Anyone familiar with my musical taste knows that the vibraphone is my favorite rhythm section instrument. Bobby Hutcherson and Milt Jackson were on constant rotation as a youth and I’ll never part with their records. Yet, after the years I sought out other players who approached the board in different ways. Lionel Hampton (tha Gawd),
A first run through Big Ceremony’s EP only really introduces the play in balance between the synthesizer and drums, and even between technology and humanity. The ten-piece record is filled with live recorded tracks all lasting under six minutes long. With the shortest piece at about 40 seconds, the phrases, rhythmic movements, and fluidity can
Bobby Bradford & Hafez Modirzadeh – Live at the Blue Whale (NoBusiness, 2018) Various – Mushroom Hour Half Hour Presents SPAZA (Mushroom Hour, 2019) Jason Stein, Greg Ward, Eric Revis, Jim Black – Nature Work (Sunnyside, 2019) Pneuma – Who Has Seen the Wind? (Songlines, 2019) Uivo – Zebra (Bocian Records, 2018)
The first time I learned about “new jazz” singer, Ms. Jeanne Lee, was in 2015. I was given the opportunity to research and write a piece for Bitch Media about African American Women composers. The piece was entitled, Black Women Composers to Discover (re-published in Bitch Media’s online outlet in March, 2018). The blurb from
Nick Sanders Trio – Playtime 2050 (Sunnyside Communications, 2019) Ben Stapp & Joe Morris featuring Stephen Haynes – Mind Creature Sound Dasein (Listen Foundation!, 2019) Michael Attias – Echoes la Nuit (Out of Your Head Records, 2019) Logan Strosahl’s Spec Ops – Sure (Sunnyside Communications, 2019)
Charles Rumback – Cadillac Turns (Astral Spirits, 2019) Harris Eisenstadt – Old Growth Forest II (Astral Spirits, 2019) Simon Nabatov, Barry Guy, Gerry Hemingway – Luminous (NoBusiness, 2018) Aron Namenwirth, Eric Plaks, Sean Conly, Jon Panikkar – Hurricane (Culture of Waste Records, 2018)
Composer and multi-instrumentalist Anna Webber has emerged as a major force since arriving in New York in 2008. She has released a series of innovative records including her trio, Simple (2014) and Binary (2016), both on Skirl Records, and most recently, her septet, Clockwise, just released in February. Her performances and recordings bristle with compositional ideas and sophisticated
The Variousound Sessions series at Pine Box Rock Shop featured an improvised set by saxophonist Ben Cohen, Korg electronicist Eli Wallace, guitarist Drew Wesely, and drummer Kevin Shea. This ensemble pitted three younger artists who have emerged on the Brooklyn scene over the past few years–Cohen, Wallace, and Wesely–pitted with the veteran Shea who has
Poet No Land has surged onto the scene over the past couple of years, performing in duos, trios, or solo, mesmerizing audiences with her precise diction and incisive commentary. Joanna Mattrey has been performing in New York the better part of a decade in a number of contexts, including solo sets, and has worked in
For the opening night of the Never Before Never Again Fest at Triskelion Arts on January 11, the regular duo of dancer Azumi Oe and bassist Sean Ali teamed up with percussionist Carlo Costa for a deep synthesis of sound and movement. Oe is an evocative movement artist who improvises her movements with incredible grace
