Live in Latin America Vol. 1 (FMR) This project was perfectly titled, given that the weave of percussion instruments provides a backdrop in constant flux both texturally and rhythmically, as if affected by the play of light or the direction of the wind. It is a mouth-watering fabric of sound…
Category: Album Reviews – Archive
Forever (Decca) It could almost be a flaw from a classical tragedy. A gifted singer, swollen with acclaim and popularity, suddenly believes he or she can write songs. It’s rife among jazz singers who, vexed by trying to make standards live anew, trot out trite ditties of their own,…
Afro Blue Impressions (Concord) If Louis Armstrong was jazz’s great innovator (and its heart) and Duke Ellington its key composer, John Coltrane remains its supreme improviser. In extending the saxophone’s potential he also stretched the music’s very fabric. Never had such boiling energy been unleashed; never had exultancy and anguish…