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1 month ago | 
jazzjournal.co.uk | Andy Hamilton
New York City based American pianist and composer Russ Lossing has a singular musical vision that makes him a musician’s musician. That means that he is not a populist, and remains little-known beyond his coterie of admirers. Maybe he’d agree with Jim Hall, that if someone had asked him to sell out, he would have – but I think that like Hall, he’s an ironist. You have to be to make a living in our cultural world, without selling out.
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2 months ago | 
jazzjournal.co.uk | Andy Hamilton
In Brassroots Democracy, author Benjamin Barson presents a “music history from below”, embracing the Haitian revolution, post-civil war reconstruction and early jazz. The term “brassroots democracy” is a synthesis of grassroots activism and New Orleans’ historic brass-band tradition, and Barson argues that jazz arose from the mass mobilisation of freed people during reconstruction during the decades before 1900.
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2 months ago | 
jazzjournal.co.uk | Andy Hamilton
This haunting album, reissued in ECM’s Luminescence vinyl series, features intense improvising and memorable compositions. As Marilyn Crispell says, “There’s a great depth of communication, a rare delicacy.” It was recorded in 2000, and it’s sad to note that only the pianist is still with us. Drummer Paul Motian died in 2011, and bassist Gary Peacock in 2020. Crispell was inspired by Cecil Taylor, and went on to play with Anthony Braxton for 12 years.
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Dec 2, 2024 | 
jazzjournal.co.uk | Andy Hamilton
This previously unreleased live double album from Copenhagen’s Jazzhus Montmartre features the French master in a magnificent trio with Gary Peacock (bass) and Roy Haynes (drums). The trio existed only for a studio session in 1987 and a short European tour the next year, of which this recording is a document. At the Jazzhus they play six Petrucciani originals, plus standards and jazz standards.
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Nov 29, 2024 | 
jazzjournal.co.uk | Andy Hamilton
Darius Brubeck has “played the changes” both as a musician, and politically, through deep involvement in the cultural politics of South Africa, 1983-2005. With partner Catherine, he moved there in 1983 to lead Africa’s first jazz-studies degree programme, at University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in Durban. In 1989, he became director of the new Centre for Jazz and Popular Music. Catherine Brubeck had studied at UKZN before her career in publishing and music management in New York.
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Nov 9, 2024 | 
jazzjournal.co.uk | Andy Hamilton
Pianist Tord Gustavsen was born in Oslo in 1970. He studied music at Oslo and Trondheim universities, then made his highly successful ECM debut with Changing Places in 2003. It was followed by two other trio albums, The Ground (2005) which reached No. 1 in the Norwegian pop charts, and Being There (2007). Seeing is the fourth trio album, and his ninth release on the label. It features longstanding partner Jarle Vespestad on drums, and new bassist Steinar Raknes.
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Oct 28, 2024 | 
jazzjournal.co.uk | Andy Hamilton
As intrepid festival director Antanas Gustys explains in the programme, this is the 37th Vilnius Jazz Festival – and incredibly, he has been in charge since the first. The Alister Spence/Tony Buck duo on the first night is one of the highlights, building on their 2023 debut album Mythographer. Both players have a remarkable stylistic range – this duo is at the free-improv end of their output.
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Oct 15, 2024 | 
jazzjournal.co.uk | Andy Hamilton
This is my kind of album – an eclectic mix of styles, from song-forms to free playing, but with a unity of musical purpose that’s rare and enthralling. The basic trio is Lina Allemano (trumpet), Dan Peter Sundland (electric bass) and Michael Griener (drums). This is the trumpeter’s Berlin-based power-trio Ohrenschmaus (translation: “A feast for the ears”). Andrea Parkins (accordion, objects, electronics) guests on three tracks that are improvised by the band.
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Sep 5, 2024 | 
jazzjournal.co.uk | Andy Hamilton
Marta Sánchez is currently a member of the David Murray Quartet. Here she leads a trio with bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Savannah Harris, for which she writes some challenging compositions. The album originates in a journey through a dark period, as the titles of the compositions indicate – I Don’t Want to Live The Wrong Life And Then Die, The Absence Of The People You Long For, and other titles, reflect Sanchez’s introspective musings. But musically they are not as dark as the titles suggest.
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Aug 26, 2024 | 
jazzjournal.co.uk | Andy Hamilton
Dancing The Line was released in 1985 on French label Nato – no connection to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. This is its first reissue. The album is inspired by the fashion of French designer Anne Marie Beretta, and features an eclectic combination of musicians: Beresford’s partner in Alterations David Toop, Kazuko Hohki from Frank Chickens, and classical clarinettist Alan Hacker. Lyrics are by Andrew Brenner.
