Category Archives: Reviews

Fun, Seriously

Oran Etkin, Gathering Light (Motema Records)FINALcvr
A Review

The music on Gathering Light (Motema Records), the latest release from Oran Etkin (bass clarinet, clarinet, tenor sax), has an
engagingly childlike quality, which is to say that it reflects a seriously fun approach to play and is unburdened by intellectual
pretensions. From the opening bass clarinet notes on track one, the music is infused with a playful spirit, even in its more profound and searching moments, and is delivered with a soulful commitment.

Continue reading →

A Complete Package

Leslie Pintchik, In the Nature of Things (Pintch Hard Records)
A Review

Leslie Pintchik CD coverThe press release says that pianist/composer Leslie Pintchik did something else before she turned to music as a career. I’m sure that’s true, but before she did that something else, she must have lived through three or four past lives in musical surroundings. How else explain the piercing intelligence behind her musical conceptions, the muscular grace of her playing, and her supple emotional
expression?

On her latest release, In the Nature of Things (Pintch Hard Records), it’s all on display, and she gets exceptional support from her band mates: Steve Wilson (alto and soprano sax), Ron Horton (trumpet and flugelhorn), Scott Hardy (bass), Michael Sarin (drums), and Satoshi Takeishi (percussion). Continue reading →

In the Swing of Things

RecollectionsFirst Take Trio, Recollections (Lone Guitar)
A Review

Well, hello again. After my wife and I took a short vacation to celebrate a major milestone, I came down with a nasty illness that is
finally beginning to clear away, so it feels good to finally get back into the swing of things. Recollections, the latest CD from
guitarist Michael Anthony’s First Take Trio, with Michael Glynn on bass and Cal Haines on drums, provides a great way to do just that.

The title refers to Anthony’s fond
remembrance of his late mentor, guitarist Howard Roberts, to whom the album is dedicated. A legendary studio player in Los Angeles and a respected jazz artist from coast to coast, Roberts took Anthony under his wing and helped him get get airborne with a style of his own. Continue reading →

Le Chat Lunatique Plays It Straight and Hot

Swing Gitan FrontThat band of maniacs appropriately known as Le Chat Lunatique—Muni Kulasinghe (violin, vocals), John Sandlin (guitar), Jared Putnam (bass, vocals), and Fernando Garavito (drums)—have released several albums loaded with delightfully eccentric covers and originals in a style they call “filthy, mangy jazz,” but their
latest release, Swing Gitan, finds them taking aim at the vintage music that inspired them in the first place—le jazz hot of Django
Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli, and their contemporaries and descendants.

The band’s seriocomic stage presence, literately nonsensical patter, and zany takes on
sphincters, millionairesses, and buses driven by God make their performances madly
entertaining, but ultimately, it’s the music and the musicianship that keeps you in the house and on the dance floor. On Swing Gitan, those two elements are front and center as the band celebrates the classic tunes, and you can celebrate along with them at the CD release party this weekend at Marble Brewery. Continue reading →

Cultural Celebrations

 

 

Edward Simon, Venezuelan Suite (Sunnyside Records)
Danilo Pérez, Panama 500 (Mack Avenue Records)
A Review

Two top-drawer Latin-American pianists, Venezuelan Edward Simon and Panamanian Danilo Pérez, take different approaches to celebrating their respective heritages on their recent
releases. Simon seamlessly integrates Venezuela’s folkloric traditions with those of jazz. Pérez works in a more painterly manner, adding touches of Panamanian color to his jazz-based
compositions. Continue reading →