This disc is mainly a showcase for guitarist Nels Cline’s compositions as well as his cleverness at commanding group improvisation.
Blue-Note
Jazz Concert Review: Nels Cline 4 — Mindbenders
Nels Cline 4 is a group that can cross musical and cultural boundaries with exhilarating ease.
Film Review: “I Called Him Morgan” — A Superb Jazz Documentary
I Called Him Morgan has been lauded as one of the best films of the year, and rightfully so.
Music Review: Patricia Barber’s `The Cole Porter Mix’
by J.R. Carroll “Singer/songwriter” is not a description often applied to jazz musicians, and generally with good reason: Jazz instrumentalists have demonstrated again and again that as wordsmiths they are, well, outstanding instrumentalists. At best, the typically after-the-fact lyrics strive uneasily for either social uplift or hipster knowingness; at worst, they are just embarrassingly lame. […]
Music Review: Becoming Coltrane: Part One
By J. R. Carroll This review/commentary will focus on Coltrane’s recordings with the Miles Davis Quintet for Columbia (in October 1955 and June and September 1956) and Prestige (in November 1955 and May and October 1956), as well as a variety of sideman dates and nominally leaderless sessions, many of which have recently been reissued […]