DivX Clásico

From The Plantation to the penitientiary



Review by Matt Collar
On "Where Y'all At?," the last track off trumpeter Wynton Marsalis' 2007 studio album From the Plantation to the Penitentiary, Marsalis delivers a spoken word tirade against everything from the demise of socially conscious hip-hop and misguided politicians to America's commercial and capitalist culture. He asks, "All you '60s radicals and world beaters, righteous revolutionaries, Camus readers, liberal students, equal rights pleaders, what's going on now that y'all are the leaders?!" It's a stunning five-and-a-half-second track that perfectly states what the oft-quoted and often outspoken Marsalis is angry about. While musically he may be a traditionalist, here we find him in a vitriolic, forward-thinking mood. Long an outspoken figure in the jazz world and a lightning rod for debate over what constitutes the so called "jazz tradition," Marsalis is less concerned about the direction of jazz music here and more about the direction of American society. Obviously spurred on by the war in Iraq, the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina (which ravaged his hometown of New Orleans), and what he clearly views as a gluttonous, vapid, misogynist and deeply racist American culture, Marsalis has crafted a bluesy, cerebral, soul-inflected album reminiscent of work by such iconic artists as Charles Mingus and Nina Simone. Adding weight to these comparisons is newcomer vocalist Jennifer Sanon, whose Simone-meets-Blossom Dearie style, featured throughout, adds a warm, melodic pathos to Marsalis' stark, spiritual and '50s Beat-influenced songs. This may not be the most musically avant-garde or boundary-pushing album, but it is a deeply personal and grounded creative statement, which is fascinating coming from an artist of Marsalis' stature and mainstream popularity.

John Coltrane - Ole

Personnel: John Coltrane (soprano & tenor saxophones); Eric Dolphy (alto saxophone, flute); Freddie Hubbard (trumpet); McCoy Tyner (piano); Reggie Workman, Art Davis (bass); Elvin Jones (drums). Recorded at A&R Studios, New York, New York on May 25, 1961. Includes liner notes by Ralph J. Gleason. Having explored all sorts of country cousins of the blues, John Coltrane evokes the spirit of mother Africa and Moorish Spain on this, his final Atlantic recording. Fellow crusaders McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones are joined by Reggie Workman as well as fellow bass virtuoso Art Davis, while Trane's new front-line collaborator Eric Dolphy and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard give him an immense sonic canvas upon which to reinvent jazz. OLE COLTRANE extends the forms, anticipating the freedom and far reaching spiritual pilgrimages of the Impulse! years. Miles' KIND OF BLUE and the music of Ornette Coleman suggested new improvisational possibilities. For Trane, they represented a way out of his harmonic labyrynth, a pursuit of simpler, more expressive modalities--offering even greater rhythmic/melodic complexity. "Ole" is electrifying, one of Coltrane's greatest collective achievements. Elvin Jones' hypnotic six-beat cymbal pulse, the strummed ostinatos of Workman and Davis, and Tyner's murmuring chordal drone form a syncopated wall of sound--equal parts Iberian dance, desert sirocco and evening raga. Coltrane's soprano emerges to enunciate the meditative theme, and with each successive solo--Dolphy's flute, Hubbard's toreador song, Tyner's impassioned strumming, the bassists' flamenco reverie--the rhythm becomes darker and more impassioned. Then Trane re-enters on his magic carpet, his soprano ablaze in a song of praise. Coltrane follows with "Dahomey Dance," a tippling blues in the manner of "Freddie Freeloader." Tyner's ringing accompaniment and lyric thunder clothes Elvin's triplet-inflected swing in vibrant raiment, as Hubbard's bumblebee trumpet and Dolphy's tangled bass clarinet yelping answer Coltrane's garrulous tenor in kind. Tyner's "Aisha" is an intricate romantic ballad, moving from a waltzing repeated figure to an evocative 4/4 groove bathed in Jones' luminous brushwork. The way Tyner anticipates each horn's lyric design and echoes Elvin's rhythms, the manner in which he orchestrates single-note melodies and immense two-handed harmonies into song-like choruses, all mark him as the decade's most dominant piano stylist.

allmusic.com escribió:Andrew Hill may never have achieved the name recognition of a Thelonious Monk but among jazz pianists he had few peers. During the '60s he was a restless post-bop innovator, recording a series of classic sessions for Blue Note including 1964's {^Point of Departure} and {^Judgment!}. As the decade progressed, his albums became more and more daring, culminating in the 1969 set {^Passing Ships} which the label didn't release at the time until 2003, during the thick of a genuine Andrew Hill renaissance. Hill had been relatively quiet since the mid '70s, turning toward academia and putting his recording career on the back-burner, but at the turn of the millennium he moved back to New York and recorded a series of widely-acclaimed albums for Palmetto and Blue Note, records that cemented his reputation as a visionary composer and pianist. Hill died on April 20, 2007 of lung cancer, leaving behind a formidable legacy that's ripe for discovery.

el_salmonete escribió:Eres un friki!

Jason Vieaux - Images Of Metheny (2005) (mp3 192).rar

Virtuoso jazz guitarist Pat Metheny has always had a flair for melody to rival Schubert and the Beatles. One wouldn't think that his long-breathed tunes (and their contextual harmonies) could be sustained by classical guitar, but Buffalo, N.Y., native Jason Vieaux has arranged some of Metheny's most striking compositions for his solo instrument -- and plays them with clarion beauty. The resulting album is an inspired masterpiece, with appeal far beyond classical and jazz listeners to virtually anyone who loves music.

Those who don't know Metheny's recordings will be beguiled simply by the way these pieces combine surface loveliness with emotional depth. Many tunes are colored like rainbows; but, as with Mozart, most silver linings have their wistful cloud. Those who do know Metheny's originals -- usually played on electric guitar with a full band -- will find Vieaux's arrangements staggering in the way they incorporate so many strands of these rich, often improvised creations into a singular whole.

Recorded with the ideal sort of sumptuous clarity, such highlights as "Tell Her You Saw Me," "Message to a Friend" and "The Bat" are poetry in motion. The composer's imagination and the player's execution dazzle hand in hand.

-- Bradley Bambarger

A escasamente un mes de su inicio, el alcalde de la capital asturiana, Gabino de Lorenzo, del PP, ha anunciado el aplazamiento "indefinido" del festival de jazz de la ciudad. ¿Razones? Las molestias que el ruido genera en los vecinos. "Este próximo mandato municipal va a ser el de la lucha implacable contra el ruido", ha asegurado De Lorenzo. Sorprendentemente, no sólo se han suspendido los actos previstos al aire libre, sino también los que iban a celebrarse bajo techo, entre ellos, los programados en el flamante auditorio Príncipe Felipe.

La insólita decisión ha provocado la inmediata respuesta de las fuerzas de oposición y la de los principales afectados, promotores y artistas, para quienes la medida esconde "algún inconfesable entresijo". El aplazamiento del festival en su cuarta edición le fue comunicado a la organización a través de un correo electrónico enviado por la Sociedad Ovetense de Festejos (SOF), encargada de la gestión del mismo, alegando "falta de coordinación con grandes figuras".

La decisión ha dejado en la calle, entre otros, a la cantante estadounidense Donna High-tower y al pianista Chano Domínguez, cuyas actuaciones estaban igualmente anunciadas, junto a las del bluesman John Mayall, el conjunto de gospel Blind Boys of Alabama y el pianista Ramsey Lewis y su trío. Además del festival de jazz (previsto inicialmente para los próximos 19 al 26 de julio), De Lorenzo ha suspendido todas las celebraciones nocturnas en la ciudad con la única excepción de as fiestas de San Mateo, "para las que siempre habrá tolerancia municipal y comprensión ciudadana".