Category Archives: CD Reviews

CD reviews: Willie Martinez & Rusconi – two bands from different worlds

CD reviews by  William Harvey

Artist: Willie Martinez/La Famillia Sextet
Title: After Winter, Spring
Label: Cuch Be Witcha Productions
Genre: Latin Jazz

After Winter, Spring is drummer/percussionist Willie Martinez’s second album as a leader. This album features many of Martinez’s own originals and arrangements. His band La Familia Sextet is tight and hard grooving as they venture through various latin jazz styles. On this recording Martinez lets his band shine as he plays mostly a supporting role in the rhythm section; a sign of a mature veteran who as a leader choses to place emphasis on melody and groove.

In addition to his strong instrumental chops Martinez is featured as a vocalist singing in both English and Spanish. Musical influences heard range from Ray Baretto, Max Roach, Ray Romero, Cachao, to Hilton Ruìz as mentioned in the liner notes of After Winter, Spring. Additionally, pianist Misha Tsiganov wrote “Anthony” as a dedication to the late Tony Williams , which ends with a nice drum solo. After Winter, Spring has and will continue to captivate Latin jazz and Afro-Carribean music fans alike.

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CD review: Tirtha – celebrating the freedoms of jazz forms and Carnatic melodies and rhythm!

Artist: Tirtha (Vijay Iyer, Prasanna and Nitin Mitta)
Title: Tirtha
Label: ACT Music + Vision
Cat.#: ACT 2011
Genre: Nu Indian Jazz (?)

Reviewed by Matthew Rentz

Tirtha is a Sanskrit word that represents a crossable shallow river or stream and a place of pilgrimage. That is exactly what the US based ensemble of the same name provides the listener on their self-titled debut album, a journey where the traveller emerges having experienced a spiritual transformation.

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CD review – Sven Kacirek’s twenty first century statement of downsizing profit paradigms and a swelling of sensual experience created in African community art!

Artist: Sven Kacirek
Title: The Kenya Sessions
Label: Pingipung
Cat.#: PINGIPUNG 20
Genre: contemporary roots music

CD review by Anika Lani

 

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Khaira Arby: Desert Punk performed by a Grand Dame!!

Date: March 5, 2011
Venue: Bell House (Brooklyn, NY)

Concert review and photos by Stephanie Keith

Khaira Arby’s set at the Bell House in Brooklyn started as a praise song to Allah. The first line to the Koran “Bismillalla Allah il Rahman il Rahim”…..reverberated up to the rafters. Arby is paying homage to the female singers of Mali who were historically only allowed to sing religious songs.

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CD reviews: The Brian Landrus Quartet (US) vs. Sweetback (France)

CD reviews by William Harvey

Artist: The Brian Landrus Quartet
Title:Traverse
Label: Blueland Records
Genre: Jazz

Brian Landrus’s latest studio recording, Traverse, displays his talents as a bandleader, composer, and improviser on both baritone sax and bass clarinet. For this project Landrus assembled an all star band including Billy Hart on drums, Michael Cain on piano, and Lonnie Plaxico on bass. The album consists of one standard and seven originals, three of which were co-written with Cain. Each composition has it’s own distinct character yet fit well together in the context of the album as a whole. Landrus’s melodies and solos are fresh, lyrical, and without clichés.
Like many great jazz quartet leaders before him, Landrus often steps back and lets his rhythm section groove and react to the music that has happened or set a mood for the coming melody and solo of the leader. Landrus displays a great level of musical maturity in his use of space, a quality rarely found in a saxophonist as technically gifted as he is. Although he is playing bari and bass clarinet, Landrus is clearly influenced by great tenor players such a Charles Lloyd or Joe Henderson, most apparent in his sense of phrasing and warm tone in addition to interactive playing with his quartet.

Overall the album is tastefully balanced. Most of the tracks are under five minutes long with nice variation of tempos and styles between them. Landrus even knows when not to use the band. On one track “Soul and Body,” he stands alone playing a heartfelt solo improvisation which functions as an intro to the standard “Body and Soul”, in which the band rejoins. Also, on “Lone” and “Soundwave”, Michael Cain proves to be a most ideal accompanist for Landrus in two intimate duets. Sonically the mix and production quality are top notch as no corners were cut to make this album sound as clear as any jazz album in its category. In 2011 Traverse will surely hold it’s own in the midst of notable modern jazz albums.

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