It was an amazing year for jazz music. The genre is constantly evolving and pushing the limits of creativity. Jazz musicians have a real talent for drawing inspiration from other musical styles while always staying rooted in a century of tradition. New directions are emerging, new stars are rising, seasoned veterans are redefining their sound. It's such a blessing to be part of … [Read more...]
Portico Quartet – ‘Memory Streams’ (Album Review)
After the last couple years of albums from London's Portico Quartet -- 2017's Art in the Age of Automation and 2018's companion piece, Untitled (AITAOA #2) -- it's hard to say one is getting more of the same from the group that changed things up for a spell in 2015. The hang is an important instrument in this group's sound, giving their disparately-influenced vibe with it's … [Read more...]
Portico Quartet – “View from a Satellite” (Video)
Portico Quartet's latest album, Untitled (AITAOA #2), the companion album to last year's Art in the Age of Automation, just dropped last week and it's spacey, trippy, dopeness that I can't stop playing. In particular, I can't stop playing the song "View from a Satellite", a brilliant shimmering crescendo where Jack Wyllie's saxophone is superb and fritters about the air like an … [Read more...]
Portico Quartet – ‘Untitled (AITAOA #2)’
Radiohead's 2001 album, Amnesiac, was recorded in the same sessions as their 2000 album, Kid A, which saw the group begin their exploration into a more electronic sound. It's hard not to think about those albums when listening to the Portico Quartet's 2018 album, Untitled (AITAOA #2), which was recorded in the same sessions as last year's release, Art in the Age of Automation, … [Read more...]
Portico Quartet – ‘Art in the Age of Automation’
It's always been hard to peg down the precise sound of the Portico Quartet. The group with the baddest hang (the steel drum, not the conceptual loitering full of camaraderie) in the game has always had electronica elements melded into jazz sensibilities, and with previous efforts to swing the pendulum away from the jazz genre, it's been even more difficult to know what exactly … [Read more...]