Dec 17, 2024 9:58 AM
Tabla Master Zakir Hussain, 73, Succumbs to Illness
Tabla master Ustad Zakir Hussain, one of India’s reigning cultural ambassadors and a revered figure worldwide…
Carla Bley (left), Steve Swallow and Andy Sheppard recorded Life Goes On for the ECM label.
(Photo: Caterina di Perri/ECM)Kurt Rosenwinkel Bandit 65, Searching The Continuum (Heartcore)
Because jazz remains a mostly acoustic music, the striking thing about guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel’s Bandit 65 is how overwhelmingly electronic it sounds. Rosenwinkel, fellow guitarist Tim Motzer and drummer Gintas Janusonis all are credited with “electronics.” The range of tones and textures are so deep and beguiling that it’s easy to get lost in the sheer lushness of the sound. Doing so, however, would be a bit like missing the forest for the trees, because the real genius of Searching The Continuum is that each of these tracks was spontaneously conceived of and recorded live.
Emilio Solla Tango Jazz Orchestra, Puertos: Music From International Waters (Avantango)
The high concept that drives Puertos: Music From International Waters has no right to work. Dedicating each song to a different port seems like a hokey idea lifted out of the era of stereo demonstration LPs. But what moves Puertos beyond a simple pastiche is that Emilio Solla has invested heavily in each of the pieces here. It’s the difference between seeing each city from the deck of a ship and exploring the back alleys of each place. The thread running through the various ports is how imperialist conquests, the slave trade and immigration mixed with native traditions to create distinctive yet linked music from Cadiz to Buenos Aires and New York.
Jonathan Barber & Vision Ahead, Legacy Holder (Vision Ahead Music)
Marc Copland, And I Love Her ([Illusions] Mirage)
Chick Corea, Plays (Stretch)
Frisell/Lage/Riley, John Zorn: Virtue (Tzadik)
Jimmy Heath, Love Letter (Verve)
Sigurd Hole, Lys/Mørke (Elvesang)
Laubrock/Davis, Blood Moon (Intakt)
Wynton Marsalis, The Ever Fonky Lowdown (Blue Engine)
Ron Miles, Rainbow Sign (Blue Note)
Hedvig Mollestad, Ekhidna (Rune Grammofon)
Nous, Nous II (Our Silent Canvas)
Aaron Parks, Little Big II: Dreams Of A Mechanical Man (Ropeadope)
Redman/Mehldau/McBride/Blade, Round Again (Nonesuch)
Eric Revis, Slipknots Through A Looking Glass (Pyroclastic)
Michele Rosewoman’s New Yor-Uba, Hallowed (Advance Dance Disques)
Felipe Salles Interconnections Ensemble, The New Immigrant Experience (Tapestry)
Sara Serpa, Recognition (Biophilia)
Walter Smith III & Matthew Stevens, In Common 2 (Whirlwind)
Kevin Sun, The Sustain Of Memory (Endectomorph)
“Watching people like Max Roach or Elvin Jones and seeing how they utilize the whole drum kit in a very rhythmic and melodic way and how they stretched time — that was a huge inspiration to me,” Hussain said in DownBeat.
Dec 17, 2024 9:58 AM
Tabla master Ustad Zakir Hussain, one of India’s reigning cultural ambassadors and a revered figure worldwide…
“I love doing ballads,” Mike Stern says. “It’s just a part of me, some part of emotionally how I feel sometimes.”
Dec 3, 2024 12:52 PM
Stories of major shifts and rebirths among musicians during the past five years are common, from weathering the…
Queen Latifah extols Harlem and the Apollo Theater at this year’s Kennedy Center Honors.
Dec 12, 2024 1:58 AM
Cuban-American jazz trumpet legend Arturo Sandoval and Harlem’s Apollo Theater were among the honorees at the 2024…
“With jazz I thought it must be OK to be Black, for the first time,” says singer Sofia Jernberg.
Jan 2, 2025 10:50 AM
On Musho (Intakt), her recent duo album with pianist Alexander Hawkins, singer Sofia Jernberg interprets traditional…
Robertson had a penetrating, pliant sound with a remarkable softness at its center.
Dec 11, 2024 10:34 AM
Herb Robertson, a trumpeter and flugelhornist known for his wide-lens explorations of the avant-garde, died Dec. 10. He…
