Tiny Reviews: Bridges Trio, Josh Arcoleo, Artvark Saxophone Quartet, & Ilg/Bohm/Heral

Featuring Tiny Reviews of:  Bridges Trio Mans, Josh Arcoleo Beginnings, Artvark Saxophone Quartet Sly Meets Callas, and Dieter Ilg, Rainer Bohm, Patrice Heral Otello Live at Schloss Elmau.

Let’s begin…

Bridges Trio – Mans

A trio of guitar, bass, and drums that, for this album, makes it a quartet with the addition of an extra guitar player. Thrilling stuff. They totally have the Bill Frisell ECM sound going, though some of the looping and effects recall Frisell’s period with Nonesuch albums like Ghost Town and The Willies. Now, granted, I’m a huge Frisell fan, so any musician who adopts that sound, I’m gonna be enamored with, but that said, this is beautiful music.

Your album personnel:  Guillem Callejon (guitar), David Soler (guitar), Dimas Corbera (contrabass), and Alfons Bertran (drums).

Released on the Quadrant Records label.

Available on eMusic.

Josh Arcoleo – Beginnings

Strong debut album from tenor saxophonist Josh Arcoleo.  Rounding out his quartet with piano, drums, and bass, he presents a confident set of tunes. Compositions deliciously balance fire of sax with bright elegance of piano, while drums and bass fill all the spaces in between, resulting in rich album with plenty of depth.  Arcoleo has lots of punch on tenor, but thankfully doesn’t turn this into a blowing session.  Ivo Neame, on piano, really shines, creates an environment for Arcoleo to thrive in.  Hard to believe this a debut album.

Your album personnel:  Josh Arcoleo (tenor sax), Ivo Neame (piano), Callum Gourlay (bass), and James Maddren (drums).

Released on the Edition Records label.

Jazz from the UK.

Available at eMusic.

Artvark Saxophone Quartet – Sly Meets Callas

A nifty pairing of the avant-garde Artvark Saxophone Quartet and classical soprano Claron McFadden for an intriguing mix of compositions ranging from traditional jazz, skewed blues, and chamber music.  A very nice reminder that just because something gets categorized as avant-garde, doesn’t mean it can’t be catchy as hell.

Your album personnel:  Bart Wirtz, Rolf Delfos (alto saxes), Mete Erker (tenor sax), and Peter Broekhuizen (baritone sax).

Released on the Zennez Records label.

Available on eMusic.

Dieter Ilg, Rainer Bohm, Patrice Heral – Otello Live at Schloss Elmau

Bassist Dieter Ilg, pianist Rainer Bohm, and drummer Patrice Heral interpret the works of Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi.  More jazz than classical, with the livelier moments leaning more toward the former and the quieter interludes toward the latter.  On the ACT label, which has a habit of releasing albums that are deceptively straight-ahead, like looking at Jazz through opaque glass.  Two feet in the European jazz sound.  Has the word ‘live’ in the title, but that sure fooled me- fantastic sound.

Available on eMusic.

That’s it for today’s article, and the first of two parts of the Tiny Reviews from this batch of new arrivals.

Here’s some language to protect eMusic’s rights as the one to hire me originally to scour through the jazz new arrivals and write about the ones I like:

“New Arrivals Jazz Picks“, courtesy of eMusic.com, Inc.
© 2012  eMusic.com, Inc.

My thanks to emusic for the freelance writing gig, the opportunity to use it in this blog, and the editorial freedom to help spread the word about cool new jazz being recorded today.