In case you missed the last one… Ben Kono, Crossing (19/8) Chris Parrello, Things I Wonder (Popopomo) Robert Piket, Sides, Colors (Thirteenth Note) Jason Stein’s Locksmith Isidore, Three Kinds of Happiness (Not Two) Billy Fox’s Blackbirds & Bullets, Dulces (Clean Feed) Ken Filiano’s Quantum Entanglements, Dreams from a Clown Car (Clean Feed)
A short preview in the new Philadelphia Weekly.
In case you missed the last one… Marty Ehrlich, Fables (Tzadik) Donny McCaslin, Perpetual Motion (Greenleaf) Dymaxion Quartet, Sympathetic Vibrations (ind.) Jin Hi Kim & Gerry Hemingway, Pulses (Auricle) Tigran, A Fable (Verve/Universal) Robert Hurst, Unrehurst, Volume 2 (Bebob)
Soon after my first post on Randy Sandke’s book Where the Dark and the Light Folks Meet, Ethan Iverson posted a far more detailed two-part critique (here and here) at Do the Math. As always with Ethan, it’s a must-read. He’s also announced that he’ll be publishing a guest post by Sandke in reply. At the risk of spending too
This review appears in the February 2011 issue of All About Jazz-New York. [Note: As of the March 2011 issue, AAJ-NY will be known as The New York City Jazz Record. Details here.] — Shauli Einav, Opus One (Plus Loin) By David R. Adler It’s clear that Israeli-born saxophonist Shauli Einav is capable of “blowing his face off,” as pianist
This review appears in the February 2011 issue of All About Jazz-New York. — Scott Colley, Empire (CAM Jazz) By David R. Adler The title Empire could lead one to think that bassist Scott Colley’s seventh album is an artistic comment on foreign policy. In fact, Empire is a now-vanished town in Kansas where Colley’s great-great-grandfather, Joseph J. Colby, settled
My monthly list of recommended CDs, as published in All About Jazz-New York, February 2011: Jane Ira Bloom, Wingwalker (Outline) Joel Harrison, String Choir (Sunnyside) Jonathan Kreisberg, Shadowless (New For Now) Frank Portolese, Plectrum Jazz Guitar Solos (ind.) Noah Preminger, Before the Rain (Palmetto) Ben Wolfe Quintet, Live at Smalls (Smalls Live)
There’s been some heated discussion since Howard Mandel published his thumbs-down review of Where the Dark and the Light Folks Meet: Race and the Mythology, Politics, and Business of Jazz by Randy Sandke. I’ve remained mum, largely because I edited the review. It appeared in December in JJA News. Sandke is a talented trumpeter and composer as well as an