Entries from October 2013
Vijay Iyer / Mike ladd: Holding It Down: The Veteransa€(TM) Dreams Project
It’s been nearly 70 years since the film The Best Years Of Our Lives won seven Academy Awards, including one for Best Picture (1946). The story revolved around three returning WWII veterans and their difficulties adjusting to civilian life. While those veterans came back to the economic powerhouse t…
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Octobop: . . .Out of Nowhere
With Octobop, what you see (and hear) is what you get: “octo,” as in octet, and “bop,” as in swinging, straight-from-the-shoulder jazz as practiced by the legendary masters who rewrote the music’s vocabulary in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s. Saxophonist and prime mover m: Geoff Roach leads the…
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Arno Haas: Magic Hands
Could it get any funkier than this, any deeper into the groove? It’s doubtful. Saxophonist Arno Haas has, with Magic Hands, crafted a sound that’s as tight and danceable as anything that James Brown’s Famous Flames conjured back in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
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Ode To Omni: October’s Fire
The Philadelphia based collective, Ode to Omni’s debut album October Fire is heavily influenced by the 1970s spiritual jazz recordings, particularly those on the legendary now sadly defunct label, Strata East. A couple of gem’s that instantly come to mind are The m: John Betsch Society’s…
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Le Grand Kalle: His Life, His Music
Singer and composer Joseph Kabasele, aka Le Grand KallA(C), is often credited with the creation of “Congolese rumba,” the most popular style in Central and East Africa during the 1960s and 1970s. In reality, Congolese rumba was born of several parents, but Kabasele’s role in its creation was probably…
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Charnett Moffett: Spirit Of Sound
Bassist Charnett Moffett’s first two releases on the MotA(C)ma imprint came out two years apart; his third and fourth releases for the same label–The Bridge: Solo Bass Works (MotA(C)ma Music, 2013) and the outing under discussion here–arrive a mere three months apart. His working pace has clearly quic…
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Luis Lopes Humanization 4tet: Live in Madison
Respectively, Portuguese artists Luis Lopes (guitar) and m: Rodrigo Amado (saxophone) are known for aggressive tactics and forward motion at almost any tempo. There’s nothing sheepish about this live date, recorded in Madison, WI. And there’s no looking back as the band seemingly loaded…
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