AltWeeklies Wire
Singer Gretchen Parlato Makes Every Gasp and Exhale Count on 'In a Dream'new
The foremost qualities of jazz vocalist Gretchen Parlato's artistry are her breathy gentleness and sensuality -- she doesn't sing so much as insinuate. Throughout her latest, she exhibits a supple, nuanced airiness that puts the disc leagues ahead of the year’s other vocal jazz recordings.
Washington City Paper |
Michael J. West |
09-10-2009 |
Reviews
Loose Control: Matthew Shipp's 'Harmonic Disorder'new
Harmonic Disorder is something of a flip through the jazz yearbook for connoisseurs, and for initiates it’s a glimpse of the piano’s range within the genre. For both parties, though, it serves notice of the lies behind both the title and the name above it: Shipp is a musician of scholarship and precision, harmonic and otherwise.
Washington City Paper |
Michael J. West |
01-29-2009 |
Reviews
Saxophonist Joe Lovano's Orchestral Effort Lives and Dies by the Solosnew
In fact, he gives only three members of Germany's massive WDR Radio Big Band & Orchestra solo time on Symphonica, a live CD of a 2005 show in Cologne that puts his compositions in an orchestral setting.
Washington City Paper |
Michael J. West |
09-04-2008 |
Reviews
Bassist Avishai Cohen Takes a Lead Role on His New Trio Albumnew
Jazz "neocons" -- those who maintain that if it isn't blues-based, it isn't jazz -- will surely reject Gently Disturbed. There's not a 12-bar or a blue note to be found, because the disc is too subversive, and too damn good, to bother with such rigid constraints.
Washington City Paper |
Michael J. West |
05-23-2008 |
Reviews
Lionel Loueke's Guitar Playing Bridges Continentsnew
Despite Art Blakey's admonition that "jazz doesn't have a damn thing to do with Africa," musicians everywhere have never stopped trying to establish the link. Guitarist Lionel Loueke, who's from Benin, fuses his jazz with melodic West African pop.
Washington City Paper |
Michael J. West |
03-20-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Karibu, Lionel Loueke
Hammer and Ficklenew
A pair of jazz pianists -- Cyrus Chestnut and Jacky Terrasson -- take odd but inspired detours from tradition.
Washington City Paper |
Michael J. West |
11-01-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: Cyrus Chestnut, Cyrus Plays Elvis
The Quality of Percy Is Not Strain'dnew
Even the most seasoned jazzhead will need to plug through For Percy Heath several times, and with patience, to get anywhere -- but despite some chaff, Parker's music succeeds.
Washington City Paper |
Michael J. West |
01-26-2007 |
Reviews
What It Takes
This album charges right into unfiltered Southern soul, and its target audience may need a few listens to digest it.
Washington City Paper |
Michael J. West |
10-20-2006 |
Reviews
