Tubular Bells
adminProgressive hippy jam studio music was in the air So, here in the mail is a VG+ US copy of Mike Oldfield’s classic Tubular Bells, for which I paid $4.00…
Read MoreECM Records: What Makes Them So Special
ECM Records always represented, to me, the apex of creative instrumental music. Along with Impulse! Records, home of John Coltrane, and Arista’s Freedom Series, ECM represented to me the fact…
Read MoreJohn Abercrombie/Cat ‘N’ Mouse
Amazon | Spotify You could call the latest John Abercrombie recording, Cat 'N' Mouse, 'chamber jazz'—it's a term (not always meant in a complimentary way) that many use to describe…
Read MoreCharlie Haden & Egberto Gismonti/In Montreal
by Paul Donnelly There is a sublime moment about three minutes into the opening track when Egberto Gismonti abstracts chords from ‘Café’, a track from his 1978 album Sol Do…
Read MoreStefano Bollani/Piano Solo; Enrico Rava & Stefano Bollani/The Third Man
Piano Solo: Amazon | Spotify The Third Man: Amazon | Spotify Piano Solo Enrico Rava was one of the first Italian jazznmusicians to be taken seriously by American musicians and…
Read MoreJohn Surman & Jack DeJohnette/Invisible Nature
Amazon | Spotify John Surman has had a wide ranging and varied career playing an unusual combination of instruments. As a baritone saxophonist, he is in a rarified group of…
Read MoreJan Garbarek/In Praise of Dreams
Amazon | Spotify Jan Garbarek’s latest CD, In Praise of Dreams, is his first in six years, and continues his tendency, since the late 1980s, to move in a highly…
Read MoreTord Gustavsen Trio/Being There
Amazon | Spotify Listening to “At Home,” the opening track on Being There, The Tord Gustavsen Trio’s most recent CD, one cannot help but think of this European unit as…
Read MoreTord Gustavsen Trio/Changing Places
Amazon | Spotify What the heck is happening up there in Norway, anyway? Looking at the roster of world-class jazz musicians this country has produced, you would be forgiven for…
Read MoreTord Gustavsen Trio/The Ground
Amazon | Spotify Tord Gustavsen and his trio return with their second ECM disc, The Ground, and for those (like myself) who were totally beguiled by Changing Places the new…
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