Category Archives: Reviews

Concert review and thoughts about Jazz: Michel Camilo keeps Jazzzzzzzzzz alivvvvvvvvve!!!

Venue: Highline Ballroom (NY)
Date: June 27, 2012.

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Is jazz “really” dead? In 1975, when an angry, bitter and maybe exaggerating Miles Davis declared “Jazz is dead (it’s) the music of a museum,” I felt the same — especially when Fusion jazz and later Smooth jazz became very popular and very commercial, thus changing jazz into elevator and background music. Jazz became music that was “easy” to listen to and very accessible. Bored of that kind of music my interest went to American free jazz and to international jazz, such as European, Asian, African and Latin jazz.

As a jazz lover, I can say that this music has become stagnant, especially over the last twenty years. There’s no shortage of talented musicians out there, but jazz in America has gone decades without producing an artist capable of reinventing the genre the way Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, my mentor Ornette Coleman and many others did.

Continue reading →

CD review: Sylvain Leroux’s music of “French Creole…Creoles of color”.

Artist: Sylvain Leroux
Title: Quatuor Creole
Label: Engine Rec
Genre: world/jazz
Review by Leo Volf

Sylvain Leroux‘s debut recording Quatuor Creole might not necessarily be groundbreaking or earth shattering, but at times is quite pleasant. The music is a mix of two New Orleans’ cultures: the “French Creole” and “Creoles of color”. While one can nitpick and pin point exactly where one can hear each particular influence, that does not seem to be Leroux’s prerogative. The album and this cultural fusion manage to create its own kind texture, one that is predominantly jovial. With that being said, there is still enough variety throughout the recording, mostly due to the ensemble’s diverse instrumentation, to keep the listener engaged for the full duration.

Continue reading →

Concert Review: Fishbone at CBGB FESTIVAL 2012

Date: July 9, 2012
Venue: Brooklyn Bowl (NY, Brooklyn)
Concert review by Jim Hoey

While the first ever CBGB Festival was raging all over town this week and bands were playing in the hot sun defying expectations, some of the older bands on these round-town bills were trying to bring back the magic of ’02, ’92, or ’82. This is the agenda of the CBGB Fest: present emerging and established artists in the spirit of early NYC punk and Hilly Kristal (CBGB’s owner).

When Fishbone took the stage this Sunday at Brooklyn Bowl for the final performance of the festival, they did just that, playing a raucous, hard hitting set that dwarfed the efforts of the opening act, Paranoid Social Club, and probably most of the other bands playing on bills across town at venues like Central Park Summer Stage and Times Square. Groups like Agnostic Front, Guided By Voices, the So So Glos, Superchunk, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, and the Hold Steady all fanned out across the city and presented a battering array of sounds for curious fans to attempt to experience. Fishbone was the one act I was able to catch.

Continue reading →

Concert review: META a well-blended confection of jazz and African (both Subsaharan and Northern) musics and sensibilities

Date: June 27, 2012
Venue: Le Poisson Rouge
Review by Matt Cole

On Wednesday,  June 27; singer, songwriter, and percussionist META played before a sparse, but enthusiastic crowd at La Poisson Rouge, backed by Ari Hoenig on drums, Francois Moutin on bass, and Thomas Enhco on piano and violin. Meta’s music has been described as “world songs,” and tonight’s show would feature a well-blended confection of jazz and African (both Subsaharan and Northern) musics and sensibilities.

Meta opened the show playing a tambourine-like instrument (I wasn’t close enough to see exactly what) in an odd meter, and singing in a tenor voice. I heard bits of both sides of the Sahara in his vocals. Then the rest of the band came in, playing what basically sounded like good 1960s-modern jazz, but fitting quite nicely with Meta’s singing. Presently, Meta stepped back and ceded the sound scape to the instruments, each of whom had a chance to come to the fore before Meta came back in. Whether he was singing conventionally with the band, or more orthogonally, it all came together quite smoothly.

Continue reading →

CD Review: Finger Songwriter – Jeremy Siskind’s new CD!

Artist: Jeremy Siskind
Title: Finger – Songwriter
Label:  Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records
Genre: Jazz
Review by Dawoud Kringle

Not long ago, I attended Siskind’s performance at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall (see my review here.) Now, my experience of Siskind’ss music will take a tour of his music in the recorded medium. I speak of his newest release; Finger – Songwriter.

Pianist, composer, and educator Jeremy Siskind originally from Irvine, CA, now living in NYC earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Eastman and his Master’s in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia, and studies piano with  Sophia Rosoff and Fred Hersh. Siskind performs around the world as a leader and sideman. Since the 2010 release of Simple Songs, Siskind’s first CD on Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records, he placed 2nd in the Montreux Jazz Festival Solo Piano Competition, was a runner-up for the American Pianist Association’s Cole Porter Fellowship, performed at Carnegie Hall, has had his book, Jazz Etude Inspirations, published by Hal Leonard, and has become the musical director for Sandra Bernhard.

Continue reading →