The Sonic Temple
…st together musically, of different lengths, but we share common feelings about the music – also even the differences are interesting. The process of course involves both listening and responding, but the intention or motivation has to be serving the music, and enjoying the openness of the moment, so I guess there must be an element of fearlessness,…
A Mirror to Machaut
…mation, a continuum from rather faithful transcription to free arrangement to recomposition, gives A Mirror to Machaut both expectation and surprise – what will the next piece be like? It may sound nothing like the work it is based on, yet somehow a continuity of moods from track to track is established. Blaser’s notes offer pointers on what he’s up…
Hacienda
…w Jones, Montreal Mirror “Hacienda reveals Houle’s unique compositional sensibility…The complex title suite, a sort of klezmer rhapsody, incorporates succinct improvisational statements that are fully integrated with ensemble support…One can’t help admiring Houle’s beautifully woody tone in the low register during his own solos.” – Steve Hahn, Optio…
Nu-Turn
…s gravity.” — Alex Dutilh, Jazzman (France) “On Laterite” [has] an invertible counterpoint making it sound as if two pianos are playing at once — one wound-up like an ancient player piano and the other a conventional model producing classical cadenzas. Then there’s ‘On ne dit pas regarder la lune, on dit ‘luner’…Here his plucked tones sound midway b…
In the Vernacular: The Music of John Carter
…Art Lange points out in the liner notes, Houle “resurrect[s] the spirit of the original, freeing his own ensemble’s unique capabilities…In improvisational music, form is feeling…” And the feelings here are tender, buoyant, and generous. Dave Douglas has released 9 CDs as a leader: three of his Tiny Bell Trio (Songlines, hatART, Arabesque), two of h…
Way Out East
…haps it doesn’t fuse or span genres as much as it defies them, proving again that great art becomes its own category. Mainly I know this: I want to hear this music again and again, and each time it glides amidst a different set of complex human feelings. It’s soothing and disturbing in varying degrees, and it seems to make my heart and my brain happ…
RECODER
…yncopations [featuring Garbarek, McLaughlin and DeJohnette] as an example of a recording he felt conveyed that. As a listener, you marvel at the ingenuity of the result while wondering how the musicians got to that end. It’s an absolutely mesmerizing album in so many ways. Very orchestral in scope, yet very intimate and soulful. It would be a concei…
Lessons and Fairytales
…about the expression of emotion, the illustration of the complexity of how we feel. His lessons were life lessons, philosophy, inquiries into truth. He had a lot of practical advice too, how to practice very efficiently and ‘go deep’ by playing very slowly, how to avoid injury etc. My closest friends were almost all private students of his as well….
One Dance Alone
…cover here of Elliott Smith’s “A Fond Farewell”). Horvitz comments that combining jazz and classical elements is in fact “a fairly obvious process, and it’s one with a long history. The instrumentation lends itself to writing without regard to a ‘rhythm section’ mentality, and it encourages certain ambitions and desires I have as a composer. At the…
The Well
…y-esque. Shepik’s got the mind of a pioneer. The rhythmic complexity of his compositions has few parallels in jazz — or any other genre, for that matter. With all his exotic influences, and all his different axes, he makes us rethink what it means to be a guitarist and a musician.” — David R. Adler, AllAboutJazz.com “…skillful music performed with t…
