Bleader

Archives | RSS

Jazz

RSS

Friday, January 18, 2013

Jazz  Music  Post No Bills The blustery blowouts of saxophonists Colin Stetson and Mats Gustafsson

Posted by Peter Margasak on 01.18.13 at 02:30 PM

Colin_stetson_mats_gustafsson_stones.jpg
In early summer 2011 I was lucky enough to attend Vancouver's terrific annual jazz festival. One of the most explosive and exciting performances I caught during my visit was recently released commercially: the first-time meeting of saxophonists Colin Stetson and Mats Gustafsson, a collaboration cooked up by the festival's excellent artistic director, Ken Pickering. The two men engaged in a sanguine battle of brawny horns that's captured on Stones (Rune Grammofon). Both players are known for their mastery of extended techniques, and though they use them to very different ends, here they manage to find a way to bond and communicate.

Continue reading »

  • Share

Tags: , , , , , ,

Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday, January 11, 2013

Jazz  Music  Post No Bills Joe Lovano releases the first great jazz album of 2013

Posted by Peter Margasak on 01.11.13 at 02:00 PM

Joe_Lovano_Cross_Culture.jpeg
The saxophonist Joe Lovano has regularly spoken of his malleable quintet Us Five as a band that's capable of doing and playing anything, and on the group's brand-new Cross Culture (Blue Note), its third album, that's never seemed more apparent. The group tackles the Ellington/Strayhorn classic "Star Crossed Lovers," but the other ten pieces are all Lovano originals—some of which he's recorded previously in other contexts—yet they all feel more like superflexible settings or structures than rigid compositions, allowing the players great internal latitude.

The band's two drummers—Otis Brown III and Francisco Mela—have never sounded more comfortable, crafting huge polyrhythmic gullies that Lovano and pianist James Weidman are able to pour their improvisation into, floating across, splashing within, and sinking into the grooves. It's remarkable how different they sound together yet how expertly they fit together, never stumbling or getting in one another's path. Few modern saxophonists have such a mercurial tone as Lovano, as his harmonic rigor allows him to shade and smear every note with unexpected color or breathy textures, and this shape-shifting band gives it greater leeway than ever.

Continue reading »

  • Share

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday, December 28, 2012

Jazz  Year in Review  Music  Post No Bills My favorite jazz albums of 2012

Posted by Peter Margasak on 12.28.12 at 02:00 PM

david_virelles_continuum.jpeg
Early next month the annual jazz-critics poll put together by Francis Davis will turn up on the music website Rhapsody for the second year in a row—in the five previous years the results of the poll were published by the Village Voice, which has successfully decimated just about every tie to its older, better self. Aside from listing my five favorite international albums in this week's paper, the jazz poll has been the only formal survey I've participated in, and since it's what critics usually do this time of year, I thought I'd use this week's jazz column to run my ballot for the 2012 Rhapsody poll. In the next week or two I'll also use this space to count down my favorite 40 albums of the year, without regard to genre.

Continue reading »

  • Share

Tags: , , , ,

Permalink | Comments (1)

Friday, December 14, 2012

Jazz  Music  Post No Bills The new sound of Ethio jazz from Samuel Yirga

Posted by Peter Margasak on 12.14.12 at 02:00 PM

samuelyirga_guzo-620x620.jpeg
Anyone seriously sucked into the beauty and passion of vintage Ethiopian music by Buda Records' invaluable Ethiopiques series may well wonder where the good contemporary music is from that East African country. Well, from all accounts there's not much good stuff these days. A few years ago Terp Records, the label run by Ex guitarist Terrie Hessels, released a terrific collection of recent Ethiopian dance tracks called Ililta! New Ethiopian Dance Music, and the same label put out the latest collaboration between the Ex and saxophonist Getatchew Mekuria, Y'Anbessaw Tezeta, but generally the pickings are slim. I'll admit that I was skeptical when I first heard about the Ethio jazz practiced by the young pianist Samuel Yirga, who's probably known best for his involvement in the British world-music project Dub Colossus, which tepidly mashes up simulacrums of 70s Ethiopian sounds with funk, reggae, and jazz. But while Yirga's recent debut album, Guzo (Real World), contains some serious flaws, the best tracks are truly something special.

Continue reading »

  • Share

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday, December 7, 2012

Jazz  Music  Post No Bills Local saxophonist Ernest Dawkins plays it Afro Straight

Posted by Peter Margasak on 12.07.12 at 02:00 PM

ernest-dawkins-afro-straight.jpeg
The premise of Afro Straight (Delmark), the sturdy new album from Chicago saxophonist Ernest Dawkins, is that his decades-long involvement with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians has pushed him away from wading deep within the standard post-bop repertoire, focusing instead on original music and an exploration of disparate styles. "When I first came around the AACM [in the early 70s], that's what we were told to do: I saw guys like [Henry] Threadgill doing other gigs, playing shows, playing in church, as well as playing what we call 'AACM music,'" he says in Neil Tesser's liner notes.

Continue reading »

  • Share

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Permalink | Comments (1)

Older Entries »

Agenda Teaser

01.22.13
Cathy Richardson, Shelley Miller
Music
Cathy Richardson, Shelley Miller City Winery
January 22
Emeli Sande, Emily King
Music
Emeli Sande, Emily King Lincoln Hall
January 22
More Agenda Teaser »

Tabbed Event Search

The Bleader Archive

Recent Comments

Popular Stories

Read
Shared
Comments

Follow Us

Sign up for a newsletter »




Copyright © 2013 Sun-Times Media, LLC.
Powered by Foundation