc Copland and flutist Nicole Mitchell. Continue reading →

New Releases from Sexmob, and Red Planet with Bill Carrothers

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Two new releases offer a rambunctious romp from Sexmob, and an elegant pairing of electric guitar trio (Red Planet) and acoustic piano (Bill Carrothers). Continue reading →

Four Masters of Improvisation: Crothers and Payne, Mann and Krachy

Connie Crothers and Bill Payne. Photo by Scott Friedlander.
Woody Mann and Charley Kratchy. Photo by Rod Franklin.

The late pianist Connie Crothers, who lives on the same trunk of the jazz tree as pianist Lennie Tristano, with whom she studied, has been the center of gravity for a number of impressive musicians who have flourished under her watch. Among those Crothers colleagues are clarinetist Bill Payne and saxophonist Charley Krachy, who appear on three albums reviewed here. Each of the albums features what drummer Carol Tristano, Lennie’s daughter, thought might well be described as organic improvisation. You might also call it spontaneous improvisation (but not free). The first two recordings are The Stone Set/Conversations, a double album that pairs Payne with Crothers. Released in 2011, it is still as fresh now as then. The second is Conversations, a brand-new release that pairs Krachy with renowned blues/jazz/Americana guitarist Woody Mann, who himself studied with Tristano. The albums couldn’t be more different, but the two duos share one thing: they live as comfortably and joyously in musical improvisation as dolphins do in the sea. Continue reading →

Kelly Moran’s Alternative Reality

Kelly Moran, Bloodroot (Telegraph Harp Records)
A review

From the opening notes of pianist/composer Kelly Moran’s new release, Bloodroot (Telegraph Harp Records), you may feel that you’ve wandered into an alternative universe, one in which Eric Satie was born in Indonesia and wrote music for a gamelan ensemble. With a prepared piano, an e-bow, plucked and strummed piano strings, and samples of plucked and e-bowed strings mapped to MIDI controllers, Moran creates an otherworldly sonic environment where Satie, Philip Glass, John Cage, and (I’ll have to take her word on this one) black metal all contribute to her inspiration. (There is a transition on the second track, “Celandine,” that eerily channels Satie.) Her performing pedigree is equally broad, stretching from the no-wave freak-out of Cellular Chaos, in which she played bass, to the cultured avant-rock of Voice Coils, where she (wo)manned synthesizers, to the contemporary piano repertoire. Continue reading →