Cuban pianist Manuel Valera and Iranian santourist Sourena Sefati have each released new albums that live outside the musical mainstream but which are nonetheless quite comfortable inside the ear. Valera’s compositions draw on the theoretical constructs of Russian composer and conductor Nicolas Slonimsky, and Sefati employs ancient Persian elements in his modern compositions. Continue reading
Category Archives: Reviews
Newest Releases from Ron Miles and Bill Frisell
Ron Miles. Photo by Thomas J. Krebs.
Bill Frisell. Photo by Monica Jane Frisell.
Cornetist/composer Ron Miles delivered a spellbinding evening of music for an Outpost Performance Space fundraiser a few weeks ago with his trio, which includes guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Brian Blade. On his latest release, I Am a Man* (Yellowbird Records), Miles adds a couple of players to the trio. Meanwhile, Frisell’s latest release, Music IS* (Okeh/Sony Masterworks), goes in the opposite direction: it’s a solo effort. Both, unsurprisingly given the participants, are worthy of attention. Continue reading
Kristina Jacobsen and Meredith Wilder Take ‘Elemental’ Approach to New Album
Kristina Jacobsen and Meredith Wilder. Photo by Jesse Littlebird Photography, © 2018.
Two of the region’s admired singer/songwriters, Albuquerque’s Kristina Jacobsen and Meredith Wilder, the latter now residing in Louisville, Colorado, are this week releasing their much anticipated EP, Elemental, whose six cowritten tracks illuminate recent personal challenges and epiphanies in their lives. The handmade album also offers a testament to the process of songwriting collaboration that the two have been exploring over the last couple of years. They’ll celebrate the release with two appearances this weekend in Albuquerque. Continue reading
A Masterful Pairing: Hersch and Cohen ‘Live in Healdsburg’
Anat Cohen. Photo by Shervin Lainez.
Fred Hersch with toy piano.
Anat Cohen/Fred Hersch
Live in Healdsburg (Anzic Records)
A review
Anat Hersch and Fred Cohen— Oh, wait. That’s not quite right. But then, given how musically symbiotic their relationship is on Live in Healdsburg, this renaming of clarinetist Anat Cohen and pianist Fred Hersch is apt. Continue reading
Eric Vloeimans and the Sound of Music
Eric Vloeimans
Kinan Azmeh. Photo by Martina Novak.
Jeroen van Vliet. Photo by Rens Horn.
Eric Vloeimans (center), Holland Baroque, and their Edison.
Two recent releases from Dutch trumpeter Eric Vloeimans—Levanter, featuring the trio of Vloeimans, Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, and Dutch pianist Jeroen van Vliet; and Carrousel, Vloeimans’ second collaboration with Holland Baroque, following their Old, New & Blue release—offer soul-satisfying music that’s hard to classify. The compositions and performances on these two distinctly different albums combine, in different ratios, elements of rock, jazz, world, baroque, and even a touch of musette into singular Vloeimansesque amalgams. Continue reading