With a first track as striking as “Radiance In Veils”, one immediately gets the sense that Cat Toren’s Human Kind’s Scintillating Beauty (Panoramic Recordings, 2020) is an album that will live up to its name. The tune is an epic Cat Toren original that moves from serenity to overwhelming force – in one instance in […]
Artists often produce some of their best work when given increased freedom over the creative process. In so doing, their other sonic influences frequently seep into their output, generating something which is not just truer to its craftsman but also expressive of a fuller range of ideas. With fewer confines placed on them by record […]
As the world seems to descend into increasingly challenging times every day, society needs music more than ever to respond to the events that unfold. Across a broad spectrum from hip-hop to chamber, a series of new releases have provided significant moving, relevant, and pointed commentary. Another excellent new album in this lineage is Resilience […]
In the field of philosophical logic, an axiom serves as a starting point from which other statements are derived. It is regarded as an essentially true foundation for further developments built off of it. Originating from the Greek word ἀξίωμα (axíōma), the term suggests worthiness and equal balance as it extends substance to those crafted […]
In the year 1500, navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral claimed Brazil as a colony for the Portuguese empire. Despite the region’s immense beauty, the measure was primarily a strategic one, beginning an era deemed “The Sugar Age,” in which millions of slaves were imported, particularly from Congo, to harvest the resource and send it throughout the […]
In the early 1990s, Allan Wilson and Rebecca Cann reached a scientific breakthrough in their testing of mitochondrial DNA. Their findings further supported the replacement hypothesis, a theory that proposes a single origin of man in a taxonomic sense. Its essential holding is that every human being descended from a small band of homo sapiens […]
American presidential campaigns are often very narrowly focused. One study showed that in the 2016 election a whopping ninety-four percent of events were held within twelve states with little, if any, attention paid to the remaining thirty-eight. The modern campaigning process often trades compassion among the populace for political power. The Regina Carter Freedom Band’s […]
It would be hard to find a trio better equipped to tackle an entire album of saxophonist Anthony Braxton’s compositions than Thumbscrew. Braxton is an accomplished veteran of the avant-garde, free improvisation, and everything in between. Mary Halvorson (guitar), Tomas Fujiwara (drums, vibraphone), and Michael Formanek (bass) do not approach The Anthony Braxton Project (Cuneiform […]
Pianist Gerald Clayton first came to the attention of many jazz fans by way of the late Roy Hargrove’s quintet on Earfood (Emarcy, 2008). Since then, the musician has grown to be a fine bandleader in his own right. He has released nothing but high-quality work, with a notable artistic shift between 2011’s Bond: The […]
The term “mentor” comes from a character in Homer’s Odyssey, an epic written in the 8th Century BCE. However, the concept of mentorship dates back to an even earlier era. Some historians suggest that the concept may be as old as humanity itself. Though hardly novel, there can be significant benefits to both parties. From […]
