GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
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Album reviews with Chris Searle: November 28, 2022
New releases from Ches Smith, Brandon Lopez/Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey and John Taylor Sextet
DOUGLAS FIELD relishes the hard-boiled language, satire and humour of the third and last of the Harlem trilogy
STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error
MIK SABIERS revels in a band that ploughs an idiosyncratic furrow of expletive laden, guitar-driven alt rock
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity, Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London
The bard invites readers to a gig, raps for Clacton, and lays out the Burnham-Hurzeler conundrum
RON JACOBS recommends an important book that enhances the oppositional theories put forth by Fanon and, in doing so, remakes psychology itself
Ches Smith
Interpret It Well
Pyroclastic Records
★★★★★
THIS album is a sizzler. With percussionist Ches Smith, pianist Craig Taborn, Mat Maneri playing viola and guest guitarist Bill Frisell, it’s a melange of full-blooded musicianship, on-the-cusp melody and ever-inventive improvisation that frees its listeners’ spirits to make their own interpretations after months of creative confinement.
The music’s “open sections told their own stories, revealing unearthed dimensions,” says Brooklyn-based Smith. Taborn’s pianism is like universal drums — listen to the title track — so much so that he and Smith are like two drummers drumming.
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