All About Jazz (Free subscription) | yesterday
George Garzone is one of the unsung heroes of the saxophone, who is known for playing fast and hard. Anyone who has heard his legendary group, The Fringe, whether live or on record, can testify to his ability to blow any competition off the stand, but there is also a softer side to his playing and it is this other aspect of Garzone's art that comes into full fruition on Among Friends, which finds him...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | yesterday
Charles Tyler Ensemble possesses a profound quality. Unlike many records of the mid-1960s, it burns with a quiet blue flame, eschewing the intellectual posturing that characterized much new music in the avant-garde era. Tyler, a baritone saxophonist who became an acolyte of {{Albert Ayler = 3538}}--following him to New York in the early part of the movement--transposes Ayler's famous gravitas to the...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | yesterday
It's only right that the whole membership of this quartet gets equal billing, as this is a group that sublimates the individual in the interest of collective identity. Given the instrumental line-up--two horns, bass and drums--there are, of course, countless precedents for music in this form. The group proves itself to be abundantly aware of them, but the degree to which it transcends them is ultimately...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | yesterday
It's a tough time to be a singer. With an excessive plethora of vocalists mining the Great American Songbook ad nauseum, or trying their hands at songwriting with less than distinctive results, it's harder than ever to be heard. Even once-innovative singers like {{Cassandra Wilson = 11433}}--now a Grammy Award-winning "star"--have deserted experimentation, resting instead on their not inconsiderable...
MusicEmissions (Free subscription) | yesterday
Canada Water are a five-piece pop-punk outfit from Bournemouth. I'm aware that won't mean much to my American readers, so let me give you an overview. Sir John Betjeman once said that "Bournemouth is one of the few English towns one can safely call 'her'." And in 1952 I'm sure he meant a fair lady from a Hitchcock film, but nowadays I think she'e have grown old awfully quietly, still drinking...
MusicEmissions (Free subscription) | yesterday
Jarring percussion controlled opener, ‘Dark Horse' races off into a melee of metalcore, punk and post hardcore, polished off by the focused, animated and gnarly vocals of Jake Bannon. Now celebrating nineteen years of boundary pushing spleen venting, Boston's bruising alternative pit inspirers, Converge combine their entire genre flitting into one punch packing full length. To give this seventh...
TheCelebrityCafe.com (Free subscription) | yesterday
- Joshua Bell got his first violin at the age of four after his parents found his plucking at rubber bands he stretched over the handles of his dresser. Bell gained national attention at 14 with his debut with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Bell followed that up with a debut at Carnegie Hall, the Avery Fisher Career Grant, and a recording contract. Since recording his first LP at 18,...
75 or Less album reviews (Free subscription) | yesterday
The Middle Eight - Love EP (self released) [ download ] [ upcoming shows ] The Love EP is such a strange sound in the context of 2009 indie rock. It's not skuzzy, purposely camouflaged in lo-fidelity or derailed by gimmicks. In fact, it's all "la-la" choruses and straightforward melodies (occasionally with full brass accompaniment, as is the case with "Ain't No Compromise"). The...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
What a surprise to hear the first-ever recording that joins piano maestros {{Hank Jones = 8166}} and {{Oliver Jones = 8185}}. A Detroit native, ninety-year-old Hank Jones is from the family that gave us {{Thad "Bartok with Wings" Jones = 8200}} and polyrhythmist {{Elvin Jones = 8162}}, and he has participated in historic bebop sessions with {{Charlie Parker = 10115}} and memorable duets with...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
This global block party, by saxophonist David Murray, blends ebullient African-rhythms with funk and jazz, brought by a fiery band that integrates two Gwo ka masters (Guadalupean drummers/vocalists), some sassy urban soul from pianist/vocalist Sista Kee, and the world renowned blues voice of {{Taj Mahal = 8981}}. The Devil Tried To Kill Me is Murray's third release with the Gwo ka Masters, following...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
Twelve years after his death, activity around the legacy of Afrobeat originator Fela Kuti is growing exponentially and the US, finally, is getting in on the act. Choreographer Bill T. Jones' musical, Fela, is to open on Broadway on November 23, 2009, and meanwhile New York's Knitting Factory label has begun a reissue program which will, between fall 2009 and the close of 2010, see 45 Kuti titles released...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
It's rare that an album of outtakes and rejected music not only succeeds, but actually hangs together as a cohesive work in its own right. As the only member of 21st Century Schizoid Band (performing late-1960s/early-1970s-era Crimson repertoire) who wasn't a King Crimson alum, Jakko M. Jakszyk not only handled the daunting challenge of Crimson co-founder {{Robert Fripp = 16099}}'s guitar parts, but...
MusicEmissions (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
The XX come from the same caste of London as Hot Chip - spent their younger days tinkering with their instruments in the music room before pulling their fingers out and self-producing their album in the record company's basement. And what a debut album. The girl/boy front combo of Romy Madley Croft (guitar) and Oliver Sim (bass) complements the backdrop of interestingness from Baria Qureshi (keyboards/guitar)...
MusicEmissions (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
British 80s power pop lives! You can easily be mistaken into believing that The Rifles' "Great Escape" is some arcane reissue from 1987. Yet this band has only been around for about three years; they have absorbed far more choice rock cuts than their years would suggest. Herein are gleefully sharp riffs and slightly snotty vocals that imply that the band secretly wants to save the world...
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