Andy Hamilton, Author at Jazz Journal

Reviewed: Jim Doherty with Louis Stewart | Satoko Fujii | Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith

Andy Hamilton — Thu, 01 May 2025 10:57:31 +0000

Jim Doherty with Louis Stewart et al: Spondance (Livia Records LRCD2403) Pianist-composer Jim Doherty’s octet album was recorded in 1986 with close friends Louis Stewart (guitar) and Bobby Shew (trumpet). The band features the finest Los Angeles musicians – Bob Sheppard: alto, Gordon Brisker: tenor, Randy Aldcroft: trombone, Tom Warrington: bass, and Billy Mintz: drums. […]

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Reviewed: Russ Lossing | Sophie Agnel & Michael Zerang | Coo

Andy Hamilton — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 14:08:13 +0000

Russ Lossing: Moon Inhabitants (Sunnyside Records SSC1752) New York City based American pianist and composer Russ Lossing has a singular musical vision that makes him a musician’s musician. That means that he is not a populist, and remains little-known beyond his coterie of admirers. Maybe he’d agree with Jim Hall, that if someone had asked […]

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Brassroots Democracy: Maroon Ecologies And The Jazz Commons

Andy Hamilton — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 12:54:57 +0000

In Brassroots Democracy, author Benjamin Barson presents a “music history from below”, embracing the Haitian revolution, post-civil war reconstruction and early jazz. The term “brassroots democracy” is a synthesis of grassroots activism and New Orleans’ historic brass-band tradition, and Barson argues that jazz arose from the mass mobilisation of freed people during reconstruction during the […]

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Reviewed: Marilyn Crispell, Gary Peacock, Paul Motian | Iancu Dumitrescu | Benjamin Lackner

Andy Hamilton — Sun, 02 Feb 2025 19:06:01 +0000

Marilyn Crispell with Gary Peacock, Paul Motian: Amaryllis (ECM Records 6515177) This haunting album, reissued in ECM’s Luminescence vinyl series, features intense improvising and memorable compositions. As Marilyn Crispell says, “There’s a great depth of communication, a rare delicacy.” It was recorded in 2000, and it’s sad to note that only the pianist is still with […]

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Reviewed: Michaël Attias | Jakob Bro | Kevin Sun | J.D. Allen

Andy Hamilton — Sat, 04 Jan 2025 11:07:40 +0000

Michaël Attias: Quartet Music Vol. II – Kardamon Fall (Out Of Your Head Records OOYH 031) Alto saxophonist Michaël Attias was born in Israel, brought up in Paris, educated in Minneapolis, and has lived in New York since 1994. His latest release is the successor to LuMiSong, which was recorded during Covid and released earlier […]

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Reviewed: Michel Petrucciani | Neta Raanan | Collin Sherman

Andy Hamilton — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 14:37:35 +0000

Michel Petrucciani: Jazz Club Montmartre (Storyville Records 1038541) This previously unreleased live double album from Copenhagen’s Jazzhus Montmartre features the French master in a magnificent trio with Gary Peacock (bass) and Roy Haynes (drums). The trio existed only for a studio session in 1987 and a short European tour the next year, of which this […]

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Playing The Changes: Jazz At An African University And On The Road

Andy Hamilton — Sat, 30 Nov 2024 12:23:56 +0000

Darius Brubeck has “played the changes” both as a musician, and politically, through deep involvement in the cultural politics of South Africa, 1983-2005. With partner Catherine, he moved there in 1983 to lead Africa’s first jazz-studies degree programme, at University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in Durban. In 1989, he became director of the new Centre for […]

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Reviewed: Tord Gustavsen | Sam Norris | Ben Monder

Andy Hamilton — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 14:12:40 +0000

Tord Gustavsen Trio: Seeing (ECM Records 6516879) Pianist Tord Gustavsen was born in Oslo in 1970. He studied music at Oslo and Trondheim universities, then made his highly successful ECM debut with Changing Places in 2003. It was followed by two other trio albums, The Ground (2005) which reached No. 1 in the Norwegian pop […]

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Report: Vilnius Jazz Festival 2024

Andy Hamilton — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 13:27:40 +0000

As intrepid festival director Antanas Gustys explains in the programme, this is the 37th Vilnius Jazz Festival – and incredibly, he has been in charge since the first. The Alister Spence/Tony Buck duo on the first night is one of the highlights, building on their 2023 debut album Mythographer. Both players have a remarkable stylistic […]

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Reviewed: Lina Allemano’s Ohrenschmaus | Achim Kaufmann

Andy Hamilton — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 13:07:33 +0000

Lina Allemano’s Ohrenschmaus with Andrea Parkins: Flip Side (Lumo Records LM 2024-16) This is my kind of album – an eclectic mix of styles, from song-forms to free playing, but with a unity of musical purpose that’s rare and enthralling. The basic trio is Lina Allemano (trumpet), Dan Peter Sundland (electric bass) and Michael Griener […]

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