Tag Archives: Jazz music

Duende Libre’s Duende Libre

Alex Chadsey, Farko Dosumov and Jeff Busch live in Seattle, where they make music. Solid, groove-filled Cuban jazz, to be precise. How that came about is probably a pretty good story, but the result is duende libre’s superb self-titled debut … Continue reading

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Jenny Scheinman’s Here on Earth

American fiddler Jenny Scheinman has created an album of music to accompany a film that celebrates the legacy of North Carolina Photographer H. Lee Waters. Here on Earth consists of 15 tunes, all of which stand securely on their own, … Continue reading

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Daymé Arocena’s Cubafonía

There’s a lot more to Latin music than the cumbia, salsa, samba and Cuban son that North Americans are familiar with. Cuban diva Daymé Arocena covers a lot of sonic territory on her second album, Cubafonía. Drawing on the rich … Continue reading

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Craig Taborn’s Daylight Ghosts

For his third outing as a leader on ECM, pianist Craig Taborn is fronting a quartet and playing more within the contemporary jazz idiom than on his previous releases with that label. The quartet includes Chris Lightcap on bass and … Continue reading

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Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge’s Mount Royal

I’m still wringing major bits of pleasure out of last year’s electric Julian Lage Trio release Arclight, when here comes this splendid acoustic offering from Lage and Chris Eldridge. Mount Royal is the second full-length by this duo, following Avalon … Continue reading

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Colin Vallon Trio’s Danse

Danse is the Colin Vallon Trio’s third outing on ECM since 2010’s Rruga, although the Swiss pianist has been leading his own ensembles since 1999. This group, with bassist Patrice Moret and drummer Julian Sartorius, emphasizes cooperative exploration of melody, … Continue reading

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John Abercrombie Quartet’s Up and Coming

The re-release in 2015 of the original John Abercrombie Quartet’s trio of albums from the 1970s and ’80s whetted my appetite for more of this lyrical guitarist’s music. He obliges with a new release by his current quartet that emphasizes … Continue reading

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Stefan Aeby Trio’s To the Light

Swiss pianist Stefan Aeby and his trio’s third outing, their first on the German label Intakt, is a largely low-key affair that, to me, reflects the current holding-its-breath mood of much of the Western world. The Trio’s Utopia was one … Continue reading

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Wolfgang Muthspiel’s Rising Grace

Austrian-born guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel has expanded the trio with which he cut his 2014 ECM debut as a leader, into a top-shelf quintet for Rising Grace, which has become one of my favorite jazz albums of 2016. To the rhythm … Continue reading

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Pentangle’s Finale

Pentangle will always be an autumnal group for me. Probably because I first heard them when I visited the University of Oregon in the fall of my senior year of high school. And also maybe because I bought my first … Continue reading

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