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On Samuel Blaser
This review appears in the May 2010 issue of All About Jazz-New York. Blaser plays Cornelia Street Café this Saturday as part of the Clean Feed Festival. — Samuel Blaser Quartet, Pieces of Old Sky (Clean Feed) Pierre Favre & Samuel Blaser, Vol à Voile (Intakt) By David R. Adler There’s a wonderfully eerie quality to Pieces of Old Sky,
On Manuel Valera
A version of the following review appears in the May 2010 issue of All About Jazz-New York. — Manuel Valera, Currents (MaxJazz) Samuel Torres, Yaoundé (Blue Conga) Oscar Feldman, Oscar e Familia (Sunnyside) By David R. Adler Cuban pianist Manuel Valera is throwing his weight around the jazz scene and having an impact on several different levels. He’s a fine
Jacomo wha?
I’ve been getting sucked into Treme on HBO (and enjoying Patrick and Josh’s in-depth discussions), so thought I’d link to this interesting take on the meaning of the famous refrain “jacomo fi-na-ne.” The Grateful Dead and its fans rendered the song’s chorus as “Hey now, Hey now, Aiko Aiko all day,” but this is it in Louisiana Creole: Ena! Ena!Akout!
New York @ Night: May 2010
In the new All About Jazz-New York: — While bassist Adam Lane’s Full Throttle Orchestra is named to conjure up great size and bombast, at present it’s a compact sextet, and its sonic inventory includes passages of nuance and overall calm. With a Bay Area lineup, Lane has released No(w) Music (Cadence, 2001) and New Magical Kingdom (Clean Feed, 2006).
Six Picks: May 2010
My monthly list of recommended CDs, as published in All About Jazz-New York, May 2010: Anat Cohen, Clarinetwork: Live at the Village Vanguard (Anzic) Jorrit Dijkstra, Pillow Circles (Clean Feed) Yusef Lateef & Adam Rudolph, Towards the Unknown (Meta) Olivier Manchon, Orchestre de Chambre Miniature – Volume 1 (ObliqSound) Wallace Roney, If Only for One Night (HighNote) Ralph Towner &
ELEW
There’s been lots of derisive tweeting about pianist Eric Lewis, now known as ELEW, and his self-coined “Rockjazz.” I’m in agreement with Peter Hum. Lewis is hiding behind the specious argument that jazzers playing rock is new and controversial, something critics can’t handle. The truth is that the music stands or falls on its merits, and ELEW’s music falls hard.
Defying the boycott thugs
Proponents of an anti-Israel boycott have tried to pressure Amitav Ghosh, one of my intellectual heroes, to turn down the Dan David Prize. Ghosh has declined to do so, and his reasoning is characteristically eloquent. Margaret Atwood, Ghosh’s co-recipient of the prize, has also rebuffed the boycotters, and just as eloquently. [Via Normblog, Engage.] In marked contrast, Gil Scott-Heron seems
Undead
Another NYC mega jazz fest to pair with Winter Jazz Fest. This one in June. Details here.