Compiling a list of the greatest works of the last ten years is an inherently difficult proposition. The first complication lies in the fact that so many of my musical memories from the last decade are tied to recordings released prior to the period. Some of my best memories include the Charlie Parker song from 1950 that played at my wedding, the New Year’s Eve I first stumbled … [Read more...]
Dafnis Prieto Big Band – “Danzonish Potpourri” (Video Premiere)
Drummer, composer, and 2011 MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Dafnis Prieto recently released what may just be his most ambitious project to date, Back to the Sunset, the debut album of the Dafnis Prieto Big Band. In Prieto’s own words, “The undercurrent of this album is to pay tribute to some significant mentors/musicians that have influenced and inspired me one way or another, directl … [Read more...]
Henry Threadgill 14 or 15 Kestra: Agg – ‘Dirt… And More Dirt’
At this point in Henry Threadgill's career, we already know the dynamic. Everything else is a refinement of those shifting polyrhythms, those floating melodies that skirt about the tonal and the atonal like hummingbirds at springtime, and that ever-present feeling that all this art just wouldn't work if you just couldn't help but keep tapping your foot. It's all there with … [Read more...]
Threadgill, Iyer, and Prieto Conjure Up a Storm at The Jazz Gallery
The most powerful storm I've ever seen was at the Big Bend National Park in the isolated elbow of Texas. A tremendous set of clouds marched toward our site in the valley between desert mountains, catching on a ridge and letting loose in safe viewing distance. Unable to look away from such a gorgeous thing, there was a deference to the power, too — a fear of what it might be c … [Read more...]
Henry Threadgill – ‘In for a Penny, In for a Pound’
On Henry Threadgill’s latest record In For A Penny, In For A Pound, the saxophonist/flautist/composer and his longstanding band, Zooid, merge the ethos and improvisation of jazz with the compositional techniques of aleatoric contemporary-classical music, all through the lens of an ensemble that fits neither paradigm. Zooid — which consists of Threadgill on alto saxophone, flu … [Read more...]