Joe Morris & Elliott Sharp Realism (2025)

James Levine makes Siegfried, sometimes the problem child among the four operas of Wagner's Ring cycle, attractive and interesting. He is aware of the darker side of some of the comic scenes–the seemingly benevolent dwarf Mime carries the weight of Wagner's many prejudices–but manages to keep them uneasy rather than positively sinister thanks to the finally judged performance of Heinz Zednik. Siegfried Jerusalem is admirable as Siegfried, full of boyish enthusiasm during the reforging of the sword, and of authority in his confrontations with the dragon and with Wotan. (The dragon itself is, as so often, an unfortunate compromise between realism and stylisation.) James Morris is extraordinary in Wotan's scenes here, his combination of injured pride and relieved joy when Siegfried demonstrates, by shattering his spear, that Wotan has entirely lost control of events is exemplary.

Dennis Gonzalez - No Photograph Available (2006) {Clean Feed ‎CF056CD}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 355 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 152 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 10 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2006 Clean Feed / Trem Azul ‎| CF056CD
Jazz / Post Bop / Modern Creative / Trumpet

From someone who was absent from the jazz scene for ten years, trumpeter Dennis Gonzalez’s recent hyper-activity put his name in focus, as if he had always been active and simply became more and more famous. The Boston concert documented in “No Photograph Available” was one of those things that only happens thanks to the Internet. On his way to New York, where the Texan had a gig the following day, he wanted to stop in Boston and play there with local musicians, so he sent some messages through his chat list asking for contacts of people he didn’t already know and for availability of the ones he did. Soon the group formed itself, with Nate McBride and Joe Morris playing the two double basses, Charlie Kohlhase on the saxophones and Croix Galipault, a stunning 19 year old drummer, and a student of Morris’s, keeping the sticks.

Future Jazz is an interesting teaming of the Blue Note and Knitting Factory labels for a compilation of creative modern jazz (leaning toward the "outside"). The CD serves as a supplement to a book of the same name by music journalist Howard Mandel. The selections all come from 1990s releases, with the exception of Eric Dolphy's classic "Hat and Beard" (1964) and James Newton's rendition of "Black and Tan Fantasy" (1986). Better-known names like Dolphy, Cassandra Wilson, Don Pullen, and Pat Metheny are mixed with names that certainly should be as recognized, like pianist Marilyn Crispell, drummer Gerry Hemingway (both of the mid-'80s Anthony Braxton Quartet lineup), and the late saxophonist Thomas Chapin.