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On Dan Weiss
This review appears in the April 2014 issue of The New York City Jazz Record. — Dan Weiss Fourteen (Pi) By David R. Adler Expanding on his trio output and his marvelous tabla-inspired albums for solo drum set, drummer Dan Weiss ventures into large-scale composition with the ambitious Fourteen. The disc’s seven tracks run together without pause, and though the ensemble
New York @ Night: April 2014
From the April 2014 issue of The New York City Jazz Record. — The clarinet looms large in Chris Speed’s work, though he spent the first two nights of his residency at the Stone solely on tenor saxophone. In the last of four trio sets with bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Dave King (Mar. 12), Speed focused mainly on music from
Six Picks: April 2014
My monthly list of recommended CDs, as published in The New York City Jazz Record, April 2014: Diego Barber & Craig Taborn, Tales (Sunnyside) Digital Primitives, Lipsomuch (Hopscotch) Billy Hart Quartet, One Is the Other (ECM) Tom Rainey, Obbligato (Intakt) Pete Robbins, Pyramid (Hate Laugh) Ton Trio II, On and On (Singlespeed)
Six Picks: March 2014
My monthly list of recommended CDs, as published in The New York City Jazz Record, March 2014: Steve Cardenas, Melody in a Dream (Sunnyside) Eli Degibri, Twelve (Plus Loin) Jozef Dumoulin, A Fender Rhodes Solo (BEE Jazz) Vijay Iyer, Mutations (ECM) Mehliana, Taming the Dragon (Nonesuch) Catherine Russell, Bring It Back (Jazz Village)
Six Picks: February 2014
My monthly list of recommended CDs, as published in The New York City Jazz Record, February 2014: Scott Feiner & Pandeiro Jazz, A View from Below (s/r) Mary Halvorson/Michael Formanek/Tomas Fujiwara, Thumbscrew (Cuneiform) Jeremy Pelt, Face Forward, Jeremy (HighNote) Danilo Pérez, Panama 500 (Mack Avenue) Brandon Ross & Stomu Takeishi, Revealing Essence (Sunnyside) Helen Sung, Anthem for a New Day (Concord)
Gerald Cleaver: a postscript
My feature article on drummer-composer-bandleader Gerald Cleaver ran in the November 2013 issue of JazzTimes — the link to the online excerpt is here. I also wrote a concluding section that didn’t make it into the magazine and wanted to share it for posterity. See below. — [Gerald] Cleaver debuted as a leader in 2001 with the moody Adjust,
On Jason Adasiewicz
This review appears (in edited form) in the January 2014 issue of The New York City Jazz Record. — Wheelhouse (Dave Rempis/Jason Adasiewicz/Nate McBride), Boss of the Plains (Aerophonic) Joshua Abrams Quartet, Unknown Known (Rogue Art) Rob Mazurek Octet, Skull Sessions (Cuneiform) By David R. Adler The fine avant-garde jazz of today’s Chicago is generally not piano-driven, though much of it
New York @ Night: January 2014
From the January 2014 issue of The New York City Jazz Record. — When the George Coleman New Octet began its second set at Jazz Standard (Dec. 11), one band member wasn’t easily visible: George Coleman. The veteran tenor saxophonist began his solo on “Waltzing Westward” and revealed his position, seated in a chair on the floor just off the bandstand. Though he