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Music Reviews

Anouar Brahem: “After The Last Sky” Review

 

Usually, when oud player Anouar Brahem works with a small ensemble, he shares the spotlight with another soloist who mirrors his slow and careful style, regardless of their instrument, while other musicians provide a textural rhythmic foundation.

It’s what soprano saxophonist / bass clarinetist John Surman did with double-bassist Dave Holland on 1998’s Thimar; what clarinetist Barbaros Erköse did with bendir / darbouka player Lassad Hosni on 2000’s Astrakan Café; and what bass clarinetist Klaus Gesing did with bassist Björn Meyer and bendir / darbouka player Khaled Yassine on 2009’s The Astounding Eyes Of Rita. And the results were beautiful; moody, atmospheric, and haunting.

But on his new album, After The Last Sky (CD, digital), Brahem — and, more importantly, his collaborator, violoncellist Anja Lechner — breaks with tradition, and while fans of those moodier / jazzier albums might not love it, especially those who aren’t big on classical strings, the results are still rather interesting.

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Music Reviews

Ivo Perelman, Ken Vandermark, Joe McPhee: “Oxygen” Review

 

On most of his recent albums, iconic jazz saxophonist Ivo Perelman has flirted with the avant-garde, but never fully committed. Or, as I like to put it, he’s been free jazz adjacent, not full-on free jazz.

It’s the difference between, say, John Coltrane’s Sun Ship and his Live In Japan.

But on Oxygen (digital), on which Perelman collaborates with bari saxophonist Ken Vandermark and trombone player Joe McPhee, this threesome often get super weird and out there in a way that will annoy more traditional jazz heads, but delight those who don’t mind when things get good and noisy.

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Music Reviews

Ivo Perelman, Tyshawn Sorey: “Parallel Aesthetics” Review

 

It can be intimidating to work with someone who has a lot more experience than you. Like, say, if you were drummer and piano player Tyshawn Sorey, and recording your first album with iconic saxophonist Ivo Perelman, who is twenty years Sorey’s senior, and who’s recorded exponentially more albums in the last twenty year than Sorey has his whole life.

But on Parallel Aesthetics (CD, digital), Sorey and Perelman’s first album together, the younger musician more than holds his own on these freely improvised jazz duets.

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Music Reviews

Ivo Perelman’s Sao Paulo Creative 4’s “Supernova” Review

 

While it’s good to spend time with people who will push you to think in different ways or consider different possibilities, sometimes you just want to be with like-minded folk.

Which is kind of what avant-leaning tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman is doing on his new album, Supernova (digital), in which he’s teamed with three fellow saxophonists under the name Ivo Perelman’s Sao Paulo Creative 4.

But while you’d expect an album that’s all horns all the time to be cacophonous, especially from someone like the avant-leaning Ivo Perelman, Supernova isn’t nearly so noisy. Er, not all the time, anyway.

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Movies Music Reviews

“Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision” Boxed Set Review

 

In the 56 years since it was built, New York’s Electric Lady Studios has hosted such iconic musicians as Led Zeppelin (who recorded parts of Houses Of The Holy there), David Bowie (Young Americans), Taylor Swift (the Taylor’s Version editions of Fearless, Folklore, and Red); Patti Smith (Horses), Stevie Wonder (Talking Book), Kiss (Destroyer and Asylum), Frank Ocean (Blond), Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga (Love For Sale), and on and on and on.

Even Prince, who had his own studio at the time, Paisley Park Studios, used it when recording his album Graffiti Bridge.

But now and forever it shall be known as the place that Jimi built.

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Music Reviews

Ivo Perelman, Matthew Shipp: “Magical Incantation” Review

 

You’ll have to forgive me, but free jazz adjacent sax master Ivo Perelman and his frequent partner in crime, pianist Matthew Shipp, have recorded so many albums together that I’ve lost track.

But while I may not know all their names, I can tell you that their newest collaboration, Magical Incantation (CD, digital) is impressive, even in their rather extensive collaborative career.

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Music Reviews

Sonny Rollins: “A Night At The Village Vanguard: The Complete Masters” Review

 

It’s weird; while the popularity of vinyl has resulted in a lot of classic albums being reissued, most of those reissues are not the improved kind. They’re typically just the album as it was when it last got released on CD or digitally, except now on big pieces of grooved plastic.

But the good people at Blue Note Records are bucking this trend with Sonny Rollins’ A Night At The Village Vanguard: The Complete Masters, which is not only bringing this album to record players for the first time in years, but with improved sound quality that’s present on the new CD and digital editions as well.

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Music Reviews

Sonny Rollins: “Freedom Weaver” Review

 

Like a lot of jazz musicians from the 1950s and ’60s, iconic saxophonist Sonny Rollins had more success in Europe at that time than he did in his native America.

So much so, in fact, that he, like them, often had European concerts broadcast on the radio, while also visiting the radio and TV stations for in-studio performances. Performances that, thanks to different (read: lax) copyright laws, were later released on LP and CD despite not being sanctioned by Mr. Rollins.

Well, now fans of Rollins can enjoy them, and guilt free, thanks to Freedom Weaver: The 1959 European Tour Recordings (CD, digital, vinyl), which presents twenty-five songs, and one short interview, from February 21st through March 11th of 1959, which were originally recorded by European radio and television stations.

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Music Reviews

Matthew Shipp Trio: “New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz” Review

 

When it comes to the configurations of jazz groups, trios with a piano player, a bassist, and a drummer are as common as, well, quartets with a saxophonist, and quintets fronted by saxophonists and trumpet players.

It’s why the last thing I need is another common jazz trio.

An uncommon one, however…

This brings me to New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz (CD, digital), the new and promissory album by the Matthew Shipp Trio. Which, for the record, is comprised of Shipp on piano, Michael Bisio on bass, and Newman Taylor Baker on drums.