Michael Tucker, Author at Jazz Journal

Reviewed: Kinan Azmeh and CityBand | Natural Artefacts | Billy Hart Quartet | Max Roach | Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Roy Eldridge

Michael Tucker — Wed, 14 May 2025 13:40:12 +0000

Kinan Azmeh and CityBand: Live In Berlin (Deyer Gaido 11796) The dialectical relation between unspeakable horror and subsequent inspiring human creativity continues to boggle the mind. In his short sleeve note the Syrian-born, Brooklyn-based clarinetist Azmeh (born 1976) tells us that most of the original and consistently arresting music here was composed and performed “during […]

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Reviewed: Santana | Mel Tormé | Gustaf Ljunggren, Emil de Waal

Michael Tucker — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 08:57:55 +0000

Santana: Sentient (Candid 33532) There’s no listing for Carlos Santana in my copy of Jazz: The Rough Guide, nor any mention by contributor Ian Carr of Santana’s collaboration with fellow guitarist John McLaughlin on the (would-be) Coltrane-drenched 1973 release Love, Devotion, Surrender. This chiefly pile-driving and reiterative electric venture has long garnered heart-felt praise from […]

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Eliane Elias Trio at Ronnie Scott’s

Michael Tucker — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 11:16:17 +0000

I heard this trio in 2012 when they were augmented by guitarist Rubens de La Corte for Elias’s aptly titled and ecstatically received Light My Fire quartet date at the Ystad Sweden Jazz Festival. As this fabulous evening at Ronnie’s showed, time has done nothing to diminish the interactive potency and overall appeal of leader […]

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Trio Akima at St Luke’s, Brighton

Michael Tucker — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 11:28:16 +0000

I passed on a recent sold-out gig by Andy Sheppard and the Espen Eriksen trio at Chichester Jazz Club. Why? So I could keep my ears keen and eyes open for the slightly later concert by the Trio Akima ensemble of Geoff Hearn (ts, f, elecs, pc, v), Paul Richards (g) and Joe Philogene (pc, […]

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Reviewed: Yuval Cohen Quartet | Yelena Eckemoff | No Codes | The Young Mothers | Stina Helbeck Agback

Michael Tucker — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 19:46:03 +0000

Yuval Cohen Quartet: Winter Poems (ECM 651 6886) In his From March 1979 the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer – a favourite of such distinguished Scandinavians as Jan Garbarek and the late Georg Riedel – wrote of how he was weary of all who come with words, “words but no language”. Making his way to “the […]

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Reviewed: Rainer Brüninghaus | Kjetil Mulelid Trio | Amir ElSaffar, Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch | Jacob Dinesen

Michael Tucker — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 10:46:47 +0000

Rainer Brüninghaus: Freigeweht (ECM 589 2370) Reissued in ECM’s audiophile Luminessence series of high-quality vinyl, this superbly recorded music from 1980, all from the German pianist, keyboards and synthesizer tone-master Brüninghaus, features measured, melodically resonant work from Kenny Wheeler (flh) and Brynjar Hoff – the latter then the Oslo Symphony Orchestra’s principal oboist and also […]

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Robert Fowler Quartet at Chichester Jazz Club

Michael Tucker — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 10:18:14 +0000

Having wrapped up last year’s programme with a thoroughly enjoyable evening of Christmas-flecked material, courtesy of the captivating Alan Barnes Octet, Chichester Jazz Club kicked off 2025 with two foot-tapping and finger-snapping – but also deeply lyrical – sets from the excellent Robert Fowler Quartet. A fine clarinettist, Robert left the liquorice stick at home […]

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Reviewed: Bobby Wellins | Avishai Cohen | Colin Vallon | Carsten Dahl | Thomas Fonnesbæk | Lars Danielsson, Verneri Pohjola, John Parricelli | Chris Lee

Michael Tucker — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 18:40:34 +0000

Bobby Wellins Sextet: Homage To Caledonia – Live 1979 (Jazz In Britain JIB-67-5-CD This most welcome – and unmissable – single volume release from Jazz in Britain comes hard on the heels of the label’s two-CD Wellins issue of 2023, What Was Happening. Both releases feature the same splendid quartet which the swinging and audacious, […]

Reviewed: Unleashed Cooperation | Arild Andersen | Louis Sclavis, Benjamin Moussay | Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Paul Motian

Michael Tucker — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 11:11:52 +0000

Unleashed Cooperation: Trust (MultiKulti MPPA005) New to me, the superb Polish ensemble Unleashed Cooperation features Krzysztof Kusmierek (ts), Patryk Rynkiewicz (t), Patryk Matwiejczuk (p), Flavio Gullotta (b) and Stanislaw Aleksandrowicz (d) – with Anna Gadt (v) contributing compelling lyrics and vocalese to four of the eight tracks which make up the 44 minutes of the […]

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Music For Black Pigeons

Michael Tucker — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 12:44:50 +0000

The quartet gig which John Surman had at Ronnie Scott’s this past June (reviewed 12/06) was memorable enough in itself. What made the evening extra special was the fact that long-time ECM aficionados Adrian and Jane Goldsmith were in the audience. We had never met up before but when we did, just after the gig […]

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