Bright Moments

It's an event when AACM members collaborate on disc. The former Art Ensemble stalwart Jarman (alto sax, flute, ) and the incendiary tenor saxophonist McIntyre team up to form a most powerful and prolific front line as you'll ever hear in creative music. Colson's rarely recorded piano, the always joyous Favors on bass, and El'Zabar's African informed percussion wizardry provide the ideal backdrop for the countless bright moments heard on this CD…

The combination of drummer Max Roach's regular group (which includes trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater, tenor saxophonist Odean Pope and electric bassist Tyrone Brown) with the Uptown String Quartet to form his Double Quartet works extremely well. Because the strings get to improvise and are not restricted to the background, the interplay between the two groups is a special highlight of this particularly strong outing. In addition to works by Pope and Brown (the latter contributed "Tribute to Duke and Mingus"), The Double Quartet interprets Steve Turre's "Double Delight," Randy Weston's "Hi Fly" and Roland Kirk's happy "Bright Moments." A frequently exquisite yet adventurous album, highly recommended.

Moments (2016). Danish label Music For Dreams releases another winner with the debut album from Danish artist Emil Breum aka The Swan And The Lake. "Moments" showcases Breum's talent for creating exquisite and sensitive soundscapes whose timeless atmosphere echoes contemporary classical composers as well as some of the more New Age-minded artists of the Berlin School. Although mostly known as a spiritual movement, New Age also spawned a musical ideology that lives on past the clutches of cults and communes: a purity in sound, and a longing for music to reflect the sounds of nature. "Moments" captures this essence perfectly, its compositions seeming to suspend time and prolong a sense of clarity, like staring out over a beautiful landscape at sunset - both a sobering and healing experience…