Jeff Hamilton knows that the secret to a good jazz trio is balance. With The Jeff Hamilton Trio, that balance swings delicately and smoothly through each musical passage, allowing Hamilton’s drums, Tamir Hendelman’s piano and Christoph Luty’s bass to flow easily and freely. On Symbiosis, the band’s debut for Capri Records, the trio delivers a lasting performance that… [Read more…]
October 22, 2009
In my quest to expand my musical mind to the breaking point, I head to some interesting places. The latest excursion led me, almost accidentally, to the Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar and their brand of exciting, rapid Balkan brass music. Boban Markovic is somewhat of a legend in the world of Balkan brass, often recognized… [Read more…]
October 18, 2009
I first encountered Mark Buselli listening to the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra’s Where or When at the start of this year. I was taken by the crispness and fullness of their sound, so when a copy of Buselli’s An Old Soul came across my crowded desk I was excited to hear what the trumpeter and arranger was up to this… [Read more…]
October 16, 2009
There’s a dusty, well-worn quality to the music found on Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle’s Let’s Just Stay Here. Infused with a sort of honky-tonk simplicity that isn’t quite alt-rock and isn’t quite country, the record rolls through 12 songs of truck-stop-ready music that calls to mind visions of lonely, weathered men and fading, weary women staring longingly… [Read more…]
October 16, 2009
A large ensemble is great for that commanding big band/swing-era vibe that crashes into focus like a blast of hot, beautiful air. A large ensemble is also great for moving lots of furniture, I’m told, but one thing they usually don’t pull off very well by virtue of sheer size is the more delicate angle… [Read more…]
October 7, 2009
The first thing you notice when listening to Eyal Maoz play guitar is just how flat-out fearless he is. Consistent, attentive, astonishing and insane, Maoz is a fundamental constituent in New York’s fusion of jazz, avant-garde, Jewish and rock music. With his band, Edom, Maoz gets to play with all sorts of melodic variances. Using his… [Read more…]
October 1, 2009
Broken Harbour, the recording pseudonym of Canada’s Blake Gibson, explores the stillness of seclusion with his debut self-titled record. An exercise in silence and distance as much as it is in drone and noise, Broken Harbour is a creation that forms and dissipates like a cluster of gas in the outer reaches of the universe. Like… [Read more…]
October 30, 2009
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