Just when you think we’ve reached peak piano trio, a new recording arrives to demonstrate the infinite elasticity of the venerable formation. It happens so often as to become routine. Yet surprises still abound, and this is one, a digital-only EP from a hitherto unknown label – to me, at least – that is one […]
There are recordings that dazzle you from the first few bars—or conversely, put you off—with their audacity. Then there are the agreeably conventional releases that, over time, yield their secrets by degree. Put Lucas Pino’s Covers (Outside In Music, 2023) in the latter category. Notwithstanding some evident drollery, the title proudly advertises Pino’s rejection of conceptual ambition. […]
It takes daring for a producer to lead off a recording with a ballad. When that producer is Marc Free of Posi-Tone Records, a label known for scorching hard bop, the album particularly demands attention. With Green Thumb (Posi-Tone Records, 2023), pianist David Ake generously provides a varied program of surprising, even eccentric, choices that resolve with […]
For the last quarter of the 20th century, Italian labels Black Saint and Soul Note issued an influential series of recordings by Black American artists, including the World Saxophone Quartet and its members Hamiet Bluiett, Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake, and David Murray. These records were hardly blowing sessions, but their loose-limbed vibe brought the expressive […]
The fourth cut on Thumbscrew’s Multicolored Midnight (Cuneiform, 2022) is entitled “Shit Changes.” You don’t have to be a climate scientist or Sam Bankman-Fried to appreciate the truth of that phrase, and it could just be another of bassist Michael Formanek’s cheekily subversive titles. Yet despite ten years of consistently provocative and satisfying music making, the cooperative […]
“From the snowy, windswept peaks of Lapland to the desert of the Empty Quarter, Three Seconds | Kolme Toista is an adventure unlike any other!” Okay, that’s not Jussi Reijonen’s stated program behind Three Seconds | Kolme Toista (Challenge Records, 2022), which is at once more ambitious and more personal. Yet the music conceived by the Boston-based […]
In an interview with Ethan Iverson on his Do the M@th blog, writer Ben Ratliff related an anecdote that Paul Motian once told him. “Hank Jones said to [Motian] one day, after they’d been playing, ‘I know your secret.’ [Ratliff] said, ‘Oh yeah? And what do you think he meant?’ And [Motian] said, ‘I don’t […]
If you want to make a career in contemporary creative music, you could do worse than use the Projects page on Sarah Bernstein’s website as your guide. You’ll find entries for solo processed violin and voice; noise drums, violin, and vocals; minimalist experimental poetry performance; experimental synth-pop; a string quartet; and even a catalogue raisonné […]
Did any artist have a better 2021 than Tyshawn Sorey? The 2017 MacArthur Fellow was the subject of a New York Times Magazine profile, premiered recordings of two large ensemble compositions, and received acclaim for albums with saxophonist Hafez Modirzadeh, DJ/producer King Britt. Not to mention his role in the powerful trio with pianist Vijay […]
If Wayne Shorter is widely acknowledged as the most important living composer in jazz, who is the runner-up? Guitarist Steve Cardenas, bassist Ben Allison, and reedist Ted Nash on Healing Power – The Music of Carla Bley (Sunnyside Records, 2022) present a strong case for their album’s namesake. That Bley’s work should need any advocacy proceeds from […]
