Like Louis Armstrong, drummer/composer Matt Wilson makes no distinction between high art and low art. He probably wouldn’t even accept the use of those terms. So he finds beauty and meaning in just about any piece of music, and he manages to satisfy both the demanding jazz veteran and the tentative jazz newcomer. His quartet—composed of four leaders who manage to work together seamlessly—is always fun, always surprising, and always communicating something behind the music, as it does on the new release, Hug!
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New Releases: Bassist Jorge Roeder Solo and Composer/ Arranger John Hollenbeck with Big Band
These two new releases—El Suelo Mío from bassist/composer Jorge Roeder and Songs You Like a Lot from composer/arranger/conductor John Hollenbeck—sit at the opposite ends of the orchestral possibilities: solo and big band, respectively. Both have the juice to light up all your synapses.
Live Music! in Recordings from the Manuel Valera Trio and the Marvin Stamm/Mike Holober Quartet
Damn, I miss live music, but new releases from the Manuel Valera Trio and the Marvin Stamm/Mike Holober Quartet capture that frisson of excitement available only in a live setting.
These Guys Can Play (and Compose): New Work from Joe Fiedler’s Big Sackbut and Dave Glasser
Joe Fiedler’s low-brass quartet Big Sackbut (sackbut: an early form of trombone used in Renaissance music) enjoys an amphibian lifestyle, while Dave Glasser’s quartet takes classic jazz into fresh territory.
Grab Bag: Anne Mette Iversen, Julian Wild, and Matthew Shipp
The coronavirus does not seem to have slowed the release of new work by much, though I have noticed a significant uptick in publicists’ emails of late. Here are three new releases from completely different musical universes named Anne Mette Iversen, Julian Wild, and Matthew Shipp.