Reviews
02/22/12 Albums By Shaun Brady
Live At the South Bank
Smalltown Superjazzz
It serves as a fitting testament to drummer Steve Reid’s expansive imagination that a career beginning with James Brown and Horace Silver progressed to the point where his final years were spent in intense communication with the novel sounds of a British...
02/21/12 Albums By Owen Cordle
Keep the Faith
Corona
Pittsburgh drummer Roger Humphries is perhaps best known for his three-year stint with the Horace Silver Quintet in the mid-’60s, during which the group recorded the Blue Note albums Song for My Father , The Cape Verdean Blues and The Jody Grind . Appropriately...
02/20/12 Albums By Philip Booth
Galaxy
Heads Up
On his last record, 2010’s Now Is the Time , Jeff Lorber reclaimed the long-lost “fusion” part of his band name and brand identity. With Bobby Colomby and Yellowjackets bassist Jimmy Haslip co-producing, the keyboardist and composer deemphasized smooth-jazz...
02/19/12 Albums By Lyn Horton
My Brother
Konnex Records
The red mandala-shaped image on the cover of My Brother suggests the introspective nature of the improvised set recorded by alto sax player Gary Hassay and bassist Michael Bisio. The 11 pieces on the album reflect an Oriental mindset in the improvisations...
02/19/12 Albums By Lloyd Sachs
Novela
Clean Feed
Novela is an ideal title for an album with so much narrative appeal. All sorts of stories are told through the music on this unusual retrospective, which consists of songs written by saxophonist Tony Malaby for trios and quartets over the past decade and...
02/18/12 Albums By Philip Booth
MSMW Live: In Case the World Changes Its Mind
Indirecto
MSMW, in the studio and onstage, everywhere from Bear Creek Music Festival in the north Florida woods to the Montreal Jazz Festival, always sounds like a natural-born partnership—the deep jazz-funk and experimental genius of Medeski, Martin and Wood running...
02/17/12 Albums By Bill DeMain
Daybreak
Sunnyside
Pianist Greg Reitan’s Daybreak seems custom-built for a late-September meander through Central Park on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Which is to say the record is pensive and beautiful and infused with delicate motion that conveys a sense of contentment tinged...
02/16/12 Albums By Owen Cordle
Con Brio!
ACR
Ali Ryerson’s flute playing, Pete Levin’s arrangements and noted sidemen combine to make this album artistically satisfying as well as commercially viable. The ensemble sound is contemporary, the recording quality reminiscent of CTI label productions of...
02/15/12 Albums By Steve Greenlee
A New Margin
Clean Feed
The prolific multireedist Ken Vandermark leads multiple bands at the same time, yet few of his outings have included a pianist. This is partly what makes his new trio project, Side A, so momentous: The piano adds a dimension to his music that is rarely heard...
02/14/12 Concerts By Ken Franckling
Ira Sullivan in Southwest Florida, 2/13/12
Ken Franckling reports on performance by the multi-instrumentalist’s group at a Charlotte County Jazz Society concert