Tag: Ches Smith

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From the very outset, much of Craig Taborn's defining work as a bandleader has come with a trio. After a handful of outings with the saxophonist James Carter's band while still at university, his leader debut called quite simply Craig Taborn Trio was a proleptic exploration of his emerging interests which he put together in some spare studio time...

For the Uyghurs of the Tarim Basin who continue to raise a voice against the twin spectres of internment and cultural assimilation, muqam remains a key mode of expression, the name for a set of melodic formulas which guide musical improvisation and often take the form of sprawling epic suites. Combining song, dance and instrumental sections, characterised by rhythmic...

From the first Ayleresque thrum and steeped ritual of 'Miserere' to the wailing blues, doleful horns and overlayed piano on 'Wonderful Words Of Life' whose wispy middle section soon scrambles to a rapt climax, and from the percussive roils which shake up 'Inhaling and Exhaling' to accompany a reading from a book called Solo Gig by the avant-garde guitarist...