Avant Garde

January

A mature statement by a still-young Polish band that already has 15 years of playing experience behind it. All group members shine here, withMarcin Wasilewski again impressive as one of the most outstanding jazz pianists of his generation. The group has already a strong and still-growingfollowing both in their own right and as members of the Tomasz Stanko …

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Bermuda Triangle

The San Francisco-based Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket and white mask-wearing half man/half chicken space oddity and guitar phenom known as Buckethead (Guns ‘n Roses, Praxis, El Stew, Deli Creeps) presents his latest futuristic creation, a collage of hip hop and electro-esque beats, dark and eerie samples, and live instrumentation played by Buckethead and producer Extrakd (El Stew, Gonerville). …

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Coming About

Eclipsed by bebop’s seismic shift toward small groups, battered by the free-blowing strategies of the avant garde and threatened with obsolescence by synthesizers, orchestral jazz has rebounded over the past decade in a still modest but gratifying resurgence of serious, large ensemble recordings and renewed appreciation for past masters like the late Gil Evans. His legacy echoes reassuringly …

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Invisible Cinema

‘Invisible Cinema’ (2008), released on the legendary Blue Note label, is the debut album of American jazz pianist and composer Aaron Parks. Parks, already famous in Jazz circles for his early work with trumpeter Terence Blanchard , debuts here as leading his own quartet, featuring Eric Harland on drums, Matt Penman on bass, and Mike Moreno on guitar. …

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River: The Joni Letters (with Bonus Tracks) – Amazon.com Exclusive

This Amazon.com exclusive version of River: The Joni Letters includes two bonus tracks, “All I Want” featuring Sonya Kitchell and “A Case of You.” The legendary pianist and innovator Herbie Hancock explores the words and music of another musical pioneer, Joni Mitchell, on his first new studio recording for Verve since 1998’s GRAMMY® award-winning Gershwin’s World. Inspired in …

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Intents And Purposes

Described by the NY Times as a major force of the jazz avant garde, trumpeter/composer Bill Dixon’s seminal work Intents and Purposes was recorded in 1966 and yet, despite critical acclaim, and a public eager for it, the recording has never been available on CD until now. It is beautifully packaged to duplicate the original vinyl release, including …

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The Classic Quartet – Complete Impulse! Studio Recordings

Revolutionary, shattering, spiritual and profound-the vocabulary runs dry when trying to describe the recordings that the Quartet of John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones made for the Impulse! label between 1961 and 1965. And this 8-CD set has every studio recording the group recorded together, 66 tracks culled from 18 albums including such landmark works …

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Everblue

When pianist Yelena Eckemoff released Cold Sun (L & H Production, 2010) – a trio date with drumming legend Peter Erskine and Danish bass whiz Mads Vinding – the jazz world was introduced to a startlingly fresh voice destined for great things. Over the course of the six albums that followed, Eckemoff lived up to that promise, delivering …

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