Oh man do I love Utrillo Kushner's piano jams. Comets on Fire's drummer takes a breather from pounding out the thunder with his ivories-tickling side project, Colossal Yes. The band released an excellent debut, Acapulco Roughs, in 2006, an album that cut the difference between the Band and Rowlf the Dog. Now Kushner and co. are back for round two with Charlemagne's Big Thaw, (out on vinyl now and on CD in January), which continues to pay homage to Kushner's piano men (Richard Manuel, Peter
Pharaoh SandersYoshi's OaklandJan. 3, 2009Review by Eric K. Arnold
Better Than: Watching Kenny G on Craig Kilborn.
Pharaoh Sanders has an impeccable jazz pedigree. One of the titans of the way-out, dissonant style known as free jazz, the tenor saxophonist emerged in the mid-'60s as a counterpart and bandmate of both Sun Ra and John Coltrane, as well as a solo artist in his own right. His recordings for Impulse, including Tauhid, Karma, and Thembi, were deeply spiritual, meditative works which
Experimentalist Eugene Chadbourne reworks country and jazz, sticks it to the KKK, makes guitars out of rakes and toasters -- and dreams of working with Willie Nelson
One secret ingredient in the elephantine new Sunn O))) record, Monoliths & Dimensions, is Julian Priester. The murky, dirgey album's coda comes from the trombonist, who adds free jazz to "Alice" after a record's worth of metal, drone, and other bone-compressing free for alls. (He also plays a conch shell on opener "Aghartha.")Priester's been involved in the jazz scene since the '50s. He's played with Sun Ra, Max Roach, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, and Freddie Hubbard, among others, veeri
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