Denny Zeitlin with George Marsh & Mel Graves – The Name Of This Terrain

American pianist and psychiatrist Denny Zeitlin has a body of work that is second to none, including winning several jazz awards and scoring films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but this album was hidden away at Zeitlin’s insistence, which is a shame, as it blends avant-jazz, funk, rock and Continue Reading

Pekka Pohloja – Jokamies (Everyman)

 Jokamies (‘Everyman’ in Finnish) is a collection of tracks for a television series of the same name composed by the Finnish bassist Pekka Pohjola.  After his work with the hard-rock/progressive outfit Wigwam, he ventured into jazz fusion (perhaps New Age as well) and made some of the most impressive Continue Reading

Richard Dawson – The Ruby Cord

Richard Dawson’s latest album is a fascinating listen.  It mixes vocals that could fit in well with English folk, psychedelic rock, prog and AOR music, while being musically underpinned by something that could almost pass for freak folk at times, while falling back now and again on progressive rock structures.  Continue Reading

Pete Swinton – The Book Of Chuang-Tzu, Ch. 18

Zhuang Zhou is the pinyin transliteration of Chuang Tzu, the Chinese taoist philospher who lived some time during the 4th century B.C. during the Warring States Period, and was part of a movement where Chinese philosophy enjoyed an explosive period of development.  He is the subject of the album being Continue Reading

Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley – Being Astral And All Registers – Power Of Two

I’m not sure if one can rightly call this a free-improv classic, but it’s hard to find two musicians who gel together as well as Cecil Taylor and Tony Oxley do.  The piano playing is fierce and powerful, matched stroke-for-stroke by Oxley’s percussion and drumming.  A fine live disc.