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Rashaan Carter
Lizz Wright: Shadow
by Chris May
The singer Lizz Wright made a brief stopover in London in March 2024, on a tour previewing Shadow. She appeared for one night only at Cadogan Hall, a 900-seat auditorium big enough when full to feel buzzy but small enough still to remain close to intimate. It was a perfect setting for Wright and her characteristically à la carte programme of jazz, gospel, blues and folk music from multiple traditions. Shadow is an exquisitely crafted, low-key production ...
read moreBrandee Younger: Brand New Life
by La-Faithia White
American harpist and composer Brandee Younger fuses hip hop, classical, funk and jazz on Brand New Life. Younger became a Grammy award nominee for her label debut. Brand New Life features new works inspired by her hero, harpist Dorothy Ashby. “You're A Girl For One Man Only" written by Younger and Ashby, has reinterpretations of Dorothy Ashby; a beautiful, meditative love song and nice collaboration with the vibraphone; a smooth introduction with Younger and drum snares. “Brand New ...
read moreMarta Sanchez: SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum)
by Alberto Bazzurro
La giovane pianista madrilena Marta Sanchez, ormai da tempo di stanza a New York, dirige in questo suo nuovo lavoro, inciso nel marzo 2021, un agguerrito quintetto con doppio sax che in un brano, “Marivi," si allarga a ottetto con l'ingresso di tromba (e che tromba: Ambrose Akinmusire), voce/chitarra e synth, dando sempre la precisa impressione di riuscire a dire ciò che sta nelle sue attuali corde. Il dialogo--l'interscambio--è per lo più fitto, vitale, ma sempre dall'alto ...
read moreHanka G: Universal Ancestry
by Richard J Salvucci
For a recording that combines, jazz, rock, gospel soul and r&b with Slovakian folk melodies, look no farther. Hanka G, who has artists as different as Abbey Lincoln and McCoy Tyner as her models, was raised in Mongolia, coming to the United States in 2018. This is her first stateside recording, and it is an innovative album for people fond of crossing cultures, mindscapes, ethnic and racial boundaries. She kicks things off with a grittier, rougher version of ...
read moreBrandee Younger: Somewhere Different
by Angelo Leonardi
Da un decennio Brandee Younger è il nuovo volto dell'arpa nel jazz ma solo da poco ottiene i pieni riconoscimenti del suo valore: nel 2020 vince il referendum della critica di Down Beat nella categoria emergenti per “Strumenti Vari" e nel recentissimo Critics Poll 2021 è votata al secondo posto in quella principale, dopo la violoncellista Tomeka Reid. Non è casuale la presenza di entrambe nel poliedrico Universal Beings di Makaya McCraven, uno dei dischi più riusciti e acclamati della ...
read moreBlack Art Jazz Collective: Ascension
by Ian Patterson
The name has obvious political resonance. Indeed, the raison d'être of the Black Art Jazz Collective, the sextet founded by Wayne Escoffery, Jeremy Pelt and Jonathon Blake in 2013, is to celebrate African American excellence on the one hand, and--not unrelated--to raise political consciousness on the other. The BAJC's debut album,Presented By The Side Door Jazz Club (Sunnyside Records, 2016) paid homage to W. E. B. Dubois and Barack Obama, while recalling, too, the history of slavery. Ascension plows a ...
read moreBlack Art Jazz Collective: Ascension
by Jack Bowers
On Ascension, the Black Art Jazz Collective, a like-minded sextet co-founded in 2012 by trumpeter Jeremy Pelt and saxophonist Wayne Escoffery to salute the artistry of their mentors and musical heroes while moving the idiom forward into the twenty-first century, is unbending in its allegiance to the straight-ahead canon espoused by the architects of modern jazz. It's a stance that gives rise to pluses and minuses. On the upside, this is splendid music, rhythmically and melodically pleasing, ...
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