Spring Jazz Trio
By C. Katz "Chazzbo"
This review is from: Spring Jazz Trio (Audio CD) it's been hard for me to find any bio info about pianist Paolo Birro though I know he's about half a dozen LP's and backs up many Italian and other artists so hs been on the scene for a number of years.Same for Lorenz Conte.The drummer Elio Zigmund has been on the scene a as a leader and sideman most notably drumming for Bill Evans in the latter part of his career.This is standard stuff but it's played well and has a good degree of energy and drive.Half standards and half originals since it's up here at Amazon with MP3 control take a listen.Hey if nothing else you'll impress your friends with all these sartist that the same old S#@t and they'll say "Thanks for a fresh one.
1 Dancing in the Dark 7:44
2 Off Minor 4:54
3 Crazy He Calls Me 5:36
4 I'll Take Romance 7:32
5 Smiling 7:07
6 Retrato Em Branco E Preto 6:07
7 Love Walked In 5:16
8 Gertrude's Bounce 4:53
9 What Better Fits 6:18
Claus Raible
Don't Blame Me
By EastWind Import
| Claus Raible (piano) Giorgos Antoniou (bass) Ben Dixon (drums) German pianist Claus Raible was fascinated by jazz from an early age. He studied formally at University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria, and later went to New York to study with Barry Harris. He has performed with Andy Bey, Jimmy Cobb, Jon Faddis, Art Farmer, Herb Geller, Dusko Goykovich, Mark Murphy and Lewis Nash, among many others. Raible has so immersed himself in bebop that it is now an integral part of his nervous system: Raible lives his music. His trio plays with an immediacy and directness that is too often missing in today's world of hype: tight and compact, this is music that deals with substance, not surface, as Raible and company delve deep into the mood and meaning of each composition. Recorded July 20 and 21 2006 by Jason Seizer at Pirouet Studios, Munich. |
2 The Mooch - Ellington, Mills 7:00
3 I May Be Wrong Ruskin - Sullivan 4:55
4 Oblivion - Powell 3:06
5 Basement Blues - Raible 6:12
6 Kevin - Hope 3:49
7 Dinah Might and Nick at Night - Raible 5:53
8 Don't Blame Me Fields - McHugh 6:06
9 The Best Thing for You Is Me - Berlin 3:54
Kevin Eubanks
Zen Food
Zen Food
by Ken Dryden
Kevin Eubanks didn't do much recording as a leader during his 18 years as Jay Leno's music director on The Tonight Show, though Zen Food was taped shortly before the guitarist announced his departure from his long-running gig. Eubanks is accompanied by veteran saxophonist Bill Pierce (heard on both tenor and soprano), drummer Marvin "Smitty" Smith, keyboardist Gerry Etkins, and bassist Rene Camacho. Eubanks' opener, "The Dancing Sea," signals the diversity of his long-awaited CD, leading off with an intricate, infectious theme over a contemporary Latin rhythm, though the guitarist ends up playing a very heated solo, buoyed by Etkins' electric piano and Smith's powerful drumming, while showcasing Pierce's lyrical soprano sax. He switches to acoustic guitar for "Adoration" (which is derived in part from the centuries-old hymn "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty"), creating an intimate yet lively duet with Etkins' Fender Rhodes. Eubanks' breezy bop vehicle "6/8" is launched with the guitarist's hot riff accompanied solely by Pierce's equally hot tenor sax, with the intensity building as Etkins' funky organ enters with the rhythm section. Eubanks also proves himself as a ballad master with the whispering ballad "I Remember Loving You." Kevin Eubanks will satisfy jazz fans with his delicious Zen Food.
Myriam Alter
Where Is There
As on her last two albums, Myriam Alter doesn't play the piano herself on her fifth record, she "merely" composed eight songs and assembled a sextet to perform them: bassist Greg Cohen, drummer Joey Baron, clarinet player John Ruocco (these three were also on her last album, If), pianist Salvatore Bonafede, cellist Jaques Morelenbaum, and soprano saxophonist Pierre Vaiana. And even though she doesn't play a note on the album, her presence is strongly felt at any given time in the compositions that encompass jazz, classical music, and various European influences. The rhythm section is at the heart of the record -- listen how effortlessly Cohen and Baron provide a rhythmic bed for the other musicians, and how Bonafede provides just the right amount of texture on top of that -- but the defining sound of Where Is There is Morelenbaum's bittersweet cello, giving the songs a wealth of different moods. The record feels "light" in the best possible sense of the word: the music possesses elegance and clarity that turn each of the tracks into a gem. From the joyful opening track, "Was It There," to the somber "September 11," the album is very visual and invokes a great number of images. Wherever the album title's "there" is, the journey is a rewarding experience.
Helge Lien Trio
Hello Troll
by Alex Henderson
When a musician is from a Scandinavian country and his album is titled Hello Troll, someone who is unfamiliar with his work could easily assume that the music has something to do with death metal, black metal, Viking metal, or folk-metal. Trolls, after all, are mythical creatures from Nordic mythology, and Nordic mythology of pre-Christian times has been a prominent theme among Scandinavian extreme metal bands. One of Finland's best-known metal bands, in fact, is named Finntroll. But Hello Troll has nothing to do with metal. The focus of Norwegian pianist Helge Lien is straight-ahead post-bop jazz, and on Hello Troll, he embraces the time-honored acoustic piano trio format (Frode Berg is on upright bass, Knut Aalefjær on drums). Over the years, that format has been successful for a wide variety of acoustic jazz pianists ranging from Erroll Garner to Cecil Taylor to Red Garland; it also works well for Lien, who favors a clean-sounding post-bop pianism along the lines of Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and Ahmad Jamal. Lien's crystalline approach serves him well on thoughtful originals such as "Snurt," "It Is What It Is, But It Is," "Axis of Free Will," and "Troozee" (all of which offer an attractive blend of intellect and melodic lyricism). There are no standards at all on this 2008 recording -- no post-bop standards, no hard bop standards, no Tin Pan Alley standards -- and that is probably for the best because playing original material exclusively gives Lien's improvisations a more personal quality. Although Hello Troll falls short of exceptional, this is a solid outing that underscores Lien's talents as both an acoustic pianist and a composer.
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