Bear Proof, the new release from bassist/composer Todd Sickafoose and my first encounter with his work, offers a chamber music adventure in an exhilarating jazz setting, featuring eight exceptional, genre-fluid musicians and a deep, articulate, and arresting compositional voice.
In an ever-failing attempt to catch up on my listening, here are quick looks at three distinctly different review-worthy albums from the Emily Kuhn Quintet, the Alex Coke and Carl Michel Sextet, and Miguel Zenón and Luis Perdomo.
Day, the second and deeply satisfying release from drummer/composer Rudy Royston and his sui generis Flatbed Buggy aggregation, features original compositions that are rooted in the demotic music of North America and leafed out in a setting of contemporary jazz.
Award-winning ethnomusicologist, anthropologist, linguist, documentarian, sound artist and ecologist, musician, and UNM professor Steven Feld encountered Por Por (pronounced paaw paaw), Ghana’s honk horn music, 20-some years ago and has continued to work with the musicians, documenting this unique genre. The exclusive players of this squeeze-bulb klaxon horn music are the drivers in the La branch of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (La is a district of Accra). In his most recent effort on their behalf, Feld combines them with the Texas Horns, a preeminent U.S. soul, blues, and roots trio. The result is an astonishingly strange and familiar hybrid.
I’ve fallen behind in my listening and reviewing, so to catch up a bit, here are four short reviews of ear-worthy releases from reedman Michael Blake’s septet, bass soloist Brandon Lopez, pianist Jean-Michel Pilc’s trio, and the duo of altoist Pierrick Pédron and pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba. Happy listening, to one and all.
