• Music

    Samo Salamon, Vasil Hadžimanov & Ra-Kalam Bob Moses – Dances of Freedom

    February 4, 2024 - By 

    From Samo Salamon’s Bandcamp site: “An amazing trio, I love both of these players so much. I have had the privilege to play and tour with Bob in trio with Arild Andersen and he has been one of my heroes for year. Absolute blast on stage, always!!!! I have learned so much from him. Vasil, my brother from the South, has been one of my favorite pianists. We spent a beautiful week together on a workshop in Novo Mesto as mentors and I’m so happy we were able to do this one with Bob. So happy about the album, very…

  • Music - Podcast

    [Podcast] La Montaña Rusa 49.2023. Kurt Rosenwinkel. Borderlands Trio. Tomasz Stańko Quintet. Jovan Milovanović Quartet. Greg Spero.

    December 18, 2023 - By 

    La Montaña Rusa 49.2023. Kurt Rosenwinkel. Borderlands Trio. Tomasz Stańko Quintet. Jovan Milovanović Quartet. Greg Spero. Today there will be no reviews as we are having to prepare for Christmas at the school and time is limited, so I share with you the ever-wonderful La Montaña Rusa podcast and a broadcast of some fine jazz and improvised music.  Enjoy yourselves this evening!

  • Music

    Thelonious Monk – Mønk

    December 6, 2023 - By 

    Thelonious Monk will need no introduction from my readers.  He is the quintessential jazz pianist, and this unreleased album comes from a 1963 Danish recording session.  It is Monk playing at his peak.  From the release’s Bandcamp site: “Hot on the heels of Impulse’s recently unearthed Coltrane number one hit album comes another beauty from Jazz’s ‘Holy Trinity’. This is a previously unreleased, precious lost treasure from Monk’s most critically acclaimed line-up; Charlie Rouse on saxophone, John Ore on double bass, and Frankie Dunlop on drums. The music was recorded live in Copenhagen in 1963 at the peak of Monk’s…

  • Music

    Kristo Rodzevski – Black Earth

    November 8, 2023 - By 

    Here is something rather magnificent coming out of Macedonia in the form of Kristo Rodzevski’s latest album through Defkaz, a great Greek label.  There is hope for the Balkans yet!  From the Defkaz Bandcamp site: “Black Earth has eleven traditional Macedonian songs infused with African aesthetics, including Gnawa undertones, Congo rumba, and African field recordings. The core of the traditional Macedonian harmonies and rhythms was developed over the centuries from the Ancient Greek and Roman Empire’s lyricism, Byzantium’s chants, and the Ottoman Empire’s classical music progressions, by way of multiple migrations, storytelling, wars, myths, tribalism, reconciliations, etc.) In a nutshell,…

  • Music

    Luther Thomas Human Arts Ensemble – Funky Donkey Vol. 1

    October 18, 2023 - By 

    Yet another vinyl masterpiece, reissued to perfection, comes to us from Wewantsounds.  This gem features a big player in the St. Louis jazz scene, Luther Thomas.  From the label’s press release: “A gang reunion, an effort of revitalization, a headbangers’ blowout, a legendary “lost” recording, a snapshot of its time, prophetic of sounds to come – Funky Donkey is all those things, but worth attention most ’cause after 50 years it’s still fun to hear. Alto saxophonist-ringleader Luther Thomas and his St. Louis cohort comprising the Human Arts Ensemble live large on this album, conveying as if right now the…