EventsPortico Quartet
I’ve come across a band that has me questioning the already loose definition of jazz I thought I knew.
Kairos 4tet
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I love it when great music finds me. It wasn’t long ago that I published an interview with Jasper Høiby regarding his band Phronesis. It turns out Høiby plays bass in another band that goes by Kairos 4tet (not to be confused with the California based Kairos Quartet). Kairos 4tet is led by a saxophonist, Adam Waldmann, which is a bit of a divergence from most of my modern jazz collection. I’ve been in a bit of a rut of finding only jazz trios consisting of keys, bass, and drums. This, along with the connection to Høiby, was enough to entice me.
Give | The Bad Plus
Give features some key differences with their previously reviewed albums… and it’s also my favorite TBP album I’ve heard thus far.
Green Delay | Phronesis
There is this unfortunate, and almost regular, occurrence of finding a great band that has already parted ways. Phronesis fell into this category briefly. Lucky for us all, Jasper Høiby managed to find Anton Eger on drums and Ivo Neame on the keys. The newest album from Phronesis, Green Delay (2009), is due to be released May 13th… so mark you calendars!
Phronesis
I first heard Jasper on his album Organic Warfare (2007) released under his own trio, Phronesis. I was hooked immediately and promptly published a review. Jasper is releasing his trio’s second album this May entitled Green Delay (2009). We’ll have a review of Green Delay shortly before it’s official release, but in the mean time we have an exclusive clip from the upcoming album not found anywhere else and an interview with Jasper Høiby! Enjoy!
Tuesday Wonderland | Esbjörn Svensson Trio
The Esbjörn Svensson Trio has the same core arrangement of a piano, upright bass, and drum kit as most modern jazz trios, but they’ve given it a little twist using synthesisers/effects from time to time. For the first time, I’ve come across a band that’s added a hint of rock to modern jazz rather than the other way around.
Jazz man is first African-American to solo on U.S. circulating coin
CNN: The United States Mint launched a new coin Tuesday featuring jazz legend Duke Ellington, making him the first African-American to appear by himself on a circulating U.S. coin.
B-Side Players
Let’s come right out and say it: that whole fad for sloppily mashing together several musical genres—heavy-metal-meets-hip-hop-cum-jazz funk, aboriginal-throat-gurgling-with-a-dash-of-sweet-swiss-mountain-yodeling indie pop, or, in sum, Limp Bizkit—looked a lot better (with all its hyphens) than it ever sounded. Assuming you can attract more listeners by repackaging every thinkable genre into some audio-Frankenstein is just as effective as McCain was in trying to gain votes by adding a nubile hillbilly to his Presidential ticket. Which is to say, not very.
Review of In My Element
The editors at Uptown Sound wrote a great review of Robert Glasper’s sophomore album, In My Element (2007).
Mos Def | Blue Note NYC
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
The opportunity to see Mos Def in a setting of only 300-400 people within a small seating-based jazz lounge is rare. The last time I heard about a performance like this was back in 2005, and Mos Def ended up canceling last minute. This time, Mos Def did not [...]
