Progressive - CD Reviews (378)
For the last ten years or so, guitarist Samo Salamon has been making a name for himself throughout the European jazz market as an inventive improviser, composer and leader of diverse small group ensembles, often featuring American notables such as saxophonists Mark Turner and David Binney. A tireless self-promoter, the…
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Pianist and composer Adam Bodine, who originally hails from the Chicagoland area, now lives in Colorado. Classically trained, Bodine formed his current trio in 2008 to showcase his developing book of original compositions. Blue Mud is Bodine’s second self-released recording. Here Bodine is joined by Kalin Capra on bass, and…
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Since the 1990s, guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel has been consistently turning heads with a series of releases showcasing his unique playing and compositional voice. Aside from his success as a leader, the Philadelphia native has racked up sideman credits with the likes of Brian Blade, Joshua Redman and Danilo Perez. Since…
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New York-based pianist Alon Nechushtan has worked as a sideman with the likes of Frank London and Baya Kouyate and is the founder of the quintet TALAT, a critically acclaimed jazz-meets-klezmer ensemble. Nechushtan makes a bold statement with Words Beyond, his first release as leader of a progressive trio featuring…
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Cornetist Eric Boeren leads his Dutch quartet with a crisp, compact and expressive sound through a program that toggles between inventive bop, free-bop and avant expressionism on this live date recorded in 2004. With legendary German drummer Paul Lovens garnering the most out of his sparse kit and generating a…
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Well-traveled bassist Michael Formanek and his band-mates, here on The Rub and Spare Change, are accelerators of the new jazz with roots in New York City amid collaborations in the US and abroad for over three decades. An interesting composer and consummate idea man, Formanek highlights his cunning compositional prowess…
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With his second solo release for Norway’s SOFA record label, percussionist Ingar Zach spawns a strange, yet accessible panorama on this mind-bending studio session recorded in Spain. To augment drums, bells and cymbals, Zach employs a gran cassa, which is a horizontal bass drum, housing a resonating membrane that spawns…
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In the early 1970’s, Emerson, Lake & Palmer helped accelerate the burgeoning progressive-rock movement with dazzling technical acumen and a distinct convergence of classical, jazz and fundamental rock basics. They sold millions of LPs, although their elaborate and showy stage antics, at times diminished the band’s relevance. Ultimately, the world…
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There’s more than meets the eyes and ears on this 2010 release by gifted trumpeter Peter Evans and his superfine band. In the liners, Evans states his plight which may be akin to rummaging through a salvage yard and retrofitting parts from classic cars into high--performance racers. It’s a stylistic…
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Among the wealth of archival material released during present times, this combo CD+DVD product looms as a rather scintillating entry into the band’s storied discography. The live session denotes never before released material, culled from Germany’s "NDR Jazz Workshop,” recorded in 1973. And as the press release cites, the album…
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One of the preeminent soprano saxophonists in modern jazz, Jane Ira Bloom possesses more than just technique. Few jazz artists are able to project a distinct or personalized sound. For example, most ardent jazz aficionados would be able to identify her in a Downbeat magazine style blindfold test. Once again,…
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Adventurous expressionism is a key factor within semi-structured or avant jazz-based endeavors. With their second quartet outing for Intakt Records, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and violinist Mark Feldman cover a gamut of articulately designed modes of interaction. Introspective, sublime and occasionally foreboding, the quartet engineers a potpourri of delicacies, all executed…
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The album title may not intimate that there are quite a few intricacies going on under-the-hood. Essentially, venerable jazz guitarist Bruce Arnold reformulates and reengineers customary time signatures with manipulations of standard blues forms. However, from a sky-view, it's an album that is nestled within progressive-jazz stylizations. But Arnold's numerous…
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It's a bold endeavor to believe you can invoke freshness and vitality into thinly worn standards like "Body and Soul," "All the Things You Are" and "My Funny Valentine." Trumpeter Cuong Vu meets the challenge head-on with imaginative results on Leaps of Faith, a quartet outing with wide-open improvisatory exploration,…
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Well-traveled bassist Michael Formanek and his band-mates, here on The Rub and Spare Change, are accelerators of the new jazz with roots in New York City amid col…
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In the early 1970’s, Emerson, Lake & Palmer helped accelerate the burgeoning progressive-rock movement with dazzling technical acumen and a distinct convergence of classica…
Read more...
There’s more than meets the eyes and ears on this 2010 release by gifted trumpeter Peter Evans and his superfine band. In the liners, Evans states his plight which may b…
Read more...
Among the wealth of archival material released during present times, this combo CD+DVD product looms as a rather scintillating entry into the band’s storied discography.…
Read more...
Deluxe marks bassist Chris Lightcap’s third album as a leader. He’s well-travelled and looms as a significant session bassist for a wide scope of progressive-jazz…
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Barry Cleveland is an editor for Guitar Player magazine, yet fashions a gem on his third release as a leader. One of the notable aspects of this outing pertains to Cleve…
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