Jazz in Elsewhere
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Jacques Loussier: Plays Bach, Encore! (Telarc) BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2007
20 Nov 2007 | <1 min read
Those of us with long memories and greying temples will remember a time when New Zealand television had cultural programmes in prime time, albeit in black'n'white. One of the mainstays of those days was pianist Jacques Loussier whose trio jazzed up Bach, and looked very cool doing it. Loussier made a bit of a career out of jazzing the classics, but unlike some he seemed to have an intuitive... > Read more
Jacques Loussier Trio: Concerto in F Minor, Allegro
Enrico Rava/Stefano Bollani: The Third Man (ECM/Ode)
12 Nov 2007 | <1 min read
It often surprises me what record companies prioritise. My understanding is that the German label ECM is putting a push behind the new album by percussionist Manu Katche, Playground, which is a fine, but somewhat straight-ahead jazz album and not especially adventurous for the most part. Real interest there lies with pianist Marcin Wasilewski who has played with the Thomas Stanko group, and... > Read more
Enrico Rava/Stefano Bollani: In Search of Titina
Herbie Hancock: River, The Joni Letters (Verve)
24 Oct 2007 | 1 min read | 1
Jazzman Hancock has long been a supporter of Mitchell so this tribute to her music -- with another longtime Joni sideman Wayne Shorter on saxes -- comes as no surprise. And Mitchell's music has long moved into that melodically flexible area jazz musicians inhabit. What does surprise however is Mitchell's guest vocal on Tea Leaf Prophecy where she sounds darker and more husky than on her... > Read more
Herbie Hancock: The Jungle Line (featuring Leonard Cohen)
Lewis McCallum: Wake (RM)
1 Sep 2007 | 1 min read
Young Auckland saxophonist McCallum -- son of singer Malcolm -- adopts exactly the approach he should for someone his age: he comes out of the post hip-hop/clubland culture and so is entirely at home with programmed beats, soul-funk clubland styles, and has been working with those who share a similar sensibility. (He was in Relaxomatic Project, has toured with Opensouls and Mark de... > Read more
Lewis McCallum: It's You
BLUE NOTE'S BRUCE LUNDVALL INTERVIEWED (2005). Riding high on a Blue Note
20 Aug 2007 | 7 min read
The most powerful man in jazz sits in his office six floors above Fifth Avenue, New York. He's smiling. Business is good. Bruce Lundvall -- who began his career at Columbia Records with a hip young Miles Davis -- has been heading the famous Blue Note jazz label for 20 years. And recently business just got better. Why? In a word, “Norah". Founded by Alfred Lion and Frank... > Read more
Ornette Coleman: Sound Grammar (Sound Grammar)
28 Jul 2007 | <1 min read
The "Buy This Album" link here is to amazon.com because my guess is there are about four copies of this album in stores across New Zealand. That's a pity -- and disappointing given it won Ornette Coleman a jazz Grammy earlier this year, and at the same time the 76-year old picked up a Lifetime Achievement honour. Coleman -- only the second jazz musician to be awarded a... > Read more
Ornette Coleman: Matador
Dino Saluzzi/Anja Lechner: Ojos Negros (ECM/Ode)
1 Jul 2007 | <1 min read
Argentinean bandoneon player Saluzzi (along with Astor Piazzolla) is widely and correctly credited with bringing this instrument to universal attention through his early work with jazz musicians such as Gato Barbieri. Given his intense and often dramatic style, he also found a natural home on the ECM jazz label where he worked with the likes of Enrico Rava, Charlie Haden, Tomasz Stanko, and... > Read more
Dino Saluzzi/Anja Lechner: Ojos Negros
John Surman: The Spaces in Between (ECM/Ode)
24 Jun 2007 | <1 min read
British saxophonist Surman's career has been a pleasure to follow: right from early ECM albums such as Upon Reflection ('79), The Amazing Adventures of Simon Simon ('81) and, especially, Private City in '87 (on all of which he played synthesizers as well as bass clarinet in addition to various saxes). Over the decades he has also worked with guitarist Terje Rypdal, in a jazz quartet... > Read more
John Surman: Mimosa
Motian/Frisell/Lovano: Time and Time Again (ECM/Ode)
24 Jun 2007 | <1 min read
These musicians -- drummer Paul Motian, guitarist Bill Frisell and saxophonist Joe Lovano -- are of the generation which has, by the attrition of age of those who preceeded them, are becoming the senior statesmen of jazz. Yes, figures such as Ornette Coleman and Joe Henderson are still around, but their output is so minimal as to be of little impact today. However these guys -- Motian... > Read more
Tord Gustavsen Trio; Being There (ECM) BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2007
2 May 2007 | <1 min read
This is Norwegian pianist Gustavsen's third album on the prestigious ECM label and his self-described style of "loving every note" is the hallmark of these often beautifully spare tracks where there is sometimes a hymnal quality, sometimes an intensity of focus that recalls Bill Evans, and at others times an almost ambient Eno-like quality in the melodic miniatures. But that isn't... > Read more
Tord Gustavsen Trio: Still There
Dee Dee Bridgewater: Red Earth, A Malian Journey (Universal)
29 Apr 2007 | 1 min read
Just last week I was saying to a friend that Mali was starting to feel like the new Jamaica. Consider the number of artists whose names are becoming familiar: the late Ali Farka Toure and now his gifted son Vieux Farka Toure; Toumani Diabate, Salif Keita, Oumou Sangare . . . And now there is the wave of sub-Sahara blues bands like Etran Finatawa and Tinariwen (both heavily featured in... > Read more
Dee Dee Bridgewater: Bad Spirits/Bani
Carolina Moon: East of the Sun (Global Routes)
8 Apr 2007 | <1 min read
Even more New Zealand jazz. And different again. Moon began her career in London more than a decade ago, moved to Australia (where as Caroline Lynn she won considerable media praise) and then came to New Zealand. She is now married to saxophonist Roger Manins who appears here, along with pianist Kevin Field, guitarist-for-all-seasons Nigel Gavin, drummer Chris O'Connor, Oliver Holland on... > Read more
Carolina Moon: East of the Sun
Buzz Bahdur: Horizontal Life (Rhythmethod)
25 Mar 2007 | <1 min read | 1
Don't let the cheap cover put you off: this is a genuine slice of 70's-based jazz-fusion (with an overlay of contemporary world music and effects) by guitarist/composer Roy Venkataraman -- here as Buzz Bahdur -- whose CV boasts playing in Bob Marley's Wailers, on numerous television ads, appearing on Brooke Fraser's album What To Do With Daylight and so much more. He seems to be based in... > Read more
Buzz Bahdur: New World Bliss
Aronas: Culture Tunnels (Southbound)
14 Mar 2007 | <1 min read
This is an interesting one: originally released under the same title but in a different cover two years ago from the band lead by gifted young New Zealand pianist Aron Ottignon, it has now undergone a considerable reworking. If you were one of the few who picked up on the early -- and lesser -- version you could actually get into this one as if it were a new album: there are two muscular... > Read more
Aronas: The Splits
Kevin Clark: Zahara (KCM)
15 Feb 2007 | <1 min read
Wellington pianist/composer/arranger Clark won best jazz album of the year in 2003 with Once Upon Song I Flew, and again two years later with The Sandbar Sessions. Clark is something of a rarity in New Zealand jazz, he has an internationalism about his music and thinnks nothing of incoprorating what we might call "global elements" into his originals which move from blues to... > Read more
Kevin Clark: River Weep For Me
NPME: Mareureu (Pacific Echoes)
15 Feb 2007 | <1 min read
There is a growing genre of Pacific-influenced jazz: the Mamaku Project (see tag) has elements of it, and this album by the New Pacific Music Ensemble is another. With saxophones and electric guitar alongside ukelele and log drums this has all the expansiveness of a jazz group but also the warm exoticism of island life. Very hard to tear this one out of the stereo on a summery... > Read more
NPME: Arivera
Brian Smith: Taupo (Manu/Ode)
14 Feb 2007 | <1 min read
Most New Zealand jazz is like the Kiwi: endangered, pokes around in the dark away from public gaze and doesn't take flight. This year however is shaping up to be a good one: albums by Wellingtonians Kevin Clark and Charmaine Ford are both worth serious attention, and now a long overdue new album from Auckland saxophonist Brian Smith. Smith recorded one of my favourite local jazz... > Read more
Brian Smith: Kids At Play
Rahsaan Roland Kirk: Brotherman in the Fatherland (Hyena/Southbound
21 Jan 2007 | <1 min read
Kirk, who died almost 30 years ago, was one of those musicians who divided jazz critics: some thought he was a showman-cum-charlatan (he could play three saxophones simultaneously) and others thought he was something close to a genius. I head cautiously more toward the latter, although he did often seem to be pulling tricks of a bag to impress rather than to enlighten. Certainly... > Read more
Rahsaan Roland Kirk: I Want To Make It With You
Gianmarco Liguori: Stolen Paintings (Sarang Bang)
15 Oct 2006 | <1 min read
Some weeks ago I mentioned having seen the group Dukes of Leisure play at the Auckland Observatory Skydome. On the same bill was Salon Kingsadore, also enjoying an appropriately spacey venue for music that took off on instrumental astral flights. Liguori is the guitarist with Salon Kingsadore but here leans more towards jazz than setting his controls for the heart of the sun. He called on... > Read more
The Neil Cowley Trio: Displaced (HideInside/Southbound)
27 Aug 2006 | <1 min read
Frankly, British jazz usually doesn't ring my bell. There have been a few artists (Courtney Pine, Andy Sheppard, Jazz Warriors etc) in the past couple of decades who have made an impact, but most have seemed lacking in depth and gravitas, especially when lined alongside some of the hot talent the States is inevitably throwing up. However pianist Cowley -- here with bassist Richard Sadler... > Read more