SPIEL (Jazzhead) 8.5/10 It’s the endings that signal the singular rapport. Starting an improvisation is relatively straightforward: it merely requires an idea. But in the telepathic ability to end the pieces simultaneously (with no editing) you hear the long history of music-making shared by pianist Paul Grabowsky and drummer Niko…
Category: Album Reviews – Archive
THE MIGRATION (Habitat) 7.5/10 The horn lines stab at the unflinching grooves with a staccato suddenness carrying echoes of James Brown and Afro-beat. These set up the tension of an often unfulfilled expectation of solos, like being in a cafe with the left side of the stereo running into one…
Sonny Sharrock: ASK THE AGES (MOD/Planet), 10/10 Blue Buddha: BLUE BUDDHA (Tzadik) 9.5/10 Darius Jones Quartet: LE BEBE DE BRIGITTE (AUM/Fuse), 8/10 Veryan Weston/Trevor Watts: DIALOGUES FOR ORNETTE! (FMR) 8.5/10 It was the glass in the face that jazz had to have. The idiom could have rested on the laurels…