New on Palmetto
Bobby Previte
Pan Atlantic (DIGITAL DOWNLOAD ONLY)
Bobby Previte brings together some of the finest European jazz musicians in his new release, PAN ATLANTIC. (Available as a digital download only)
The “Pan Atlantic Band,” which has been touring for two years, features young stars and old masters of the continent. Gianluca Petrella, from Italy, is the rising force on the trombone. From Vienna comes Wolfgang Puschnig, the master alto saxophonist, who has lent his talents to scores of bands in his long career. On Fender Rhodes is Benoit Delbecq, the deep-thinking French pianist. The young Danish phenomenon Nils Davidsen holds down the bottom on electric bass.
In the middle of a tour last year, the musicians traveled to Italy and took four days off in Turin to cut the tracks in Petrella’s favorite studio -- a big beautiful room where the band stretched out. It was mixed in New York by the legendary Scott Harding and mastered by Scott Hull at Masterdisk.
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09/14/09 From the Arts & Leisure Fall Preview - NY Times
BEN ALLISON The brave commingling of progressive jazz and indie-rock continues apace on “Think Free,” the new album from this ever-shrewd bassist and composer. He has good people for the job: the guitarist Steve Cardenas, the trumpeter Shane Endsley, the violinist Jenny Scheinman and the drummer Rudy Royston.
Nate Chinen
08/04/09 Matt Wilson Quartet - Boston Phoenix
Whatever else is going on in jazz ‹ fractured meters, indie-pop fusions ‹
it's always good to hear a couple of horns burning through the changes over
swing cymbals and a hard-walking bass groove. Reedmen Andrew D'Angelo and
Jeff Lederer play the top half of that equation on drummer Wilson's latest
while the leader and bassist Chris Lightcap cover the bottom end.
At times, this album exudes the glorious free bop that emerged from the '70s
and '80s avant-garde. D'Angelo kicks off the album with an alto-sax
annunciation that's as smooth and speedy as Charlie Parker, with Eric
Dolphy's sharp angles. This is especially cheering because, only months
before this September '08 recording session, D'Angelo had been treated for a
malignant brain tumor. Here he's in full command.
Lederer's tenor tears varied phrases through the standard "Two Bass Hit,"
smooth runs shifting into testifying honks. And the free-squall monkey gets
turned loose on Lightcap's Ornette-ish "Celibate Oriole." Not that there
aren't moments of reflection, like the 12-tone chamber arrangement for
clarinet and bass clarinet, "Lucky," the traditional hymn "Come and Find the
Quiet Center," and the vocal-number finale, War's "Why Can't We Be Friends?"
Why indeed.
07/20/09 Matt Wilson Quartet gets Critics Choice in New York Times, 07/05/09
MATT WILSON QUARTET
“That’s Gonna Leave a Mark”
(Palmetto)
There’s a deep sense of play in Matt Wilson’s quartet. It’s full of feints, slang, sentimentality and a peaceful lack of inhibition; its loose ensemble feeling has a grace born of practice.
Mr. Wilson, a drummer, keeps evoking Billy Higgins, who died in 2001 and remains a great, nonrestrictive ideal. On “That’s Gonna Leave a Mark,” the band’s new record, he’s clear and swinging, attuned to color, pitch and the overall sound of his drum set; he likes spacious funk and shuffle rhythms, takes his time and doesn’t play too heavily or densely. Even when the tunes are written by the other members of the quartet — they all contribute to the repertory — there’s a specific kind of gentle humor in this band, as there has been since its beginning, 13 years ago. Mr. Wilson is the protector and guarantor of that humor; he draws it out and sometimes seems to tamp it down.
The alto saxophonist Andrew D’Angelo, who also plays bass clarinet, is the band’s wild card, crashing through the genial moments with scraping, sputtering energy: a great not-quite-free jazz soloist. His foil is Jeff Lederer on tenor and soprano saxophone and clarinet, whose playing stays upright, elegant and rhythmically balanced. In the album’s slowest piece, Mr. Wilson’s almost-lullaby “Getting Friendly,” Mr. D’Angelo and Mr. Lederer slip around each other, playing in and out of sync, drawing a tension and keeping it. The performance spills over with personality.
A few pieces strongly suggest early ’60s Ornette Coleman, unsurprisingly. (He’s the clearest model for Mr. D’Angelo’s earthy, sigh-and-babble phrasing, and his band was the greatest conduit of Mr. Higgins’s talent.) There’s also a hymn called “Come and Find the Quiet Center,” a tough little cover of the bebop standard “Two Bass Hit” and a casual version of the War hit “Why Can’t We Be Friends?,” with 10 backup singers who eventually take over the song. This band has an identity from its influences and, by now, its own pedigree, but this record sounds porous and unassuming; it’s not painting itself into any corners. BEN RATLIFF











