Jazz
The five compositions and one de facto suite played at the NEC Winds and Winds Ensemble performance spoke with six different voices and carried six different messages.
The point of the Spring Quartet, one assumes, is to showcase its four multi-talented members, particularly their talents as composers.
Quatuor Ébène burst into song. And I think it’s safe to say singing of any kind is almost never heard at a strings-only concert.
“Music just comes, you know? You’re harvesting potatoes, and something happens and you have to put it immediately on paper.”
NEC is closed tonight but much of the repertoire on this program is also scheduled for a concert on March 6.
The Matt Wilson Quartet prides itself on variety: the band can play ersatz Indian music, free jazz, and funky rhythm and blues, as well as an occasional touching ballad.
In nearly 78 minutes of intensely concentrated playing, Jane Ira Bloom’s album offers some of the greatest ballad performances I have ever heard.
Amongst the acoustic live sessions, listeners should be delighted with the Chick Corea-Herbie Hancock duets.
“Learning to Listen” is less about a jazz journey than it is about a prodigiously talented artist for whom music came easily while his own life was a puzzle.
Jazz Review / Commentary: Brian Carpenter’s Ghost Train Orchestra and Some Notes on “Irony”
Brian Carpenter and the Ghost Train Orchestra are not about re-creating either hot jazz from the ’20s or novelty works from the ’30s and ’40s. They’re interested in capturing the spirit that they perceive to be inside these almost-forgotten pieces and using that spirit to make original new music.
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