Wednesday, November 2 2011
Aram Bajakian: Aram Bajakian’s Kef
Kef is postmodern chamber jazz that swings proficiently with an always-apparent – and quite convincing – Eastern vibe.
Thursday, April 14 2011
Pitom: Blasphemy and Other Serious Crimes
By the end of Blasphemy and Other Serious Crimes you should be exhausted by the experience, but you mostly feel rejuvenated, aware that something meaningful has happened.
Wednesday, September 8 2010
The Shape of Jazz That Came…
The awake, aware folks who make and receive these offerings celebrate an ever-evolving music that resists boundaries, the sort capable of communication that transcends language and explanation.
Thursday, August 13 2009
Rashanim: Healing Music for Unrighteous Times
Rashanim's work is quite clearly grounded in tradition (both religious and musical), but their invocation of other places and times are very rooted in a modern sensibility: it’s definitely jazz and it is certainly imbued with a distinctively Jewish sensibility. Above all, it rocks.
Wednesday, January 28 2009
John Zorn by John Brackett
One must be willing to risk being consumed by the dark, cabalistic world Zorn has created around his art.
Wednesday, October 8 2008
DIY: Takahiko Iimura
Takahiko Iimura read about the American underground film movement and began making experimental works based only on what he'd read. Soon he was a leading experimental filmmaker.
Thursday, September 25 2008
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
We're given the legacy of one of the 20th century’s most influential avant-garde filmmakers and artists, but also the sad, thin-skinned ego of a societal outcast.
Friday, January 12 2007
The Microscopic Septet: Seven Men in Neckties/Surrealistic Swing
Possibly the most vital jazz group of the 1980s, in retrospect.
