Album Review: Fire Bell, INCENDIOS
Sometimes swinging, and sometimes twisting in a multi-meter tangle, Fire Bell’s new album INCENDIOS is all personality.
“Full Circle”: Debbie Duncan Live at the Dakota, March 30-31
© Andrea Canter In 1993, when the Dakota was in its first incarnation at Bandana Square in St Paul, Debbie Duncan made the club label’s first live recording. Nearly...
Koplant No Delivers With Their Latest Release “Elker”
I am on my fourth time listening through Koplant No’s new album Elker. I’m loving every minute of it. I’ve been listening to Koplant for six or seven years...
Brilliant Conversations: “After the Fall”, Keith Jarrett Trio (ECM, 2018)
The headline above for the latest release from the “Standards Trio”—Keith Jarrett (piano), Gary Peacock (double bass) and Jack DeJohnette (drums)—is worthy of a nod to the title...
New Recordings
The holidays have long since come and gone. Eagerly anticipated tropical getaways have been actualized. After a brief dearth typical of a year’s end, the music resumes. Here...
“Confluence”: Laura Caviani CD Release in the Dunsmore Room, December 6
© Andrea Canter Less than two months following the release of her album of Monk arrangements (Mysterious Thelonious), pianist/composer/educator Laura Caviani holds another CD celebration, this one filled...
The Jazzy Side of the 60th Grammy Award Nominations
© Andrea Canter And the nominees are….. lots of jazz and jazz artists! The 60th Grammy Awards nominations have been announced, and in addition to the formal jazz...
New Recordings: Brian Blade, Keyon Harrold, Gregory Porter, Lizz Wright
Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band: Body and Shadow (Blue Note) If you’ve read my last few review entries, you may sense a trend. If it seems like...
Pavel Jany Celebrates “Acoustic Condition” at the Black Dog, October 20
© Andrea Canter A prolific performer, composer and bandleader, guitarist Pavel Jany takes time out from his multiple Brazilian music projects to celebrate a more eclectic one– the release...
Blue Note All-Stars: “Our Point Of View” (Blue Note Records, 2017)
If ever there was a jazz label more entitled to proclaim some of their stable “All-Stars,” Blue Note Records would surely top that list. Likewise, if there were a...
Hiromi/Edmar Castaneda, “Live in Montreal” (Telarc, 2017)
If you think about it, the harp is just a piano with its guts strewn about. Or, to be more historically accurate, the piano is a harp with little...
“Mysterious Thelonious”: Laura Caviani Marks Monk’s Centennial With New Recording and Concerts with Karrin Allyson, October 13-14
© Andrea Canter For many years, Twin Cities pianist Laura Caviani marked the October birthday of one of her muses, Thelonious Monk, with a performance of his music, usually...
Playing With “Joyfire”: Ted Olsen Quartet Celebrates CD Release at the Icehouse, September 20
© Andrea Canter It might be a contrived word, but “Joyfire” seems an apt description of the compositions and performance of bassist Ted Olsen, and thus is a logical...
Kermit Ruffins and Irvin Mayfield: “A Beautiful World” (Basin Street, 2017)
There are but a scant few variables you can count on in this woeful world: Frozen pizza is always sub-par, dogs are awesome, and New Orleans will always...
Dee Dee Bridgewater: “Memphis…Yes I’m Ready” (Okeh, 2017)
Since the days of Billie and Ella, it is nearly impossible to find a jazz singer who wasn’t a by-product of the popular music of her day. Yet for...
Jana Nyberg 5 Celebrates New Album in the Dunsmore Room, August 11
© Andrea Canter A frequent performer throughout the Twin Cities on such stages as the Dakota, Vieux Carré, Crooners and Jazz Central, vocalist/songwriter/flautist Jana Nyberg recently brought her quintet...
CD Reviews: New Orleans Flotilla, Crooner Abuse, and Hands Across the Baltic/Seine
louis vuitton handbags michael kors Normally I keep this to a two-blurb minimum. But this week it’s a trifecta. I’m out of the studio for much of the month...
Celebratory Finale at Reverie: CD Release for The Living Room Sessions
© Andrea Canter (Note: Article based on press release from Shifting Paradigm Records) After nearly three years, including one major schedule change and rebranding of the venue, Thursday Night...
Various Artists: “The Passion Of Charlie Parker” (Impulse, 2017)
I’ll be honest, when I pulled this one out of the padded envelope, I thought: “It’s the answer to a musical question nobody asked.” Vocalese tributes to instrumental lions...
Joel Shapira: In Essence (2017)
The guitar, and its distant kin, the piano, are self-contained orchestras. Few other instruments possess their range in dynamics and melodic potential. If you’re going to master either, it...