Sélébeyoné, released two months ago under Pi recordings, does two things really well: it is a better hip-hop album than most of the jazz-centric rap releases and it's an excellent foray into jazz fusion. Steve Lehman, with principle duties as composer and alto sax, along with vocalists HPrizm and Gaston Bandimic, fuse American, French and Senegalese sounds that, like the band it … [Read more...]
ARK – ‘s/t’
It's pretty amazing how such an unassuming piano trio album works so well. In their self-titled album from earlier this year, the trio known as ARK of pianist Carlos Homs, bassist Karl McComas-Reichl, and drummer Colin Stranahan have put together twelve very neat, compact songs that traverse the range of the modern jazz genre in all the ways an acoustic piano trio will … [Read more...]