SENSATIONS (Navona) 7/10 Fighting to save one’s home from a bushfire may seem a long way from the contemplative activity of composing music, but the two are inextricably linked for Margaret Brandman, whose Firestorm Symphony is a programmatic depiction of her experiences at Glenbrook in the lower Blue Mountains. This…
Category: Album Reviews – Archive
SOME OTHER TIME (Resonance/Birdland) 9/10 Imagine finding a bottle of 1968 Grange under your house. This album is a greater coup. A ’68 Montreux Jazz Festival recording of pianist Bill Evans’ trio with bassist Eddie Gomez and new drummer Jack DeJohnette was always thought to be their only album together.…
SAMSARA (www.urbangypsies.org/) 7/10 What other band would even contemplate performing both Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir and Astor Piazzolla’s Libertango on the same album? Such juxtapositions could easily seem somewhat arch, but the Urban Gypsies Quartet makes it seem almost inevitable, so seamlessly does it blend genres, anyway. Elements of flamenco, jazz,…