Post Tagged with: "Fusion Jazz"

Vinyl

Avishai Cohen – Flood (2008)

by Pico For the second time in a year, we’re here looking at an Avishai Cohen album, but from two different musicians. Because, while both are jazz artists who hail from Israel, the one we examined earlier specializes in acoustic bass. The one we looking at here is a trumpetRead More

Weather Report - Weather Report (1971): On Second Thought

Weather Report – Weather Report (1971): On Second Thought

This is perhaps Weather Report’s most honest record. You just have to lean in closer to appreciate it.

Vinyl

Arild Andersen – Live At Belleville (2008)

Arild Andersen may not be the first name that comes up when one thinks of the greatest living acoustic bassists, but he’s at least earned the right to be considered somewhere on that list. A player of expansive range, lyricism and velocity, Andersen’s list of credits as a sideman readsRead More

Vinyl

The Best of 2008, Part 3: Rock Fusion & World Fusion Jazz

photo: Rueters (R.I.P. Esbjörn) by Pico With the best releases of the more mainstream type of jazz examined, it’s time to take a look at jazz hybrids, or fusion. In years past,”fusion” usually meant just jazz-rock fusion. Increasingly, even jazz-rock music has become more fragmented, as we’ve seen an explosionRead More

Vinyl

Azymuth – Butterfly (2008)

I remember Azymuth back in the eighties as this funky little jazz fusion trio from Brazil whose sound approximated Weather Report but with some hot samba thrown in for local flavoring. The Cascades LP I had back then got a fair amount of spins and these guys were all better-than-averageRead More

Vinyl

Deep Cuts: Herbie Hancock, "All Apologies" (1996)

by Nick DeRiso Herbie Hancock almost didn’t pull off “The New Standard.” This High Concept offering from 1996 found Hancock, with varying degrees of success, adapting songs by popular artists like Peter Gabriel, The Eagles’ Don Henley, Paul Simon, The Beatles and Prince. You had to give him credit —Read More

Vinyl

Medeski, Martin and Wood – Radiolarians 1 (2008)

I’ve covered a Martin and Medeski album, a Wood Brothers album and even an MMW children’s album on this space, but this is the first go around with a “proper” Medeski, Martin & Wood release. Radiolarians 1, which hit the streets September 30, is the first of a planned trilogyRead More

Vinyl

Bill Moring & Way Out East – Spaces In Time (2008)

Bill Moring is someone readers of this space have come to know as the guy jazz pianist extraordinaire Steve Allee relies upon for holding down the bottom in his band. Moring is hardly “just” Allee’s bass player, though. Throughout a three-decade career, Moring has played in ensembles of all sizesRead More

Vinyl

One Track Mind: Ramsey Lewis "Sun Goddess" (1974)

Like Ahmad Jamal, Cecil Taylor and Paul Bley, Ramsey Lewis is a jazz pianist who first emerged in the 1950s and is still with us today. Unlike those other cats, though, Lewis was never accused of challenging the existing conventions of jazz. With crossover hits like “The In Crowd” andRead More

Vinyl

Pork Pie – Transitory (1974)

by Pico Jazz fusion records from the 1974 time frame are almost always going to fall into one of two categories: a few that are truly great but overly familiar, or, more frequently, simply forgettable. Transitory by Pork Pie is a unique one from that period in that it’s bothRead More