CD reviews
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
On Tomasz Stanko
An edited version of this review appears in the April 2010 issue of All About Jazz-New York. — Tomasz Stanko, Dark Eyes (ECM) By David R. Adler Much of trumpeter Tomasz Stanko’s output in the ’00s featured his countrymen Marcin Wasilewski on piano, Slawomir Kurkiewicz on bass and Michal Miskiewicz on drums. Dark Eyes is a departure — the first
On Dave Holland
This review appears in the April 2010 issue of All About Jazz-New York. — Dave Holland Octet, Pathways (Dare2) By David R. Adler Bassist Dave Holland’s main creative vehicle has long been the Dave Holland Quintet, but in recent years he’s launched a number of other groups, tweaking and expanding instrumentation while preserving something of the quintet’s signature sound. On
On Dan Weiss
This review appears in the March 2010 issue of All About Jazz-New York. — Dan Weiss, Timshel (Sunnyside) By David R. Adler Drummer Dan Weiss made a promising trio debut in 2006 with Now Yes When, featuring pianist Jacob Sacks and bassist Thomas Morgan. Timshel, the follow-up, shows an impressive amount of growth for this lineup in the years since.