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Entries from June 2013

Compassionate Dictatorship: Entertaining Tyrants

Six years after its debut album, Coup D’Etat (FMR Records, 2007), and three years after its follow-up, Cash Cows (FMR Records, 2010), Compassionate Dictatorship returns with Entertaining Tyrants. Album number three finds the London-based quartet moving away from the influence of progressive rock, which shaped some of Cash Cows, and into a sound that is much more focused on contemporary jazz. The band’s musicianship and accessibility remain high, though, ensuring that Entertaining Tyrants is highly enjoyable…

Date: Jun 30th, 2013 · No Comments · Categories: Jazz CD Reviews

The Caravan: The Caravan

The Caravan, the self-titled second album from a Halifax, Nova Scotia-based hybrid hip hop trio, has attracted attention for the track “What Up Steve?.” It’s a new kind of political protest record for Canada, a reaction to the new kind of conservative politics practiced by the Stephen Harper administration. But “What Up Steve?,” whatever its effectiveness, only partially represents the musical breadth of the record…

Date: Jun 30th, 2013 · No Comments · Categories: Jazz CD Reviews

Petr Cancura: Down Home

Once jazz migrated from New Orleans and the Deep South to Chicago and New York, a favorite put-down for those making music that wasn’t urban, cool or modern was to call the musicians “country.” It was as if all things of jazz consequence outside of urban centers was required to be imported from said cities…

Date: Jun 29th, 2013 · No Comments · Categories: Jazz CD Reviews

Nicola Milan: Forbidden Moments

It should be no wonder that Australia produces musicians whose art reflects a broad blend of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Perth native Nicola Milan refers to the genre to which her brand of music belongs, Australasian jazz, and her own pedigree as Welsh/Anglo-Indian. That is every bit as exotic and humidly appealing as the self-description of another Aussie national, m: Alisha Pattillo (Along For The Ride (Self Produced, 2012)), who refers to herself as “A half-Australian/half-English/raised-in-Singapore saxophonist.” Beat that melting pot…

Date: Jun 29th, 2013 · No Comments · Categories: Jazz CD Reviews

Emil Strandberg / Sten Sandell / Patric Thorman: It Is Night And I Am Lost

The Swedish improvising trio of trumpeter Emil Strandberg, pianist m: Sten Sandell and bassist m: Patric Thorman has played together since 2006. Its first recording, Stockholm Sweden Polyphony (Found You Recording, 2009), signaled the many directions that these experienced and resourceful improvisers were beginning to explore. The trio kept performing while Strandberg and Thorman also collaborated with American cellist m: Fred Lonberg-Holm ‘s quintet, m: Seval …

Date: Jun 29th, 2013 · No Comments · Categories: Jazz CD Reviews

Federico Ughi Quartet: Federico Ughi Quartet

The Federico Ughi Quartet is part of the lineage that continues to emerge from saxophonist m: Ornette Coleman . Ughi’s work embodies a range of disparate influences, including classical music and Italian folk tunes, but in the quartet’s eponymous release Ughi pays homage to Coleman’s spiritual, philosophical, and musical influence. The quartet even mirrors Coleman’s archetypal two-horn- bass-drums lineup, in this case m: David Schnug on alto sax, m: Kirk Knuffke on cornet, m: Max Johnson on bass and, of course, Ughi on drums…

Date: Jun 28th, 2013 · No Comments · Categories: Jazz CD Reviews

Deborah Shulman: Get Your Kicks

In the vicinity of Staunton, Illinois, a short strip of asphalt heretofore known as “Route 66” lies silently abandoned. A local wag once suggested that the ghost remnant be pulverized into bits and sold to nostalgia types, with a wealth to be had–probably by the wag.

Date: Jun 28th, 2013 · No Comments · Categories: Jazz CD Reviews