1000 Kilometers
Oregon | Cam Jazz (2007)
By John Kelman
AllAboutJazz full review here
"...drummer/percussionist Mark Walker has been with the group for more than a decade, so it's time to stop considering him the new kid on the block. Opening 1000 Kilometers with his propulsive and Latinesque "Deep Six"--WalkerÕs first tune to be featured on an Oregon record--it's clear that he's an integral part of the group's current soundscape. It may be only possible to fully appreciate his remarkable ability to combine a conventional drum kit with an array of hand and electronic percussion when seen in performance, but it's become a new fundamental for the group, one of many factors that keeps Oregon from being caught in a stylistic time warp.
Funk Tango
Paquito D'Rivera | Sunnyside Records (2007)
By Chip Boaz
AllAboutJazz full review here
Latin Grammy Award Nominee!!
Alto saxophonist/clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera presents his album, Funk Tango, under the group name "The Paquito D'Rivera Quintet?." "Quintet" refers to his working group of trumpeter/valve trombonist Diego Urcola, pianist Alon Yavnai, electric bassist Oscar Stagnaro and drummer Mark Walker. The "?"highlights the groupÕs flexibility through use of additional musicians or smaller configurations. Guests include percussionist Pernell Saturnino, bandoneonist Hector Del Curto, cajon player Pablo Stagnaro and pianists Ed Simon and Fernando Otero. The assured playing of the core quintet, complimented by these additional musicians, creates a diverse and exciting recording.
Day 3 - TD Canada Trust Ottawa International Jazz Festival, June 24, 2006
full All About Jazz review here
By John Kelman
Saturday nights at the Ottawa International Jazz Festival usually mean Afro-Cuban party time, and the performance by Cuban-born/New York-based clarinetist/saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera and his quintet didn't disappoint....
Paquito D'Rivera may be a more accessible artist, and he builds no small component of pure entertainment into his performances, but that doesn't mean he isn't a class act. His quintet featured a host of outstanding musicians, some better known than others.
Sharing the front line with D'Rivera was Argentinean trumpeter Diego Urcola. His latest release, Viva (CamJazz, 2006), is an adventurous record that, like work by other young Latin artists including altoist Miguel Zenon and pianist Edward Simon, demonstrates an intrepid approach, applying a more modernistic bent to his own rich musical heritage. Urcola's style allows for extroverted bursts of energy as well as spare lyricism, but he always focuses on solos with a purpose. It was great to hear his 7/4 minor blues "Tango Azul" -- which opens Viva -- played at last night's show.
Drummer Mark Walker may hail from Chicago, but he has proven himself to be an extremely flexible and adaptable player since emerging on the scene in the early 1990s. His range spans from Afro-Cuban work with D'Rivera and Caribbean Jazz Project to the broader world music inflections of Oregon and the more cerebral work of pianist Jon Weber, whose Simple Complex (Second Century Jazz, 2004) received considerable critical acclaim.
Like Urcola, he's playing much more in the tradition with D'Rivera, but with an authenticity and unerring sense of groove that made the quintet's version of Astor Piazzolla's "Libertango" a highlight of the set. Walker may not have the cachet of some of the other, higher-profile drummers of his generation, but one look at his remarkably large discography tells all.
Prime
Oregon
By John Kelman for All About Jazz
Given most marriages don't last 35 years, the fact that three of perennially genre-busting group Oregon's four founding members have remained together so long--and there's little doubt that if Colin Walcott had not tragically died in a car accident in '84, he'd still be around too--is truly remarkable. Sure, there are a few old warhorse rock and roll bands like the Rolling Stones who've been around longer. But given the mercurial and significantly less-recompensable nature of jazz, guitarist/pianist Ralph Towner, woodwind multi-instrumentalist Paul McCandless, and bassist Glen Moore's ability to continue to evolve and find new things to say makes them a definite anomaly in the jazz landscape.
Their latest release also features more recent recruit Mark Walker, who, having been with the group since '97's Northwest Passage, is Oregon's longest-standing percussionist since Walcott's untimely passing. Prime demonstrates just how they've taken influences from a variety of spaces over the years--jazz, folk, classical, ethnic music of India and Brazil, and more--and integrated them in ways that eliminate delineation, developing a unique language imitated but never copied. Their strongest album in years, Prime also reconnects the group with recording engineer Jan Erik Kongshaug and Rainbow Studio in Oslo, Norway. This is the first time they've recorded there since their short tenure with the ECM label in the mid-'80s, and the result is an album whose sonic excellence matches its exceptional writing and performances.
As always, Towner provides the lion's share of the writing. It's as much about his unique way of voicing as specific melodic and rhythmic concerns, and it remains instantly recognizable but never predictable. In its pastoral folksiness, "If" bears some resemblance to earlier pieces like "Green and Golden," but its odd meter and deceptively difficult changes provide characteristic yet fresh grist for Towner and McCandless' advanced improvisational acumen, which remains uncannily lyrical in the face of harmonic adversity.
And while some have accused Oregon of becoming softer and less edgy over the years, Towner's three-part "Monterey Suite," some of his best writing in recent years, lays waste to that suggestion. While lacking the sharp angularity of some of his earlier work, the complex nature of the first part, "Dark," still comes from a shadowy place similar to "Distant Hills," even as Walker's kit work gives it less idiosyncratic but more dynamically-building forward motion. The second movement, "Tammurriata," vividly proves that Towner's creative sense of counterpoint is still intact.
As always, a number of brief free pieces act almost as way stations along the disc's greater narrative arc, and it has the same inherent sense of purpose that has always differentiated Oregon's spontaneous improvisations, which are more about texture and ambience than mere notes and pulses.
Moore contributes two pieces, most notably a reprise of "Pepe Linque" from '85's Crossing which, with Walker's shuffle beat and Towner's blues/gospel piano, is the closest Oregon has ever come to boogie. Proof that, with Prime, despite the kind of familiarity that can only come from so many years together, Oregon still has more than a few tricks up its sleeve.
Prime is available from Cam Jazz
Latin Jazz Latino
Joe Gallardo &
NDR BIGBAND
With "Latin Jazz Latino" Joe Gallardo has picked up on the theme again , this time a Bigband recording, and just thoroughly convincing as ever. Support is being given by the fiery arrangements from the hand of New Yorker Michael Mossman, who has adopted the traditional Latino orchestras of the `50s and `60s as a basis. The arranger accomplishes this without detracting from the NDR Bigband's excellent solo abilities, thus allowing the fresh breeze of a younger jazz generation to literally "blow their horn". As Joe Gallardo composed all of the pieces, due consideration has been given to successfully depicting the great breadth of Latin American jazz, from Mexico to Venezuela, over to Cuba and even the realms of Brazil. A decisive role must be attributed here to Paquito D'Rivera's rythm section, which was invited especially for this recording. Oscar Stagnaro, Alon Yavnai and Mark Walker lay down the heat for the always alert NDR Bigband.
CD available from Skip Records.
Door in a Field
Jim Ridl / Dreambox Media
from www.allabout jazz.com
Track Listing: sun on my hands; sweet clover; caragana; six hours later;
door in a field; tenetree; discin'; thirty foot ceiling; green meadow waltz
Personnel: Jim Ridl, piano; Darryl Hall, bass; Mark Walker, drums; Diane
Monroe, violin; Kathy Ridl, viola, accordian; Jeffrey Solow, cello
CD Review Search:
"Concept" albums are commonplace in jazz these days, and some artists seem
to release nothing but. On the best of these, the idea behind the record
adds depth and cohesion to the music within, but too often we end up with
weak conceits masking lack of invention (think about all the ". . .plays
Jobim", or ". . .does showtunes" CDs in the racks). The new album by
Philadelphia pianist Jim Ridl, Door In A Field, is an example of the former
happy category.
Working in a trio format with bassist Daryl Hall and drummer Mark Walker,
and aided by a string trio on several tracks, Ridl has composed and
performed a heartfelt tribute to his parents, who raised him and his
siblings on a North Dakota farm. Indeed, the project is quite a family
affair, with Kathy Ridl featured on accordian and viola and a photograph of
a Douglas Ridl sculpture in the CD booklet. Thankfully, Jim avoids all
maudlin cliche and simplistic country windowdressing to deliver real jazz
that manages to evoke the unadorned majesty of the prairie with subtlety and
grace. The strings are sparingly employed in a classic manner, adding
harmonic depth without ever sounding syrupy.
Ridl's style is melodic and cleanly delineated, with occasional excursions
into rhythmic vamps and metric quirks to keep things interesting. "Sun On My
Hands", the lead-off track, is a lovely ballad with a some enigmatic melodic
turns. Hall introduces the infectiously bouncy melody of "Sweet Clover,"
which is then picked up and developed with aplomb by Ridl. Walker's funky
backbeat drives Ridl's percolating piano along on the groovy "Six Hours
Later", which is followed by the desolately beautiful title track in a
stately 6. "Discin'" evokes the tractor's ever decreasing circles as the
farmer harrows a field. A propulsive 10-beat phrase powers "Thirty Foot
Ceiling", inspiring Ridl's best solo work; he's really cookin' here. An
arrangement of the Czech folk song "Green Meadow Waltz" provides the album
with a poignant, but good-humored conclusion.
Door In A Field was clearly a labor of love for Ridl, and his collaborators
seem to have understood his vision. Together, the musicians have made a
gorgeous album of great emotional and musical power. Concept or no, it is a
special achievement.
-- Joshua Weiner
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