Author Archives: Mel Minter

Marta Sanchez Offers a Musical Portrait of Her Inner Landscape

Marta Sanchez. Photo by Kimberly M Wang.

Pianist/composer Marta Sanchez turned pandemic lockdowns into deep self-encounters whose complex, emotional, and bittersweet reckonings she offers up in her latest release, SAAM (Spanish American Art Museum).

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Soul-Sustaining Music from Javon Jackson

Javon Jackson and Nikki Giovanni. Photo by Shaban R. Athuman.

In his capacity as a faculty member of The Hartt School and director of its Jackie McClean Institute of Jazz at the University of Hartford, saxophonist Javon Jackson invited activist, educator, and poet Nikki Giovanni to speak to students in February 2020. When she’d finished her talk, she heard Steal Away, the Hank Jones/Charlie Haden album of hymns and spirituals, one of this household’s favorites, playing in the auditorium. She wanted to hear more of it, which gave Jackson the idea to do an album of hymns and spirituals. He asked Giovanni to select 10 tunes, and she sent him the selections a few days later. The result is The Gospel according to Nikki Giovanni, whose healing powers testify to the songs’ enduring capacity to refresh the soul.

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French Soprano Saxophonist Émile Parisien Delivers

Émile Parisien sextet (l2r): Nasheet Waits, Joe Martin, Roberto Negro, Theo Croker, Parisien, Manu Codjia. Photo by Samuel Kirszenbaum.

I first encountered French saxophonist Émile Parisien on an album titled XXXX (ACT), released last year. (I’m a little late to the party—OK, very late, since Parisien has recordings going back as far as 2014 at least.) XXXX is an impressive live recording—five stars in Downbeat—from the quartet of Michael Wollney, Parisien, Tim Lefebre, and Christian Lillinger, but the high level of anxiety it induced in me might keep it out of my CD player for a while. I did, however, take note of Parisien, whose musicality and humanity stood out across every track, whatever the mood or tempo. A name to remember, I thought, and then his latest recording, Louise, appeared in my post box. It confirmed my first impression—in spades.

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Club d’Elf’s Stunning Video Single Previews New Album

The Club d’Elf core (l2r): Mister Rourke, Dean Johnston, Mike Rivard, Paul Schultheis, Brahim Fribgane.
Photo by Mark Wilson.

Club d’Elf, an ever-changing musical collective led by head elf Mike Rivard, has released an inspired video single, “Dervish Dance,” to preview its forthcoming album, You Never Know (available April 1). The video features sand artist Kseniya Simonova, whose spellbinding creation captures the essence of the tune and your imagination.

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Coherent Freedom

Carol Liebowitz. Adam Lane; photo by Rodrigo Amado. Andrew Drury; photo by Reuben Radding.

For many people, music that is “freely improvised” is about as welcome as a root canal procedure. Not surprising really, since much of what has been labeled that way is self-indulgent and often cacophonous bloviation. In hands of disciplined and connected musicians, however, freely improvised—or as Carol Tristano likes to call it, intuitively improvised—music has the coherence of anything written on paper, with an extra frisson of unpredictability. Exhibit 1: Blue Shift, from the trio In Real Time (Carol Liebowitz, piano; Adam Lane, bass; and Andrew Drury, drums).

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