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viewing 1 To 11 of 11 items
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CD
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ENJ 3005CD
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Originally released in 2019. "Air Above Mountains (Buildings Within) is a live album by Cecil Taylor performing a solo piano concert recorded at the Moosham Castle in Langau, Austria on August 20, 1976. The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow states 'Except for some brief moments, his music is quite in-tense, percussive, crowded and overflowing with passion. Taylor's longtime fans will find much to marvel at while newcomers to his music are advised instead to check out his earlier (and less dissonant) sessions from the 1950s first.' In a brief tribute to Air Above Mountains in the Chicago Tribune, journalist Jack Fuller wrote: 'To breathe Cecil Taylor's rarefied piano atmosphere, you have to have been acclimated. Straight jazz won't do it. Contemporary European art music is closer, thin on conventional harmonic structure and without recognizable melodic line. When you have learned to live in this thin but bracing abstract atmosphere, Taylor's improvisations are as magnificent as a mountaintop: hard, inaccessible and grand.' Nat Hentoff described Air Above Mountains as 'unyieldingly absorbing -- in terms of inexorable logic of its structures, the kaleidoscopic swiftness of his melodic inventions, leaps through pulsing time, and the oversize feeling with which all these elements are fused.'"
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ENJ 3049CD
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Originally released in 2019. "Great quintet live recording from Enja Classic jazz. Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Clifford Jordan, Jackie Byard and Dannie Richard recorded live in Berlin, Germany."
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ENJ 3007CD
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Originally released in 2019. "Reissue of a 1961 concert from one of the all-time greats in jazz, Eric Dolphy. It was originally released as a two LP set in the late '70s and the CD edition on Enja has been unavailable for many years. Personnel: Eric Dolphy (alto saxophone, bass clarinet), Benny Bailey (trumpet), Pepsi Auer (piano), George Joyner (bass), Buster Smith (drums). AllMusic: 'Dolphy mostly stretching out on standards, coming up with very original statements on such songs as 'Hot House,' 'When Lights Are Low,' 'Hi Fly,' 'I'll Remember April,' and 'God Bless the Child' (the latter taken as an unaccompanied bass clarinet solo), in addition to two brief originals. With trumpeter Benny Bailey helping out on half of the selections along with a strong rhythm section, it's the perfect introduction for listeners not familiar with Eric Dolphy's innovative style.'"
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ENJ 9204CD
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Originally released in 2019. "Comparable to his recordings with V.S.O.Q., Outpost marks Hubbard's return from so-called 'fusion': Here he's right back, doin' jazz. 'Playing that music again really made me feel clean' he says, and then you can find him joking about the commercial albums he produced the years before. Anyway, they didn't earn him the smash hit he was looking for. After playing Miles' trumpet part in company with Hancock, Shorter, Carter, and Williams (V.S.O.P.), only the very best musicians were adequate to sit in with Freddie. How else would you classify a rhythm section made up of Kenny Barron, Buster Williams, and Al Foster -- 'Santa Anna Winds' is an almost free-form piece, proving Hubbard to be an adventurous musician, who is breaking new grounds once again in his career. His interpretation of 'You Don't Know What Love Is' shows him handling the popular ballad with complete control and delicate taste. He swings lightly and with sparkling technique through 'The Outpost Blues' and 'Dual Force,' spitting forth jagged bursts and trills, and finally ends up with Eric Dolphy's 'Loss,' that the band gives a solid and down-to-earth rendering. Outpost won Freddie Hubbard some four stars from Downbeat. And, furthermore, the old respect from an audience, that seemed puzzled for a short period."
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ENJ 9577CD
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Originally released in 2019. "Featuring Tim Berne, Stacy Rowles, Eric Van Essen, and Alex Cline. Angelica is simply a beautiful album. Besides the leaders' excellent work on electric and acoustic guitar it features the elegant and so personal sounding alto sax of Tim Berne as well as the emotional trumpet of L.A.'s Stacy Rowles, the daughter of piano giant Jimmy Rowles. The music breathes a certain airy and cool romanticism which is at its most impressive on 'Maria Alone,' dedicated to Maria Farantouri, the great Greek lady of song. Nels Cline began to play guitar at age 12 when his twin brother, Alex Cline, took up the drums. The pair developed musically together, playing in a youth rock band they dubbed Homogenized Goo. He played with jazz musicians Charlie Haden, Gregg Bendian, Wadada Leo Smith, Tim Berne, Vinny Golia, and the late bassist Eric Von Essen, a longtime musical companion in the L.A. jazz group Quartet Music. In 1983, Nels joined the early formation of BLOC. The quintet became a Los Angeles club favorite and garnered much praise from the local press and media. Practically every major label was interested at some point but no major label seemed to have a clue how to promote the multi-talented group."
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ENJ 9861LP
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"Gifts marks the tenth self-produced album by the Tokyo-born pianist and composer Makiko, who has been based in Copenhagen for over 30 years. Following her previous trio album, Meteora, which drew inspiration from the monastic retreat of the same name in northwestern Greece, Gifts -- recorded with the Weavers Quartet -- serves as a deeply personal musical memoir. Raised in Tokyo and Hong Kong, Makiko received a classical instrumental education before discovering her love for jazz at the Berklee College of Music in the USA. In 2023, now an internationally acclaimed musician, Makiko received a composition commission for the Handel Festival in Halle/Saale, which sparked a musical flashback. During Makiko's childhood, her mother was involved as a choir singer in the annual performances of the 'Messiah.' On this album, the reference to Handel symbolizes not only musicianship as a gift but also its transformative power."
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LP
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ENJ 20481LP
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Restocked. "Pianist-composer Abdullah Ibrahim (formerly known as Dollar Brand) has long ranked among South Africa's giants alongside Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, and the late Kippie Mokoetsi. A master of improvisation with a distinctive African edge, the exiled Cape Town musician has developed a musical style over the past 30 years that defies categorization. Rather, it is a fascinating mosaic of diverse traditions including African rutal and township rhythms, classical jazz, and gospel. South African folk melodies are enriched with Western harmonies, coalescing into a gracefully fluid and intensely spiritual whole. Best known for his hypnotic and introspective stream-of-consciousness compositions and his innovative interpretations of Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, and Billy Strayhorn classics, Ibrahim's music is at once accessible and complex, intriguing and lyrical. He has indefatigably explored and fused classical jazz with the multitude of influences that make up traditional and contemporary South Afrian music."
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LP
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ENJ 60201LP
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"Reissue of the last recording of legendary trumpeter Chet Baker, from April 28th, 1988. The producer of NDR radio in Hamburg had asked Chet what his favorite project would be, carte blanche. Well, he answered that he would love to record with a quintet of good friends, a jazz big band and a symphonic orchestra. All were provided and the result is a breath-taking event indeed."
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ENJ 90591LP
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"Arabian Waltz is the pinnacle of Rabih Abou-Khalil's achievement as a composer and arranger. It is a sublime fusion of jazz, Middle Eastern traditional music, and Western classical. In addition to Abou-Khalil on oud (the Arabic lute), Michel Godard on the tuba and the serpent (the tuba's antique kinsman), and Nabil Khaiat on frame drums, the album also features the Balanescu String Quartet instead of the usual trumpet or sax. The presence of the Balanescu might seem to pose a dilemma for the composer: traditional Middle Eastern music uses no harmony but a string quartet is all about harmony. Abou-Khalil achieves a compromise by generally writing the string parts in unison (or in octaves), in effect using the quartet as a single voice, but also letting the quartet split up to play parts in unison with the other instruments or to provide ornamentation. Without surrendering jazziness at all, the presence of the strings makes possible a wondrous atmosphere, almost as if one is listening to the soundtrack of a classy movie set in Beirut or Damascus during the '40s. This feeling is greatest on 'Dreams of a Dying City' with its brooding tuba and cello motifs and grave, repeated rhythms. 'The Pain After' starts with an impressive tuba solo that turns into a long interlude for tuba and string quartet; sad, slow music that sounds like one of Beethoven's late quartets. Then Abou-Khalil finally enters on oud, bringing a sustained note of wistfulness. Fortunately, beside the darker numbers lie the propulsive drama of 'Arabian Waltz' and the bobbing and weaving quirkiness of 'Ornette Never Sleeps.' Abou-Khalil is known for experimenting with the possibilities his guest musicians bring to his style. In this case, the guests have inspired the host to reach a new height and maybe even a new style. This recording suits every fan of world music, jazz, classical, or just good music." --Kurt Keefner
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CD
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ENJ 98452CD
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"Celebrating the life-giving power of light, the Lux Quartet is an exploratory new quartet co-led by two of the most celebrated and visionary artists in modern improvised music: pianist Myra Melford and drummer Allison Miller. Drawing on a shared passion for the preservation of nature and a boundary-stretching approach to music, the two innovative composers and bandleaders are joined by saxophonist Dayna Stephens and bassist Scott Colley, together crafting a sonic environment that glows with its own intense yet nurturing radiance. Melford and Miller have long embraced the natural world in their individual work. Melford often combines her passion for the outdoors with poetic and philosophical imagery in bands like Snowy Egret, Fire and Water, or The Same River, Twice. Miller's captivating work Rivers in Our Veins is a multi-media journey into the cultural and ecological life of rivers. The two have worked together for several years in the drummer's ensemble Boom Tic Boom, a recent touring version of which also featured Stephens and Colley. Both musicians are renowned for incisive playing across the entirety of the jazz spectrum. The saxophonist has worked with Kenny Barron, Ambrose Akinmusire, Julian Lage, and Gerald Clayton, among others; while Colley is a deeply respected bassist who has enjoyed extensive collaborations with Joshua Redman, John Scofield, Herbie Hancock, and Chris Potter to name a few. The quartet developed such profound chemistry that it evolved into its own singular entity. The name Lux Quartet was inspired by the role of light in the panoply of life on Earth, from the vitality of the sun's ray to the bioluminescence of creatures in the deepest oceans - a suggestive indication of the heights and depths that the band endeavors to explore."
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LP
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ENJ 98531LP
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"Ballads have a way of comforting us. When imbued with real emotive powers, they have the capacity to elevate and transport. This second orchestral collaboration between iconic Swiss trumpeter Franco Ambrosetti and two-time, Grammy-winning arranger Alan Broadbent takes listeners there. The album title is an apt description of Franco's approach to each golden note he plays on flugelhorn. Backed by an all-star group of pianist Broadbent, guitarist John Scofield, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Peter Erskine, along with a 29-piece orchestra arranged and conducted by Broadbent, Ambrosetti pulls heartstrings on a program of four originals and four well-chosen covers."
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