CONFRONTATIONS (https://joeoconnor2.bandcamp.com) 7.5/10 If this music contained any more tension it would snap. Each note seems to be stretched dangerously taut, and the instruments do no so much cohere as collide. Melbourne pianist/composer Joe O’Connor invited the incendiary trumpeter Scott Tinkler to join his trio (with bassist Marty Holoubek and…
Category: Album Reviews
LA FENICE (ECM) 9/10 “Not another Keith Jarrett solo piano album,” I hear you say. In a sense there’s no such thing as a Jarrett solo piano album, anyway: they are all conversations between the improviser, the piano, the room’s acoustics and the audience’s listening intensity. For many years he…
MUDANG ROCK (Fractal/Birdland) 9/10 Let no early notes foster expectations, because they’re sure to be dashed by music that keeps shifting shape and slithering out of reach. Initiated by guitarist Henry Kaiser, the project uses traditional Korean music to underpin seven improvisations. Kaiser assembled Sydney’s Simon Barker (the ultimate western…