Live at Café Metropol
Um cd que necessita atenção, a primeira vez achei estranho, e depois ouvi boas execuções. Bom.
by Scott Yanow
The first live CD by Kim Richmond's sextet is full of extended performances (five of the seven numbers clock in between 9:46 and 16:08) and dynamic solos. When the song is a standard, such as a lengthy exploration of "You Don't Know What Love Is" or "Invitation," the renditions are episodic, benefiting from Richmond's arranging skills. The originals (of which the explosive "Fuzzy Wuzzy" is a high point) are inside/outside, allowing the soloists to stretch out and take the music on inspired flights. Richmond (mostly on alto but doubling on soprano) is heard at his very best, and trumpeter John Daversa recalls Kenny Wheeler in spots, while Joey Sellers makes one wonder why he is not mentioned when one discusses the top trombonists around today. Rich Eames and Brian Friedland (heard on separate dates) do an equally fine job on piano while bassist Kristin Korb and drummer Erik Klass offer alert and tasteful support. The music is complex but the playing is colorful and the results are quite logical and a joy to hear. Highly recommended.
David Binney & Edward Simon
Oceanos
O E.Simon e um belissimo pianista, mesmo sendo da Venezuela(ha! ha!). Vale ouvir.
by Ken Dryden
David Binney and Edward Simon have appeared together on a number of earlier recordings, but this 2004 session for Criss Cross may very well be the best of the lot. Focusing exclusively on compelling original works for this release, the alto saxophonist and pianist are joined by a core group including bassist Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade, with a number of other musicians augmenting the quartet on selected tracks. Binney's potent opener, "We Dream Oceans," is briskly paced with a Latin undercurrent, adding Luciana Souza's wordless vocals as an additional instrument. Simon's impressionistic ballad "Govinda" utilizes guitarist Adam Rogers' spacious solo and a haunting line sung by Souza. Colley contributed the quirky, effective "Amnesia," which, in spite of its title, proves to be quite memorable, with a catchy front line of alto sax, piano, and trumpeter Shane Endsley over the composer's challenging bassline. Highly recommended.
Jackie Ryan with Red Holloway
You and the Night and the Music
Uma cantora madura, bom para ouvir, porem um pouco longe do que considero uma cantora de jazz.
by Scott Yanow
Jackie Ryan is a talented jazz singer who has a strong, attractive voice and a subtle improvising style. On her third recording, she is heard in prime form interacting with the great tenor saxophonist Red Holloway (who is on five of the 14 selections) and some of Los Angeles' top musicians. The instrumentation changes from track to track with Ryan excelling on tender duets with harpist Carol Robbins ("You Are There") and guitarist Larry Koonse ("While We're Young"). She swings hard on "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," puts plenty of feeling into "Besame Mucho" and sounds joyful on "I Just Found out About Love." No matter the setting or the mood expressed, Ryan shows that she is a force to be reckoned with. Recommended.
Mark Murphy
Love Is What Stays
Well...um bom disco, a primeira faixa Stolen Moments eh muita boa, aproveite o CD sem pensar no Kurt Elling ( ha ha ).
by Thom Jurek
Mark Murphy's 2005 Verve album, Once to Every Heart, focused on the veteran jazz vocalist's rare, even singular ability with ballads and torch songs. Produced by Till Brönner, the great flügelhorn player, it was an album that brought Murphy's name back toward — if not into — the jazz mainstream and offered another side of his work to the ever hip European DJs who revere his catalog. Love Is What Stays is a deeply satisfying and, in places, even astonishing reflection on time and its passage. Memory, reverie, regrets, victories, hipster mysticism, and wonderfully canny theatrically poetic wordplay all come to bear in these songs. Released 50 years after his debut — when he was already being hailed as one of the music's great singers — it is more adventurous and downright wily in its aims than anyone could have hoped for. And those aims? They are reached with relative ease. The group of players is no less wide ranging: Lee Konitz makes an appearance on the one tune one might expect in such a collection, "My Foolish Heart." Elsewhere, however, Don Grusin shows up on Fender Rhodes; the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin appear on several tracks; and Chuck Loeb, Sebastian Merk, and others contribute as well. Murphy's version of the aforementioned track outdoes Kurt Elling's recent version; in his bass-baritone, full of smoke and ether, Murphy paints the entire scene as the strings and orchestra swell and back off. Konitz contributes a beautiful solo to boot. And while jazz fans can take comfort in the fact that Murphy reads standards such as "Angel Eyes" and the Lane/Lerner nugget "Too Late Now," he also digs deep into Johnny Cash with a stellar, off-the-wall, and deeply soulful version of "So Doggone Lonesome," writes killer words to Oliver Nelson's "Stolen Moments," and completely reinvents the Michel Legrand classic "Once Upon a Summertime." Inside some of these tunes, and in others of his own composition such as the title track written with Brönner, "Blue Cell Phone," and "The Interview," Murphy's beat poetry — he's the last of the originals in jazz — and cosmic sense of intellectual inquiry make many of these tunes something entirely other: reinventions, redirections, and re-creations. There's also a big surprise here in that Murphy takes on "What If," the Coldplay single. Is it a pop song? It was. It is again in a new genre, thanks to Brönner's arrangement. In Murphy's golden throat it becomes a deeply intimate ballad with hushed and brushed cymbals and a tasteful atmospheric orchestral arrangement by Nan Schwartz. It's a jazz tune, and Brönner's fills make it dramatic. It's so soulful and utterly moving, with Murphy reaching into his lower register to get the emotion through the lyric, it could become a pop classic. Love Is What Stays is not simply another Mark Murphy album. It's a Mark Murphy event in the manner in which Rah! was in its day, or perhaps Midnight Mood, Bop for Kerouac, or his Savoy sides were. Those who are currently deeply into Elling should give a listen to his mentor; those who don't like jazz vocals in particular would do well to check this out; and others, looking for true authenticity and artfully made American popular music, should snap this up as quickly as possible. Time will be the judge, but Love Is What Stays may become a Murphy masterpiece and — let's face it — the man embodies the very essence of "hip." And always will.
Riccardo Fioravanti Trio
Bill Evans Project
Excelente, um trio diferente, bons arranjos para as belas melodias do meu sempre inspirador Bill Evans, este eh muito bom !!!!
By Ron Wynn at JazzTimes
Bill Evans' writing and piano solos marvelously combined passion and lyricism. The Riccardo Fioravanti trio has crafted an ideal tribute to Evans, one that honors every aspect of his compositions yet smartly reconfigures them by eliminating the piano from the session. Instead, Fioravanti's deep, rich bass playing and the light, lush style of guitarist Bebo Ferra are a prime reminder of Evans' compositional sensibility, while vibist Andrea Dulbecco's splintering lines and phrases reaffirm an underrated component in the Evans' sound: intensity.
The trio is also careful not to forget about rhythmic flow and texture. Dulbecco is the most animated and percussive of the three players, while Fioravanti constantly shifts responsibilities throughout the 13 selections. Each ensemble member alternates between feature and complimentary roles. Some pieces are duets and others are more individual spotlights than trio works, but the overall presentation highlights a cohesive and unified group salute. The menu includes poignant, well-played renditions of "B Minor Waltz," "Peace Piece" and "In April."
Marco Castiglioni, Mauro Grossi, Attilio Zanchi
Distanze
Um belo cd, muito inspirado, e todos musicos eram desconhecidos, bela surpresa.
by Marco De Masi per JazzItalia
Un disco eterogeneo, ricco di scenari a volte contrapposti – come nel caso di D.E.B. e Jazz Folk (J.Abercrombie) – che rivela però un sound preciso e ben caratterizzato. Ascoltando via via le tracce non si resta sorpresi dei numerosi cambiamenti di umore perché, al di là del differente respiro di ciascuna composizione, emerge un comune denominatore che riesce a cementare sottilmente tra loro tutte le composizioni. Dalla sognante D.E.B. (A.Zanchi) che apre il disco, ai toni più accesi del brano successivo Jazz Folk; fino a un pezzo tradizionale piemontese Rusignol passando per La Fille Aux Cheveux De Lin, malinconico preludio di Claude Debussy rivisitato con accenti jazzistici.
Senza soffermarsi sui singoli brani, esercizio che richiederebbe maggiore tempo e spazio, sembra però giusto porre in evidenza la straordinaria fluenza del discorso musicale di questo trio: agili sono le intersezioni strumentali, dove basso e batteria, più che "accompagnare" la voce solistica del piano, dialogano con questo stimolandolo ritmicamente, caratterizzando l'insieme sonoro con un intreccio solido e bene amalgamato.
Emerge con forza la compattezza del sound e l'intesa tra questi ottimi musicisti, sia nelle atmosfere rarefatte e sognanti che in quelle più energiche e tirate.
Un trio che in questo disco, "Distanze", dimostra un altissimo grado si maturità conferendo al proprio linguaggio un sapore attuale che riesce contemporaneamente a riflettere colori e sfumature del passato. I soli strumentali non sono mai gli unici protagonisti – come quello, bellissimo, del pianoforte, in Rusignol – incorniciati da un partecipazione più che mai viva degli altri strumenti.
Musica che va al di là degli steccati stilistici per abbracciare una concezione "totale" in cui tutto è lecito, pur che sia ispirato dal cuore.
Dan Tepfer Trio
Oxygen
Bela surpresa, muito bom trio, e duas faixas produzidas pelo grande Fred Hersch.
By Martin Longley
Tepfer leads his trio on Oxygen, its title track emblematic of the entire disc's approach. Angular and twisting, it grasps its groove cautiously, as Jorge Roeder and Richie Barshay's bass and drums briefly sit out while Tepfer wanders alone. All three are continually investigating the melody's forward path, until an emphatic climax is eventually reached, everything subsequently breaking down into dispersal. There's a low level of incidence as the three move into "Sweet Talk," with its brushing balladry. A few months ago, "Billie Jean" would have been a crass tune-choice, but now it's a crass tune-choice with an unexpected topicality. Anyway, Tepfer manages to perform a thorough dissection. Each tune (there are pieces penned by John Coltrane, Joe Henderson and Steve Lacy, besides Tepfer's majority of originals) is subject to a flowing motion, a gentle shifting of time's sands. Superficially, this is quite conventional piano trio music, but the participants usually push towards a slight tilt or gentle twist of the tune.
Tracks: Oxygen; Sweet Talk; Billie Jean; Moment's Notice; Inner Urge; Not for Sissies; Equivalence; Every Day; Bone.
Personnel: Dan Tepfer: piano; Jorge Roeder: bass; Richie Barshay: drums.
Tepfer leads his trio on Oxygen, its title track emblematic of the entire disc's approach. Angular and twisting, it grasps its groove cautiously, as Jorge Roeder and Richie Barshay's bass and drums briefly sit out while Tepfer wanders alone. All three are continually investigating the melody's forward path, until an emphatic climax is eventually reached, everything subsequently breaking down into dispersal. There's a low level of incidence as the three move into "Sweet Talk," with its brushing balladry. A few months ago, "Billie Jean" would have been a crass tune-choice, but now it's a crass tune-choice with an unexpected topicality. Anyway, Tepfer manages to perform a thorough dissection. Each tune (there are pieces penned by John Coltrane, Joe Henderson and Steve Lacy, besides Tepfer's majority of originals) is subject to a flowing motion, a gentle shifting of time's sands. Superficially, this is quite conventional piano trio music, but the participants usually push towards a slight tilt or gentle twist of the tune.
Tracks: Oxygen; Sweet Talk; Billie Jean; Moment's Notice; Inner Urge; Not for Sissies; Equivalence; Every Day; Bone.
Personnel: Dan Tepfer: piano; Jorge Roeder: bass; Richie Barshay: drums.
Alessandro Lanzoni & Ares Tavolazzi
I Should Care
Um pianista de apenas 14 anos em 2006. Considero ser um nome para ninguem esquecer, toca com uma paixão, com um conhecimento que so os mais velhos(alguns) conseguem. Devem ouvir outro CD "On the Snow" Alessandro Trio Lanzoni "
by Ken Dryden
Pianist Alessandro Lanzoni is one of a number of talent teenaged jazz prodigies discovered and recorded by producer Paolo Piangiarelli for his Philology label. The young man is paired with veteran bassist Ares Tavolazzi for a session that delves into a number of standards from the Great American Songbook and timeless jazz compositions. For a musician who doesn't look old enough to be shaving, Lanzi not only has formidable chops but often shows a surprising degree of restraint in holding back his volcanic technique. The teenager is at his best romping through Cole Porter's "I Love you." Tavolazzi introduces the famous jazz waltz "Someday My Prince Will Come" alone, with Lanzoni swinging along with him once he enters. The pianist seems a bit hesitant with his complicated introduction to a decidedly Latin arrangement of "Caravan" but quickly regains his focus. Another talented player, alto saxophonist Francesco Cafiso (who was also first recorded by Philology while barely in his teens), is Lanzoni's capable duet partner for an extended concert performance of "Just Friends," though Cafiso shows more than a degree of the influence of Phil Woods. Alessandro Lanzoni obviously is still developing his own style at this point in his career, but he demonstrates plenty of potential on this promising debut as a leader.
