Entries from June 2014
Pulcinella: Bestiole
Pulcinella shares its name with a character from the Commedia dell’Arte–he figures rather charmingly on the band’s website–and declares its mix of jazz, rock, tango and Baltic traditions to be “delocalised jazz.” Presumably this refers to the music’s international identity–no single place can lay…
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Tommy Smith/Brian Kellock: Whispering of the Stars
m: Tommy Smith is known best for his directorship of the m: Scottish National Jazz Orchestra . The group has emerged as one of the finest of big bands with offerings like the classic In the Spirit of Duke (Spartacus records, 2013), a tribute to m: Duke Ellington , Rhap…
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Andres Thor: Nordic Quartet
Even though it is a small country, Iceland has produced many interesting jazz musicians. Among them, pianists m: Sunna Gunnlaugs and Eythor Gunnarsson, saxophonist A’scar GudjA^3nsson and bassist SkA li Sverrisson.
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TomA s Doncker Band: Moanin’ at Midnight
Internationally renowned guitarist and vocalist TomA s Doncker has worked with such greats as m: Bootsy Collins and m: Ivan Neville . His newest release, Moanin’ at Midnight: The Howlin Wolf Project (True Groove, 2014), a tribute to blues legend Willie Dixon, otherwise known as…
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Alban Darche: La€(TM)OrphiCube: Perception InstantanA(C)e
French, Nantes-based composer and saxophonist m: Alban Darche continues to explore the possibilities of transforming variable geometrical ideas inspired by cubist painter Robert Delaunay (1885-1941) as compositional tools for an improvising ensemble. Darche began this work with his nine…
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Jim Manley: Chilled Brass
Some years back as part of an iconic advertising campaign, Absolut Vodka (via its ad agency, TBWA) developed a series of magazine and poster ads that also included one dear to musicians, especially trumpeters. A gorgeous black-background shot of a gleaming silver trumpet with Absolut “bottles” as it…
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Rallidae: Paper Birds
The British Trust For Ornithology helpfully explains that the Rallidae is a family of birds that includes such less-than-romantic species as the moorhen and the coot. Paper Birds is the debut release from a somewhat different Rallidae–a Brooklyn-based trio that combines improvisation with strong me…
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