Album Review
Melissa Aldana: Echoes Of The Inner Prophet
by Mike Jurkovic
Grammy-nominated saxophonist Melissa Aldana was all of maybe 21 going on 22 in 2010 when her Inner Circle Records arrival, Free Fall, caught many a discerning ear with its surprisingly earthy and assured lines and tangents. Her first for Blue Note, 2022's 12 Stars, displayed much the same but with a more resolute, restorative, established tone. As exhibited on such artistic statements as 12 Stars and 2019's Visions (Motema Music), Aldana relishes her sojourns and residencies in the ...
read moreRachel Z: Sensual
by Mike Jurkovic
Whatever her impetus--be it the loss of her parents or peans to a shared sense of hearth, home and heaven--pianist/composer Rachel Z's thirteenth full length album, Sensual, bares a sincere, hopeful humanity. Buoyed by a sense of survival, Sensual opens as if it were a letter, closing with the Foo Fighters' crotch-kick raise-the-roof-'n-rile-'em-up These Days." Sensual pulls one in fast and fully with the keenly seductive opener, Save My Soul." It dances. It stirs. Z, whose ...
read moreTony Monaco Trio: Over and Over
by Pierre Giroux
Tony Monaco's latest album Over and Over is a journey into the world of jazz funk propelled by the timeless Hammond B-3 organ. With Monaco at the helm and accompanied by guitarist Zakk Jones and drummer Reggie Jackson, this trio embarks on a program of seven Monaco originals that are both compelling and undeniably funky. Monaco's approach to his compositions can be exemplified by the opening track Da Daddy." This well-formulated and realized chart smokes along ...
read moreRoberto Magris: Love Is Passing Thru
by Jack Bowers
Love Is Passing Thru, by Italian pianist Roberto Magris and his quartet, was actually recorded almost two decades ago, in January and February 2005, shortly after a concert tour in the Far East, and was to be released on the Black Saint/Soul note label before it was sold and went under. Fast forward to 2024, and Magris, now with Kansas City's JMood label, decided that in light of the passing a year ago of drummer and percussionist Enzo Carpentieri, the ...
read moreMike LeDonne: Wonderful!
by Jack Bowers
Organist Mike LeDonne's latest recording, Wonderful!, is a labor of love on several levels. Of course, there is love of the music and love of accomplishing something that had not been done before--teaming a gospel choir with jazz quartet. Above all else, there is love for LeDonne's wife, Margaret, and daughter Mary who is disabled but, as LeDonne says, is nonetheless truly wonderful." LeDonne wrote the album's title song for Mary, wherein he compares her to a ...
read moreCharles Mingus: Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus To Pre Bird Revisited
by Chris May
In his liner notes for Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus To Pre Bird Revisited, Bill Shoemaker sets out the context in which the two featured albums should be considered. He observes that so enormous was Charles Mingus' artistic vision that no two (or perhaps three) albums can encompass its totality. How true that is, even of the pairing of two Mingus albums that are as different as could be: Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus (Candid, 1960) and Pre Bird (Mercury, ...
read moreIvo Perelman, Chad Fowler, Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille: Embracing the Unknown
by Troy Dostert
Since founding Mahakala Music in 2019, saxophonist Chad Fowler has done as much as anyone to continue the spirit of unfettered free jazz, drawing on an illustrious roster which includes veterans such as William Parker, Matthew Shipp, Joe McPhee, Ivo Perelman and many others, with Fowler himself frequently appearing alongside them. The label is also doing a superb job of bringing together cross-generational assemblages of musicians, as on 2022's Alien Skin, which brought Shipp, Parker and Perelman together with Fowler, ...
read moreCharles Lloyd: The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow
by Chris May
Those of us who were going to jazz festivals in summer 1966, and were lucky enough to catch the Charles Lloyd Quartet, will likely have one tune in particular imprinted on our memories. That was because Forest Flower" so precisely reflected the acid-drenched zeitgeist blossoming in Europe and the US. Lloyd, Keith Jarrett, Cecil McBee and Jack DeJohnette recorded the piece at the Monterey festival in September 1966, and when Forest Flower was released in early 1967, it was the ...
read moreMal Waldron - Steve Lacy: The Mighty Warriors
by Dan McClenaghan
Producer/jazz detective Zev Feldman is still at it, ferreting out unreleased recordings from jazz giants of the past and releasing them with buffed-up sound quality and first-rate packaging. Long lost recordings from pianists Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Art Tatum and Ahmad Jamal have seen the light of the twenty-first century, thanks to Feldman, as has newly discovered music from trumpeter Chet Baker. Now it is pianist Mal Waldron (1925 -2002) and soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy's (1934 -2004) turn, with The ...
read moreAhmad Jamal: Live in Paris (1971)
by Joshua Weiner
The pianist Ahmad Jamal, who passed away in 2023 at the age of 92, needs no introduction. Suffice it to say that this NEA Jazz Master and Lifetime Grammy Award recipient was one of the most popular pianists, small group leaders and hit recording artists of his time. One might be forgiven for thinking everything was known about Jamal, given his extensive discography. Happily, however, Transversales Disques continues its excellent series of Lost ORTF Recordings" with this release, recorded live ...
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