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Albert Vila

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Album Review

Albert Vila: Reality Is Nuance

Read "Reality Is Nuance" reviewed by La-Faithia White


Reality Is Nuance features nine tracks from jazz guitarist Albert Vila and his trio. The trio is completed by bassist Doug Weiss, who has performed with jazz legends such as singers Joe Williams and Lizz Wright, and drummer Rudy Royston, who has performed with the late great Les McCann, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and The Mingus Big Band to name just a few. Vila is from Barcelona, Spain where he began his musical studies. He has traveled around the world gaining ...

6
Album Review

Albert Vila: Levity

Read "Levity" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


Spanish jazz guitarist Albert Vila has been around. His biography includes studies in Barcelona, Amsterdam, Manhattan and Brussels. His discography has quintet, quartet, trio and duet dates. So, this solo album represents a significant departure. The approach was conceived during the heaviest time of the pandemic, making it one of many documents created during those times when public performance was difficult at best and gathering a group together was even more challenging. Vila took his approach to solo ...

6
Album Review

Albert Vila: Levity

Read "Levity" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Levity in these times usually refers to a state of humorousness or lightness of manner. From the liner notes of guitarist Albert Vila's Levity, however, we read that levity was originally thought to be a physical force, like gravity, but pulling in the opposite direction. But consider a word grown from the same root as “levity," the word “levitation," which refers to rising from the Earth under the influence of an unseen power. In this sense there is ...

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Album Review

Samo Salamon & Friends: Almost Alone Vol 1

Read "Almost Alone Vol 1" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


To keep the train on the track during the Covid lockdowns, artists must think outside the box. Such is the case with this first volume of duets performed by renowned Slovenian guitarist Samo Salamon and European guitarists via the Internet by using web-based meeting programs and file-sharing processes. And besides performing on acoustic and electric guitars, Salamon incorporates a Moog synth on several tracks, largely used for textural backdrops. He also uses the body of his acoustic as a percussion ...

1
Album Review

Samo Salamon: Almost Alone Vol 1

Read "Almost Alone Vol 1" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


Slovenian guitarist Samo Salamon is as prolific as he is innovative. His restless explorations have resulted in a large, versatile discography that ranges from the orchestral to the free flowing with a variety of ensembles. His 2020 release Almost Alone Vol. 1 is a set of eleven duets each with a different international guitarist. It is the first in a planned three-record series. Every track features a different set of motifs yet the eloquent lyricism of the dialogues ...

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Album Review

Albert Vila: The Unquiet Sky

Read "The Unquiet Sky" reviewed by Edward Blanco


Belgium-based Spanish jazz guitarist Albert Vila delivers his fourth album as leader with The Unquiet Sky, offering a tad more music than a standard album with a presentation of fourteen original compositions of modern-styled jazz that's quite appealing. There's little question whose recording this is as the leader's electric guitar voice becomes the center-piece of the disc from the opening tune. Except for two tracks documented in Barcelona, Spain (Vila's home town), the project was recorded in New ...

2
Album Review

Albert Vila: Standards

Read "Standards" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Just because a record doesn't have many surprises doesn't mean it must be predictable or prosaic, a line of thinking for which Albert Vila's Standards makes a good case. The Barcelona-based guitarist delivers a program of well-known material from the likes of compositional giant Cole Porter, saxophone legend John Coltrane, piano icon Bill Evans and other top-tier figures , hewing close to the norm without giving off a been-there-done-that vibe. The biggest surprise here may actually be ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Levity

Hypnote Records
2023

buy

Reality Is Nuance

Fresh Sound Records
2023

buy

Almost Alone Vol 1

Samo Records
2020

buy

The Unquiet Sky

Fresh Sound Records
2016

buy

Standards

Quadrant Records
2013

buy

Tactile

Fresh Sound Records
2011

buy

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