Tag Archives: Jazz music

Manel Fortià Trio’s Despertar

My first time through this album, I was listening as I did some editing on a certain publication. I was enjoying it well enough until the fourth track “Espiritual” came along. Then I was smitten. It’s a deep, bluesy gospel … Continue reading

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Grassy Sound’s The Sounds of Grassy Sound

I’m going to cut to the chase here. You need this album, The Sounds of Grassy Sound, if for nothing else than its deeply, weirdly beautiful rendition of “Tumbling Tumbleweeds.” I’ll admit that I have some history with this song … Continue reading

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T.S. Monk’s Live: Two Continents – One Groove

After spending the ’70s and ’80s making soul and R&B music with various groups, drummer T.S. “Toot” Monk returned to his jazz roots in the early ’90s, and he’s been playing with one sextet and another pretty much continuously since … Continue reading

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Espen Berg Trio’s Fjære

Fjære is the fourth album by Espen Berg Trio, an award-winning jazz trio from Norway. Composer and pianist Berg in 2016 received Norway’s biggest jazz scholarship, which led to a commissioned work for the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra. The trio’s recordings, … Continue reading

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Manel Fortià & Libérica’s Arrels

Catalan jazz, combining the blues-based American idiom with flamenco, is having a moment, and Manel Fortià is in the thick of it. The Catalan double bass player spent some three years in New York playing with the likes of Dave … Continue reading

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Coloma Bertran’s Principis

“Transcultural jazz” as the Microscopi label’s one-sheet says, is a pretty good description of Principis, the sophomore date from Barcelona-based fiddler Coloma Bertran. On this album the eclectic composer and musician touches a lot of bases on this trip around … Continue reading

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Club d’Elf’s You Never Know

So I guess now I’m a fan of dub? Or at least of some of its hybrids in world music, like the Turkish psychedelic dub of Baba Zula, the American Southwestern dub experiments of Calexico, and now this world-dub-jazz hybrid … Continue reading

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Stefan Aeby Trio’s Fairy Circus

From the first bar of Fairy Circus‘s opening track “Marea Alta” you know this is the Stefan Aeby Trio, if you’ve ever listened to them before. The unique piano voicing and technique, the production and placement of bass and drums … Continue reading

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Ruben Machtelinckx + Arve Henriksen’s A Short Story

Count this disc as yet another that is a balm in these extraordinary times. Now, Belgian guitarist and composer Ruben Machtelinckx couldn’t possibly have known that we’d be facing war in Europe as February faded into March of 2022, when … Continue reading

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Rough Guides’ 100 Essential CDs: Digby Fairweather and Brian Priestly’s Jazz, and Sue Steward’s Latin

What a great idea! What a fantastic job! Sit around the house, listen to music and choose the 100 CDs that define a style, and then write about it. Your choice becomes etched in stone, or at least on paper, … Continue reading

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