Blogcritics Category: Music: Jazz

Music Review: Avishai Cohen - Flood

Pico — Fri, 9 Jan 2009 01:39:23 EST

The second of Cohen's "The Big Rain" trilogy is an austere beauty of acoustic global fusion.
For the second time in a year, we're here looking at an Avishai Cohen album, but from two different musicians. Because, while both are jazz artists who hail from Israel, the one we examined earlier specializes in acoustic bass. The one we are looking at here is a trumpet player.Avishai Cohen --the trumpeter -- plays jazz like that bass guy, but his...

Best of 2008: Counting Crows, Oasis, Black Keys, Dave Carter, B.B. King, The Bittersweets, Mudcrutch, R.E.M., Coldplay, Gutter Twins, Glen Phillips

Josh Hathaway — Thu, 8 Jan 2009 18:39:57 EST

2008 was a great year for music.
It's become an annual rite of passage in the music business. Every year, the trade papers are filled with stories about how this year was worse than last year. If the music execs were hoping we'd get so tired of reading that story that we'd start to ignore it -- you know, 'the boy who cried wolf' routine -- it hasn't...

Music Review: Enclave - Enclave Diaspora

Big Geez — Thu, 8 Jan 2009 09:06:24 EST

Don't try to figure out the name -- just enjoy the music.
A few years back, multi-instrumentalist Hilary Noble brought his remarkable talents into a partnership with equally skilled pianist Rebecca Cline and formed Enclave, a group dedicated to their concept of an Afro-Latin/post-bop jazz fusion. The quartet's initial album, 2005's Enclave, found a receptive audience among jazz fans and critics...

Music Review: Erik Friedlander - Broken Arm Trio

Pico — Mon, 5 Jan 2009 23:24:45 EST

Friedlander shows us again why he's such a scary good whack jazz cellist.
"Erik Friedlander can do things with a cello that should have a reasonable listener fearing for her life."That quote came not from the Lester Bangs of whack jazz Mark Saleski, but from none other than Pitchforkmedia.com. There aren't that many cellists -- much less whack jazz cellists -- who get any kind of attention from a site more in tune with...

Music Review: FLO - Romance, Chill, and Standards

Kit O'Toole — Sun, 4 Jan 2009 17:36:38 EST

Smooth jazz pianist Marcus Johnson's FLO project provides pleasant music for setting a quiet mood.
Some albums are meant to be listened to, to be savored and digested through careful analysis. Then there is the background music CD, which contains sounds meant to compliment a quiet evening at home or to set a calm, romantic mood. Jazz pianist Marcus Johnson’s side project FLO, or For the Love Of, creates such accompaniment with their...

Music Review: Michael Higgins - The Moon And The Lady Dancing

Big Geez — Fri, 2 Jan 2009 14:57:57 EST

Start off your new year with some solid, traditional jazz.
My first review of the new year is - ironically enough - an album that seems to have a couple of different issue dates. Jazz guitarist Michael Higgins' effort, The Moon And The Lady Dancing, appears to have been available in some spots last Summer, but the album's official street date is January 1st, 2009. But we're here to talk about...

Presented By:

Fri, 2 Jan 2009 14:57:57 EST

Music Review: Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra - Where or When

Jordan Richardson — Fri, 2 Jan 2009 14:43:05 EST

Enticing, rewarding, and flat-out cool.
Music is, in large part, about the joining of various components of sound to form something along the lines of sonic bliss. Sometimes a seemingly perfect set of components is made even richer with the addition of another, while other times the addition spoils the soup. In the case of the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra’s Where or When, adding...

Music Review: Beth Rowley - Little Dreamer

Jeff Perkins — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 03:51:12 EST

The album is beautifully lo-fi, radiating a warm glow of late night atmosphere amid some softly seductive vintage performances.
As soon as a promising white, blues-tinged, female soul singer arrives on the scene, it tends to ignite the inevitable comparisons to the likes of the legendary Dusty Springfield, amongst others. That, of course, is a huge legacy for any aspiring young singer to carry around. One of those who, along with Dusty -- and Amy Winehouse, for example --...

Music Review: Arild Andersen - Live At Belleville

Pico — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 02:52:44 EST

A masterful, wide-ranging live performance of a trio headed by one of Europe's top stand-up bass players.
Arild Andersen may not be the first name that comes up when one thinks of the greatest living acoustic bassists, but he's at least earned the right to be considered somewhere on that list. A player of expansive range, lyricism and velocity, Andersen's list of credits as a sideman reads longer than Charles Manson's rap sheet. He's gigged with...

Retro Redux: Ringing In The New Year With Auld Music

Big Geez — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 02:41:29 EST

With this information, you can be the envy of other party-goers...or maybe not.
I have to confess that I haven't been to a New Year's Eve party for a long time, but I would be willing to bet that at least a few party-goers will still follow the tradition of singing "Auld Lang Syne" when midnight arrives. I would also guess that most of them will have no idea of the origin of the song, and by that point of the...