16 Mar
Prospice by Wings of Fire Orchestra
Monday, 16 March 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
When the first notes of Prospice hit, you know these guys have something to say, and they’re gonna sing it loud and proud. The Wings of Fire Orchestra’s second release, …
Finnish-born pianist/composer Mika Pohjola has been touted as one of the most significant Scandinavian musicians of his generation. The Helsinki native, who has resided …
This Naples, Italy based septet derives its group moniker from a popular Slavic brandy, that perhaps corresponds to its exquisite fusion of jazz-rock, prog-rock, Middle …
14 Mar
Skin and Wire by Pianocircus Featuring Bill Bruford Play The Music
Saturday, 14 March 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
Colin Riley was the Associate Composer for the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in the mid 1990’s and is a driving force in Britain’s contemporary classical impetus, but i…
With his Bad Touch band, saxophonist Loren Stillman purveys polytonal attributes, and largely dappled with textural mechanisms, for what equates to a cohesive and…
11 Mar
Lost On The Way by Louis Sclavis
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
Woodwind ace and exploratory composer Louis Sclavis sports a superior musical identity. The Frenchman has gotten his hands into a little of everything over the years, wh…
This vibrant Seattle-based quintet abides by a rather distinctive group-centric sound that draws upon the musicians’ influences, spanning electronics, jazz, jazz-fusion,…
This all-world jazz quartet led by British sax great John Surman, rings like a new meeting with old friends. Surman, guitarist John Abercrombie and drummer Jack DeJohnette …
07 Mar
Spectrum by David Crowell Ensemble
Saturday, 07 March 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
A member of Philip Glass' ensemble since 2007, some of Crowell's pieces on Spectrum have a decidedly minimalist bent. It's a little funny, because the disc opener, "…
06 Mar
Return To Whatever by Taylor's Universe
Friday, 06 March 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
To those of us who grew up in the 1970s, the phrase 'instrumental progressive rock' conjures images of musical excess typified by thunderous drum fills, soaring Baroque key…
04 Mar
Live At Smoke by David Berkman Quartet
Wednesday, 04 March 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
Recorded on August 11 and 12, 2006 at the Smoke Jazz and Supper Club in New York City, Live At Smoke from Challenge Records shows the David Berkman Quartet to be …
03 Mar
Live In New York by Michael Bates' Outside Sources
Tuesday, 03 March 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
Bassist/composer Michael Bates is a young man with a significant voice. On his fourth date as a leader we find the high-impact quartet, captured live at New York City’s …
Tenor sax ace Sean Nowell’s second date as a leader provides some insight into his broad musical vernacular, since the Birmingham, AL., native has composed film scores a…
28 Feb
Mostly Coltrane by Steve Kuhn
Saturday, 28 February 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
In the realm of speculation of might-have-beens there is Steve Kuhn’s eight-week collaboration in 1960 with John Coltrane, along with bassist Steve Davis and drummer Pete L…
Captain Beefheart’s (Don Van Vliet) multi-octave vocal range and bizarre lyrics about nature, for example, often paralleled his teenage bud, Frank Zappa’s off-the-wall r…
21 Feb
Thinking Out Loud by Trey Wright Trio
Saturday, 21 February 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
Thinking Out Loud by Atlanta, GA based Trey Wright Trio, raises the bar for energized, collaborative and highly listenable guitar, bass and drum trio music. Pay…
20 Feb
Ways & Means by James Carney Group
Friday, 20 February 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
No doubt, James Carney is a promising young keyboardist and composer. The New York City resident’s fifth outing is a commissioned piece and according to the artist, "was…
This, the fifth album by the Indonesian progressive jazz group Simakdialog, continues their tradition of writing thickly scored music accentuated heavily by percussion f…
Rented Mule is the musical union of Philadelphia natives Don "D.A." Jones and Dan Greenberg. Drummer percussionist Jones has performed with Sun Ra, Sonny Stitt, Pharoah …
19 Feb
Subway Moon by Roy Nathanson
Thursday, 19 February 2009
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Roy Nathanson has had a varied and richly diverse career in and out of music. The multi-reedist co-created the Jazz Passengers, a group with releases on 32 Jazz and Wind…
The core trio augments it’s mode of delivery with prominent New England artists, guitarist Mick Goodrick and tenor saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi. And what a shrewdly balanc…
13 Feb
In This Day by E.J. Strickland
Friday, 13 February 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
It’s not your prototypical drummer-led solo outing. As a venerable jazz-based session ace, E.J. Strickland has graced recordings by saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and twin broth…
In the world of introspective, feeling, and sensitive pianists you cannot find two stronger jazz pianists than Brad Mehldau and Jurgen Friedrich. Each of them has crafte…
07 Feb
The Winterfold Collection 1978 - 1986 by Bill Bruford
Saturday, 07 February 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
Drummer-percussionist Bill Bruford’s powerful percussive rhythms drove some of the best progressive rock bands during that genre’s heydays in the 1970s. He was the authorit…
03 Feb
Live In Schaffhausen by Reto Suhner
Tuesday, 03 February 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
Thirty-three year-old Switzerland native and saxophonist Reto Suhner has spent time as a student of New York-based jazz artists like Dick Oatts, Billy Drewes and Rich Pe…
31 Jan
Squeeze Me Ahead Of Line by The Season Standard
Saturday, 31 January 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
Markus Renter from the band TUNER amid other progressive-rock endeavors produced this debut effort by a young German band that purveys charisma and strong musicianship d…
30 Jan
The Edge Of The Forest by Darren Johnston
Friday, 30 January 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
While earning his Master’s degree at Mills College in Oakland, CA., trumpeter Darren Johnston studied under guitarist, improvising great Fred Frith and bassist extraordi…
The jazz sax/bass/drums format yields bountiful residuals with this prismatic 2009 release. Featuring musicians that reside among the crème de la crème of progressive ja…
With his fifth album as a leader, Australian composer/keyboardist Barney McAll continues his extraordinary fusing of the jazz vernacular into a unique voice. In 1997, he…
24 Jan
Live At Schloss Elmau by Joachim Kühn and Michael Wollny
Saturday, 24 January 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
Pianists Joachim Kühn and Michael Wollny make for a stirring combination on their latest venture, Live At Schloss Elmau. Recorded live on September 10, 2008 at Sc…
23 Jan
L’Axe du Fou: Axis of Madness by Forgas Band Phenomena
Friday, 23 January 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
Composer and multi-instrumentalist, Patrick Forgas has been making music for the last four decades, and now in the heart of his fifth one, he still has not run out of id…
19 Jan
Shape Shifter - Live At Cecil’s Jazz Club by Scott Reeves Quintet
Monday, 19 January 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
Scott Reeves Quintet’s new release, Shape Shifter was recorded live over the band’s two-night stint from March 14th to March 15th, 2008 at Cecil’s Jazz Club in We…
19 Jan
There Will Be A Day by Daniel Sadownick
Monday, 19 January 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
With his debut solo outing as a leader, percussionist and first-call session artiste Daniel Sadownick fuses the progressive jazz element with Afro-Cuban cadences, marked…
18 Jan
Hotwired by Gary Husband's Drive
Sunday, 18 January 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
Drummer/keyboardist Gary Husband is a familiar name to jazz-rock and jazz-fusion aficionados, given his work with guitar gods, Allan Holdsworth and John McLaughlin among…
Gypsy Schaeffer is the moniker used by the jazz quartet fronted by trombone player Joel Yennior. The group’s latest release New Album is a wild jam session that t…
16 Jan
Stickadiboom by The Steve Haines Quintet with Jimmy Cobb
Friday, 16 January 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
Stickadiboom is the second CD and Zoho debut from jazz bassist/composer Steve Haines and his quintet, who are best known for their classic New York-style hard-bop. T…
Nels Cline is certainly one of the more versatile guitar heroes on the planet. He performs with the rock band Wilco while recording his genre-busting jazz-rock unit, …
Good things are emanating from upstate New York as the region's prominent saxophonist/composer Brian Patneaude delivers the goods in rather resplendent, and unhurried fa…
Prologue is the debut recording for New York-based vibraphonist/composer Michael Pinto. For the session, Pinto, a member of saxophonist Greg Osby's working group, …
08 Jan
For All I Care by The Bad Plus joined by Wendy Lewis
Thursday, 08 January 2009
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Progressive - CD Reviews
This perennially hip progressive jazz crew garners the services of Alt-rock diva Wendy Lewis for a gala that is about as genre busting as one could imagine. Yet the key …
31 Dec
Stoa/Holon by Nik Bärtsch's Ronin
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
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Progressive - CD Reviews
Swiss composer/keyboardist Nik Bartsch’s resounding inventiveness and stylistic jazz vernacular presents a stature that rings something like a gladiator garbed in silk a…
01 Jul
Energy Fields by Ralph Lalama Quartet
Tuesday, 01 July 2008
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Progressive - CD Reviews
Better late than never: Ralph Lalama has given us an altogether challenging and entertaining CD. His latest, Energy Fields, seems to use the least instrumentation…
British drummer Bill Bruford and Dutch keyboard master Michiel Borstlap are two of the leading lights in progressive improvised music. Since their ...
"The album is marked by sophisticated arrangements, gorgeous acoustic and electric string textures... and sensitive trap-set work... The tunes are ...
25 Jun
The Tree Of Life by Todd Herbert
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
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Progressive - CD Reviews
After paying his dues, but absorbing all that he can from invaluable experiences, with Charles Earland, Freddie Hubbard, Jimmy Cobb and other jazz leaders after moving to N…
23 Jun
Ninth + Lincoln by Ninth + Lincoln Orchestra
Monday, 23 June 2008
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Progressive - CD Reviews
From The Mile High City and within it is Ninth + Lincoln, both a progressive jazz orchestra and a street intersection, both bustling with energy from the city’s street life…
19 Jun
Soundwall by Taylor's Universe with Michael Denner
Thursday, 19 June 2008
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Progressive - CD Reviews
Progressive rock has had somewhat of a resurgence over the past decade due in no small part to innovative, genre-busting artists such as the Danish multi-instrumentalist…
Drummer Fred Taylor, a longtime veteran of the Seattle-area music scene, has been recording as a leader and sideman for more than thirty years. Currently residing in New Je…
15 Jun
Modes Of Limited Transcendence by Gene Ess
Sunday, 15 June 2008
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Progressive - CD Reviews
Japanese reared and New York City-based guitarist Gene Ess was a child prodigy and performed at clubs around Okinawa commencing at the tender age of fourteen. Fast-forwa…
03 Jun
1st Album + Live at CBGB 1980 by Curlew
Tuesday, 03 June 2008
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Progressive - CD Reviews
With previously unreleased live tracks culled from 1980 performances at the legendary New York City venue "CBGB's, and the band's first album complete with bonus cuts, we n…