Music
The week on disc (3)
In case you missed the last one… Eldar, Re-Imagination (Sony BMG Masterworks): The young Kyrgyz-American pianist goes nu-jazz on us. A bit chirpily bright at times, but it’s honest, gutsy music, fueled by the monster drumming of Terreon Gully and the stratospheric guitar of Mike Moreno. Jason Smith, Tipping Point (MoonJune): Californian drummer with Allan Holdsworth associates Gary Husband on
Exploding Star
Marvelous, though under-attended, performance last night at Philly’s International House by the Exploding Star Orchestra Quintet — a scaled-down incarnation of the group that released We Are All from Somewhere Else (Thrill Jockey) earlier this year. Even in the smaller-group context, orchestral timbres abounded, thanks in part to Rob Mazurek’s delay-enhanced cornet (distinct shades of Bill Dixon) and the painterly,
Joe Zawinul passes
I’ll go out on a limb and say Miles Davis couldn’t have done it without him. On the occasion of Zawinul’s death from cancer at 75, I thought I’d relink to my October ’06 Jazz Times review of Forecast: Tomorrow, the recent three-disc Weather Report collection from Legacy. I saw Zawinul only once, with Weather Update, his retooled, ethereal, vamp-oriented,
On Aesop Rock
My review of Aesop Rock’s show at the Starlight Ballroom in Philly, in today’s Inquirer.
Matthew Shipp Trio
An engaging Philadelphia performance last night by pianist Shipp, bassist Joe Morris and drummer Whit Dickey, the lineup heard on Shipp’s latest for Thirsty Ear, Piano Vortex. Thus began the fall season of the Ars Nova Workshop. ANW practically is the creative jazz scene in Philly. When the Jazz Awards ballot next circulates, Jazz Journalists Association members should keep ANW
Six Picks: September 2007
My monthly list of recommended CDs, as published in All About Jazz-New York, September 2007: Rob Brown Trio, Sounds (Clean Feed) Paquito D’Rivera Quintet, Funk Tango (Sunnyside) Charles Davis, Land of Dreams (Smalls) Jason Lindner Big Band, Live at the Jazz Gallery (Anzic) David Murray Black Saint Quartet, Sacred Ground (Justin Time) Jacques Schwarz-Bart, Soné Ka La (Emarcy)
Marlon Simon’s Nagual Spirits
Two lively sets last night at Chris’s, here in Philly, by the Venezuela-born drummer and Latin jazz bandleader Marlon Simon, brother of piano phenom Edward. (The new Nagual Spirits album is Rumba A’ La Patato.) Renato Thoms was a juggernaut on congas. Good original tunes, but the highlight was a fast, Latinized reading of Bobby Watson’s “Fuller Love,” from the
CD reviews
I’ve got three CD reviews in the Sept. ’07 issue of Jazz Times: Nublu Orchestra Conducted by Butch Morris (Nublu)Sulphur by Steuart Liebig’s Minim (pfMentum) Inamorata by Bill Laswell’s Method of Defiance (Ohm Resistance)