Jazz in Elsewhere
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LUCIEN JOHNSON, ACCLAIMED, REVIEWED AND INTERVIEWED (2024): Reaching for a quiet place
9 Apr 2024 | 5 min read
When Wellington saxophonist Lucien Johnson released his album Wax///Wane three years ago it became an immediate Elsewhere favourite. At year's end it was in our Best of the Year list and also that of the Listener (which admittedly was a list chosen by us). What drew us to it was how different it was from most New Zealand jazz releases. In part we said, “The... > Read more
Tomasz Dabrowski and the Individual Beings: Better (digital outlets)
31 Mar 2024 | <1 min read
Two years ago Elsewhere drew attention to this Polish trumpeter and his innovative ensemble. In part a tribute to the late Tomasz Stanko (an Elsewhere favourite), the album was impressive for the confident diversity of the material and playing which ran from cool blue Miles Davis stylings to the outer reaches of free jazz. But is was the more restrained and contained material which left... > Read more
Upright
Alice Coltrane: Shiva-Loka (Impulse!/digital outlets)
22 Mar 2024 | 1 min read
The rediscovery of pianist/harpist/composer Alice Coltrane in the past decade picks up speed this year with the “Year of Alice” which will see attention shone on her recordings for the Impulse! And Verve labels. The widow of John has had sporadic attention over the decades so we are forgiven if we haven't paid serious attention previously. Her original albums were hard to find,... > Read more
Charles Lloyd: The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow (Blue Note/digital outlets)
18 Mar 2024 | 1 min read
Even those who just casually poke around Elsewhere will know the affection and high esteem in which we hold saxophonist/flautist Charles Lloyd. One of his albums Lift Every Voice is in our Essential Elsewhere selection and frankly there are another couple we could slip in there without apology. Now 86, Lloyd brings even more quiet sensitivity and emotional care to his material as he... > Read more
The Lonely One
Taylor Griffin: In Green (digital outlets)
26 Feb 2024 | 1 min read
Auckland drummer Taylor Griffin is well connected and well travelled with New Orleans, New York, London and Italy on his CV. He's of a new generation, but has a strong connection with Nathan Haines who co-produced the six pieces on this, Griffin's debut, in Auckland. Haines also guests on flute for the driving Latin jazz-funk of the ascending title track and... > Read more
In Green, ft Nathan Haines
Aron and the Jeri Jeri Band: Dama Bëgga Ñibi/I Want To Go Home (digital outlets)
1 Feb 2024 | 1 min read
Well, here's an album which has had immediate uptake at Elsewhere because it falls neatly between jazz and world music This is the debut album – after a couple of EPs – from expat keyboard player Aron Ottignon (piano, synths) and the Jeri Jeri Band from Senegal (marimba, percussion, vocals, drums, bass). In truth, it pulls together some material from the EPs – the... > Read more
Ngaldoore
Dave Wilson: Ephemeral (Thelonious Records/bandcamp)
11 Dec 2023 | <1 min read
With a string quartet and quintet, Wellington saxophonist Wilson brings out a provocative, enjoyably challenging and thoroughly engrossing collection of charted and improvised pieces. There is multi-layered energy to burn on the opener Speak to Me of Yesterday and Tomorrow (Elusive as the Dead) – all lower case – which weaves its way towards the electric version of Ornette... > Read more
Dissipation
THE VERVE LABEL AT 50 (1994): Great music, bad maths
17 Nov 2023 | 1 min read
When there is time, Elsewhere will be sourcing a rich vein of its archival material which was published in various places during the Eighties and Nineties which are not available on-line. These will most often be reproduced as they appeared in print. Some may be a little fuzzy in the reproduction but we think the story or interview are worth it for researchers or fans. Best read on a... > Read more
Defne Şahin: Hope (digital outlets)
13 Nov 2023 | 1 min read
To some small extent local listeners might have been down this narrow path previously with Matthew Bannister (as One Man Bannister) setting of some Emily Dickinson poems to music on his album The Saddest Noise. Bannister's project was a folk/pop album taking Dickinson's words into his songs, this album by Berlin-raised jazz singer Şahin (of Turkish parents) is a much more sophisticated... > Read more
Lake/Landaeus/Osgood: Spirit (digital outlets)
13 Oct 2023 | 1 min read
The great American saxophonist Oliver Lake might be in his early 80s and have won a Guggenheim Fellowship 30 years ago, but somehow he hasn't been accorded that senior statesman role, the likes of Pharoah Sanders have achieved. Perhaps that's because Lake has been so much harder to get to grips with. He has recorded dozens of albums under his own name, everything from free jazz to... > Read more
Aztec
Dark Hall: Dark Hall (digital outlets)
30 Aug 2023 | 1 min read
We've had to do our homework on this but, on the basis of a sample track sent our way, we were very happy to do so. This is what we've learned. This adventurous funky jazz quartet were formed in '92 by the metal bassist Steve Di Giorgio who has worked with Testament, Megadeth and many others (but references Jaco Pastorius as an influence), saxophone/flute player Flamp Sorvari and... > Read more
Changing Weather
Miles Davis: Turnaround; Rare Miles from The Complete On The Corner Sessions (Sony/digital outlets)
26 Aug 2023 | 1 min read
When Elsewhere wrote at length about The Complete On The Corner Sessions six-CD box set last year we noted that in '72 when Miles Davis started pulling musicians together for what would become the street-funk On The Corner, no one had much idea what the trumpeter might have in mind. Among the crew who came and went were guitarist John McLaughlin, Colin Walcott and Khalil Balakrishna... > Read more
Benjamin Gisli Trio: Line of Thought (Fjordgata Records/digital outlets)
23 Aug 2023 | 1 min read
By chance I had heard of this young pianist from Iceland whose name was mentioned in a conversation last year in Stockholm when learning about Sweden's late pianist Esbjörn Svensson (whom I hadn't heard of). I remembered because – preconceptions abound here – I hadn't thought someone from Iceland would be called “Benjamin”. So when this debut album... > Read more
Line of Thought
Paul Dunmall New Quartet: World Without (577 Records/digital outlets)
19 Aug 2023 | <1 min read
The astonishingly prolific British jazz and free improv saxophonist Paul Dunmall has released something like 100 albums under his own name with the likes of Marcus Stockhausen, Keith Tippett, Andrew Cyrille and others, and has been a sideman to Johnny Guitar Watson, Roswell Rudd, Richard Thompson and many more. He now turns up on the uncompromising 577 Records out of New York with guitarist... > Read more
World Without (edit)
COLTRANE AND DOLPHY, DISCOVERED (2023): Pushing at the Gate
7 Aug 2023 | 2 min read | 1
When Thelonious Monk said “freedom and jazz go hand in hand” he was making a political observation, but also telling us something about the nature of jazz creativity. Jazz allows its creators a freedom unavailable in most other musical idioms. But, as with Abstract Expressionism, the far reaches of jazz creativity can leave the audience behind. Those who want... > Read more
Impressions
JAZZ AS IT'S MEANT TO BE: (2023): Come and see the real thing . . .
28 Jun 2023 | 3 min read
Earlier this year under the heading The Jazz Conundrum, Elsewhere considered just how difficult jazz was to promote. Proper jazz, the improvised stuff. We noted many so-called jazz festivals – like the Waiheke Jazz Festival this year – are padded out with artists firmly in the pop and rock category and not even close to something we know as jazz, which we loosely defined as... > Read more
Tania Giannouli: Solo (Rattle/digital outlets)
12 Jun 2023 | 1 min read
Greek pianist/composer Tania Giannouli has had a long association with Auckland's Rattle label, this being her fifth release through them. She has recorded with taonga puoro artist Rob Thorne and Rattle's Steve Garden on Rewa in 2018, with her own ensemble, and her trio album In Fading Light (piano, trumpet and oud, no rhythm section) was one of our Best of 2020 albums. As far back a... > Read more
The Circling Sun: Spirits (Soundways/digital outlets)
4 Jun 2023 | 1 min read
The drummer/producer Julien Dyne and saxophonist Cameron Allen have appeared a number of times at Elsewhere in different contexts, from Avantdale Bowling Club and free jazz to emotionally yearning material. Here they are part of the illustrious Auckland collective The Circling Sun which takes spiritual flight through Latin influences, the Coltranes John and Alice, a touch of Sun Ra, the... > Read more
Spirits, Part 2
Richard X Bennett, Matt Parker: Parker Plays X (BYNK/digital outlets)
29 May 2023 | 1 min read
When Brooklyn-based composer and keyboard player Richard X Bennett contacted Elsewhere almost a decade ago we were immediately curious, his New York City Swara album was inspired by his immersion in the classical music traditions in India when he studied in Mumbai. That he'd also played in a Greek band, a Japanese club and in a New Orleans band made him of great interest. We had him... > Read more
Joy Comes in the Morning
Ralph Towner: At First Light (ECM/digital outlets)
7 Apr 2023 | 1 min read
Acoustic guitar master Ralph Towner has been on the prestigious ECM for more than five decades, his debut for the label back in 1972 with Trios/Solos. On that album for some pieces he had bassist Glenn Moore, tabla player Colin Walcott and oboe player Paul McCandless of the band Oregon which he'd founded a couple of years previous. Oregon – 30 albums listed on Towner's website... > Read more