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Nate Dorward

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Everything posted by Nate Dorward

  1. I've heard the Glasgow one on Leo. It's got its moments, though I didn't find the electronics at all interesting.
  2. A couple reviews in Canadian mags, including a brief Q&A: http://www.exclaim.ca/musicreviews/general...&fid1=34938 http://www.eyeweekly.com/ondisc/article/46311
  3. Nate Dorward

    Nimbus records

    Can only speak of the Sharps disc--it's good, not revelatory, but there's a terrific pair of cameos by Tapscott, & the CD has an excellent PAPA bonus track, 15 mins long, with plenty of HT's piano.
  4. Hm, well, I suppose there's some ambiguity about the word "strong" here (= "forceful" or just "good"?), but in any case I think MG's an excellent, well-rounded player, capable of more than just going on a rampage. I'm not always crazy about the company he keeps, alas (a concert earlier this year with The Thing & Vandermark has to be the loudest gig I've ever fallen asleep at), & I find it uncomfortable to watch him loll his tongue about like a free jazz Gene Simmons, but I've heard enough good stuff from him (like that great duo with Agusti Fernandez) to put him in my good books. Of recent releases the ones I've been finding most exciting are actually the reissues or archival discoveries of the 1960s and 1970s South African expats--been playing McGregor's Up to Earth and Harry Miller/Isipingo's Which Way Now a lot recently. -- & oh yeah, just got Ray Warleigh's duo with Tony Marsh in the mail yesterday & have been spinning it a lot. It was about time he made a new album as a leader!
  5. On Meaning is on Pi, also. -- It's an admirable update on the 1960s vibesy avant-Blue Note sound, though truth be told I found it hard to care too much about it.
  6. Yeah, thanks for the plug for online betting, too.
  7. Use Jazz Loft, Verge or other small-label distributors & you shouldn't have a problem (& the price will be far more reasonable).
  8. I've not been getting many review copies this year after withdrawing from three of the 5 mags I wrote for, but a few things to mention that came in nonetheless, or which I purchased-- Free Zone Appleby 2007, Psi Mary Halvorson, Dragon's Head, Firehouse 12 Fred Hess, Single Moment, Allison Chris McGregor, Up to Earth, Fledg'ling Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath, Eclipse at Dawn, Cuneiform Alex von Schlippenbach, Piano Solo '77, FMP Bik Bent Braam, Extremen, BBB Jim McAuley, The Ultimate Frog, Drip Audio (personal involvement in this one duly noted) Empty Cage Quartet, Stratostrophic, Clean Feed John Butcher/Torsten Mueller/Dylan van der Schyff, Way Out Northwest, Drip Audio There are other ones that I liked or that I think would go on if I listened to them a few times more, but for now just those 10.
  9. Though the rest of the album's fine, the main reason to own Jackie McLean's Bluesnik is his solo on the title track. Nothing else on the album comes even close. The only reason I hang on to Jimmy Halperin's trio disc on CIMP is that totally off-the-wall take on "Spanish Castle Magic".
  10. Hey Clifford--no idea if anyone's doing it for Bags! I certainly hope so (& if you're in the mood yourself, drop me a line & I can get you a review copy). I think it'd definitely appeal to you, given its stylistic combo of free improv, classical & roots music. I just came across this very nice appreciation by the trumpeter Kris Tiner, which also has a few nice shots of Jim in action at a recent gig.
  11. What a band! Whooooo! Pity they kept interrupting the music for a bit of rabbiting. Any idea who the band was, Nate? MG No, no idea who's in the band, though I think the music there is by Legrand. Maybe some of our European organissimo members can help....? If you found the dropouts annoying here, just try A Woman Is a Woman....!!
  12. Yeah, that's a beautiful album. I just heard from Jim that a label has shown interest in releasing the trio's live album Vignes--fingers crossed......
  13. Jeepers, there have been TWO discs of Willie Nelson covers in the past year? Probably that one is a little more straightforward than the Reveries' album.....
  14. Urgh.... best wishes to Mark. Haven't heard a lot from him lately, but liked his early work, & the disc with Billy Hart's quartet shows he's still got the flame burning high.
  15. Hope you enjoy it! For me it was especially interesting to hear Dale Bruning, who was just a name to me though he's been around a long while (he must be in his mid-80s by now). He gets a nice solo guitar feature on "Spring Is Here".
  16. I've been following Hess's series of recent albums with increasing interest--wasn't enormously taken with the first I heard (The Long & Short of It) but each one since then has seemed to me an advance on the last. He's got that slightly grey, nervy sound & wary harmonic sense that I associate with Warne Marsh, & his arranging is quite distinctive--touches of the intricately polytonal 1950s writing of George Russell or Teddy Charles, though in the liners to this disc he mentions Shorty Rogers too & that makes sense. Anyway, he's been making a series of albums with basically the same band--Ron Miles on trumpet, Ken Filiano on bass, Matt Wilson on drums--but adding in other players: saxophonist John Gunther was on board for the last couple of discs, & now this new one has the veteran guitarist Dale Bruning, which makes for a really lovely ensemble sound (& Bruning is responsible for a number of the arrangements and compositions). This is much more of a "straight" jazz album than the previous ones--it's got covers of an interesting bunch of standards ("When My Lady Sleeps", "Spring Is Here" and two less-covered Benny Golson tunes, "Thursday's Theme" and "Out of the Past") & really the only dose of freedom come on the latest installment of Fred's Clefs series of whimsical musical narratives, and the title-track, a 12-minute freeish tribute to Michael Brecker. Anyway, I like it when Fred "opens up" a bit--his arranging is admirable & very personal but can be nearly claustrophobic over an album's length--& he does here, & the results are very fine indeed.
  17. Another suggestion: the BFT creator give you a list of the track titles & artists, in advance...... we've had a number of folks who never revealed them, which is massively frustrating.
  18. Hm, that's interesting--I do some of the STN copyediting but Pete obviously deleted that section of the review before I saw/edited it. I've heard that disc, & yes it's pretty awful. I guess he felt it wasn't worth wasting (increasingly limited) column inches over.
  19. Obviously they made music without playing it... Perhaps Jim means that Jamal's "concept" interests him more than the actual playing. Fair enough.
  20. Marvellous! But I'm really bummed about the Garner, which is a body of work that's been very badly served in the CD era.
  21. Thoughts on Barry Galbraith, anyone? Always thought he added a lot to George Russell's work (& I think he's on that Teddy Charles Atlantic disc too)--he seemed to vanish after that, though.....
  22. Not sure if this is the right forum for this post--if not the moderators can move it--as it's not a disinterested review but a plug for a project I was involved in somewhat. (I wrote the liners.) Anyway: the guitarist Jim McAuley's new two CD set The Ultimate Frog is now out in the world from Drip Audio. It's a set of duets recorded 2002-2007 with four different musicians: Leroy Jenkins (violin, viola), Nels Cline (guitar, dobro), Alex Cline (drums, percussion), Ken Filiano (bass). Some free improvisation, some structured improvisation, and a few nice tunes that draw on Jim's background in fingerpicked blues & folk music (& his study of the oud). Plus a "duet" between Jim & a rainstorm outside, dedicated to Rod Poole. I won't say a lot about it (you can find the press release on the Drip Audio site if you're curious--most of it is actually stuff I cut from the liners to get them to a single page) except that I think it's truly remarkable music with a lot of soul & honesty. Only the 2nd disc I've done the liners for (the other, by Charlie Kohlhase, hasn't emerged yet) & it's really a pleasure to be involved with such an exceptional record. There are several MP3s on the Drip Audio site if you want a taste.
  23. I always found Heffley a terrible writer, actually. My recollection is that the Radano is OK. Does Lock write on Braxton anymore?
  24. A favourite player; terribly sad to hear he's gone. I did catch him play once, at the Montreal Bistro--he kindly played "Tickle Toe" when I requested it.
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