Painting pictures small yet profound: Marilyn Crispell and solo piano improvisation
June 13th, 2008
Interview by Tom Chandler
When Marilyn Crispell started recording for ECM in 1997, she moved somewhat into the mainstream, releasing a string of trio CDs (with either Gary Peacock or Mark Helias on bass, and Paul Motian on drums) that are uniformly brilliant, emphasizing space and deep listening and interplay. Her newest CD, however, bucks that trend slightly, because it’s completely solo. The dark spaciousness is still there however, both in her piano tone and in her musical conception. Read more…
Bill Frisell - History/Mystery
May 23rd, 2008I’m going to go 
out on a limb here and proclaim this the best thing Frisell has done in quite some time. Not that I’m not enthusiastic about his other things (although Floratone left me kind of cold), and I really enjoyed East/West tremendously. But the expanded ensemble he employs here (Jenny Scheinman on violin, Evyind Kang on viola, Hank Roberts on cello, Ron Miles on cornet, Greg Tardy on clarinet and saxophone, Tony Scherr on bass and Kenny Wolleson on drums in addition to the leader’s guitar) really brings out something special in ol’ Bill. Read more…
Bill Gottlieb: Riffs
March 23rd, 2008
There are some images in jazz that are burned indelibly into our cerebral cortex. A rapturous Billie Holiday, head thrown back, lost in song; Thelonious Monk smiling beatifically at the piano with his hands framing a chord of undetermined nature; Django Reinhardt with his guitar – a cigarette in his lips that bear a faint smile as he gazes down at his gnarled fingers gripping the frets; a young Frank Sinatra, hand on hip, tie untied - standing in front of a huge microphone and glaring up and to his right during a recording session. Read more…
Budos Band: Budos Band II
August 15th, 2007
This 11-member group of Staten Island Jazz musicians originally called themselves Los Barbudos, meaning “the bearded ones”, but shaved the name down after one of the members trimmed his beard. Also in the spirit of keeping things short, all of the solos on Budos Band II are concise and interwoven into the songs’ other parts. They dig into grooves just as deep as their Afrobeat influences but without all the 20 minute long track lengths. Nobody steps on anybody else’s toes, Read more…