Entries from January 2014
Jeff Ballard Trio: Time’s Tales
For several decades Jeff Ballard has been the first call drummer for a host of contemporary jazz’s biggest names, notably pianist m: Brad Mehldau , with whom Ballard has played since 2005. Of late, however, Ballard has gone it alone. The 2013 debut shows of his quartet Fairgrounds, featuri…
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·Melt Yourself Down: Melt Yourself Down
Shouty, funky, groovy, heavy, punky, jazzy–the UK-based Melt Yourself Down is all of these things and more. Debut album Melt Yourself Down demonstrates all of these qualities, with a collection of songs that demands, and deserves, attention, respect, love and dancing in equal measure. Melt Yourself…
Date: No Comments · Categories: Jazz CD Reviews
·Party KnA1/4llers!: Party KnA1/4llers!
m: Party KnA1/4llers! is a collaboration between Chicago cellist m: Fred Lonberg-Holm and Norwegian drummer StA le Liavik Solberg. This intimate meeting of the two restless and adventurous musicians highlights their obsessive and playful need to explore and invent new sounds an…
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·Outside Line: Introducing Outside Line
The glory days of Leeds United may be long gone, but while its football team has seen better times, the Yorkshire city’s music scene has gone from strength to strength. The individualist stance taken by musicians such as m: Matthew Bourne hasn’t always pleased the jazz police, but it’s g…
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·Daunik Lazro / Joelle Leandre: Hasparren
This outing signifies the fifth recording and sole duo pairing by these consummate improvisers, spanning several decades. Recorded at a cultural center in Hasparren, France, the musicians explore the lower register with a profusion of prismatic contrasts as they interrogate and expand upon numerous…
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·Adam Pultz Melbye: Gullet
The title of the first solo album of prolific Danish double bassist m: Adam Pultz Melbye is inspired by a quote from Samuel Beckett novel Watt (published in 1953). Metaphorically, Melbye follows Beckett’s words, determined to liberate himself from a symbolic deep-toned sonic gullet fille…
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·Ben van Gelder: Reprise
Marked by an attentive copacetic style, Ben van Gelder’s sophomore release Reprise is a continuation of good music witnessed in his 2011 debut Frame of Reference . The alto saxophonist’s release on Pirouet Records moves forward with an introspective and airy vibe brought via quintet of peers that’s…
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