Leslie Pintchik - We're Here To Listen

On this, her third studio recording, Leslie Pintchik continues to exhibit prodigious talents for composing and performing tasteful, well-crafted jazz sambas and ballads. Six of the ten tracks are Pintchik originals.  Again the quartet (Pintchik, piano; Scott Hardy, bass; Satoshi Takeishi, percussion and Mark Dodge, drums) demonstrates their cohesiveness and finely focused attentiveness to each other and the music. There are no missteps. Warm smooth jazz flows gracefully and precisely from these four instrumental talents. There is no attempt to break new ground or to push boundaries, but those were never Pintchik’s goals. For the purpose of making a point, take, for instance, an animal trainer: One free-thinking, mischievous seal cub is an attraction and a delight for the audience. A whole pod of mischievous animals is complete anarchy. In that way, it is not always appropriate to use innovation as the complete measure of a musician. For Pintchik et al, descriptors such as delicate, tasteful, subtle and precise are more apt than “progressive” or “visionary.” It’s a matter of classification, ranking and, of course, the illusive “enjoyment” and “appreciation” factors...MORE...

Carolina Chocolate Drops - Live at the Paradise Rock Club Boston, MA October 16, 2010

Fiddles, guitars, banjos, kazoos, bones, jugs, spoons, singing, dancing and an enthusiastic crowd...what's not to enjoy? The old timey string band, Carolina Chocolate Drops, brought their show to the Paradise Club, Boston, MA, on October 16, 2010. The trio, Rhiannon Giddens, Justin Robinson and Dom Flemons, are riding a well-deserved wave of popularity amidst their recently released second CD, Genuine Negro Jig, and they drew a large adoring audience at the Paradise. There has been a resurgence of traditional music in recent years, call it folk, country, roots or Americana, but most of the performers have not been African-Americans despite their having been a substantial proportion of the progenitors of these genres. Maybe string/jug band music had fallen out of favor in part due to the association with minstrel shows and their unfortunate historical role in race relations. In the beginning the group also faced the challenge that by resurrecting the old string band style their work risked being seen as simply an erudite homage to a defunct historical oddity and not accepted as a revival of a serious art form in its own right with current validity. But Giddens, Robinson and Flemons have succeeded wonderfully in their effort to return this music to popularity and respectability. They are very knowledgeable about the music and its historical importance, but the key to their success is combining instrumental mastery, a love of the music and a passion for entertaining. They enjoy what they do. They breathe life and fresh energy into the music and audiences love it...MORE...

Bobby Avey - A New Face

The ascendant jazz pianist, Bobby Avey, released his debut CD, appropriately entitled A New Face, August 1, 2010 on jayDell Records. While he may be a new face to many, Avey is, like most talented artists, not entirely an “overnight” success story. He graduated from Purchase Conservatory of Music in 2007 and his abilities quickly landed him New York gigs with notables such as guitarist Ben Monder, Phil Woods and another illustrious sax man, Dave Liebman, who is featured on four tracks of A New Face. While Avey was still a student he was approached by Liebman to help arrange and perform a set of 19th century classical or art songs. The resulting highly acclaimed recording, Vienna Dialogues (ZOHO) was released in 2006.  Joining Avey and Liebman (soprano on tracks 2, 4 & 6 and tenor on track 8) is Thomson Kneeland on bass and Jordan Pearlson on drums on all tracks except 6, “Influence,” where Avey and Liebman go duo...MORE...

Conference Call - What About.....?

Free jazz took root over 50 years ago in rebellion against the confines of traditional jazz formats. Now, as then, free jazz practitioners seek new forms of expression outside of common modalities. While recent popular music has undergone several insurgencies such as rock, rap and hip-hop, and has enjoyed the nostalgic reflections of Americana and roots music, in many ways jazz still leads a paradoxical existence, maintaining a strong tonal tradition on one hand and a desire for experimentation and deviation from convention on the other. Audiences still demand familiar standards and musicians enjoy playing them, but progressive musicians and audiences aspire to strain the boundaries or break them down completely. Some musicians have successfully split hairs and embraced both extremes, but currently there has been no evolutionary union of the two that would give birth to a wholly new and unique offspring. However, when the free jazz idiom is wielded with such authority and prowess as demonstrated by Gebhard Ullmann and Conference Call it seems clear that a transformation is underway...MORE...

Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra; Darrell Katz, Director - Live at the Regattabar, Charles Hotel, Cambridge, MA October 12, 2010

The Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra debuted in late1985 and they have now released 8 critically acclaimed CDs since their first recording in 1992. The Regattabar performance on October 12, 2010 was the release party for their latest CD, “A Wallflower In The Amazon.” The JCA Orchestra is led by founder Darrell Katz, who, teamed with lyricist Paula Tatarunis, composes or arranges the orchestra’s material. Many of the other band members have deep roots in the jazz community as bandleaders, composers, arrangers and teachers: Phil Scarff, tenor sax (Natraj), Alan Chase and Jim Hobbs, alto sax (Fully Celebrated Orchestra), Bob Pilkington, trombone (Chandler Travis), Norm Zocher, electric and steel guitar (Abby and Norm Group) and Rebecca Shrimpton, voice (Rebecca Shrimpton Quintet). These examples serve as a meager sampling of the JCA Orchestra’s sundry bona fide credits...MORE...

Norm Zocher Group - Live at Berklee Performance Center September 23, 2010

Norm Zocher is often identified as a fusion guitarist, a convenient label but only marginally applicable and potentially misleading. Zocher, prolific composer (Boston Jazz Composers Alliance) and Berklee College of Music professor, performs many of his own compositions and his tastes run cross-genre. For this particular concert at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston, he played nearly half (5 of 12) of the tunes on pedal steel guitar, most notably “Giant Steps” by John Coltrane and “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Zocher has changed with the times, many years ago performing as half of a folk duo with his now wife, Abigail Aronson. Aronson was not part of this Berklee performance but they are still a team on stage and off with two CDs, (Volume 1: The Book of Norman and Melodic Miner’s Daughter) among their many credits. Zocher was joined Thursday night (September 23, 2010) by Alex Smith, bass and Pablo Bencid, drums,  for the Norm Zocher Group @ Berklee – 20th Anniversay Concert in celebration of Zocher’s 20th year at Berklee...MORE..

Dave Liebman Group - Live at Scullers Jazz Club, Doubletree Guest Suites, Boston, MA September 16, 2010

During an incredible career spanning more than 40 years and over 300 recordings Dave Liebman has been sideman, leader, teacher, composer, writer and philosopher. Perhaps most often publically recognized for his early work with Elvin Jones and Miles Davis, he defies being boxed into a cool jazz, hard bop, modal, fusion or any other stylistic cubbyhole. In fact, by his own admission, and even within his own compositions he rarely settles on an ultimate conclusion, a set-in-stone finality. He philosophizes that for the active, progressive artist, tastes shift, aesthetics are continually refined and additional knowledge and experiences are constantly being assimilated. Things change...MORE...