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Cliff Colon: Contraband
by John Barron
Tenor saxophonist Cliff Colon makes his recording debut as a leader with Contraband, a disc containing jazz arrangements of music from a 1980s 8-bit video game called Contra. The disc's nine tracks chronicle each level of the game, in sequential order.
Underneath the novelty of playing jazzed-up versions of electronic video game music lies clever arranging and hard-blowing solos. After the thirteen-second anthem Intro," Colon and company set off on an adventurous journey through a mostly modal, post-bop landscape. As ...
read moreCliff Colon: Contraband
by Dan McClenaghan
Tacoma, Washington-based saxophonist Cliff Colon takes his inspiration where he finds it. In the case of his debut CD, Contraband, the inspiration comes from music of the 1980's side-scrolling, run and gun, eight-bit video game called Contra, which seems an unlikely source.But unlikely sources are pretty common in the jazz genre--Miles Davis' reading of Surrey with the Fringe on Top," taken from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, Oklahoma," John Coltrane's classic take on My Favorite Things," ...
read moreOtis Taylor's 'Contraband' is Iconoclastic Trance Bluesman's New CD
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conqueroo
Otis Taylor's Contraband features Cassie Taylor, Larry Thompson, Anne Harris, Jon Paul Johnson, Chuck Campbell, Ron Miles, The Sheryl Renee Choir and more BOULDER, Colo.Otis Taylor isn't defined by any single category. A musical alchemist and a true innovator, Taylor has never been afraid to experiment beyond the blues tradition. He's a master craftsman who has created his own signature trance blues" style by melding haunting guitar and banjo work, syncopated rhythms and a combination of gruff vocals, shouts and ...
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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson