This is too remarkable not to report. Cast your eyes on ecmreviews.com With several years effort, a singular vision, and support from ECM Records, Mr.Grillo […]
Marco Polo’s Film Music Discoveries
Album review by Neil Hobkirk We all have favourite film music. Whether absorbed during a movie or savoured separately as an isolated score, the music […]
New Tricks Revisited: Deep Purple’s “Purpendicular” (reissue; HNE, 2014)
Album review by Neil Hobkirk Purpendicular opens with a sound unfamiliar from previous Deep Purple albums: a buzzing, harmonics-drunk note frenzy lasting just a few […]
Serene Footfalls: “La vie commence ici” by Marianne Trudel (Justin Time, 2014)
Album review by Neil Hobkirk The three times I’ve seen Marianne Trudel perform in person, she’s radiated rapture. Alert at the piano, she looked possessed […]
Ongoing Adventure: Ranee Lee’s “What’s Going On” (Justin Time, 2014)
Album review by Neil Hobkirk Just a few seconds in, the strings are what strike you. They’re in fact the masterstroke that invests Ranee Lee’s […]
Celebrating 20 Years with Wilco
It’s hard to think of a more prolific, yet low-key American band than Chicago’s alt-rock outfit Wilco. Since 1994, they’ve brought us eight studio albums, […]
Kingston Kong: “Bite My Blues” by Peter van Huffel’s Gorilla Mask (Clean Feed, 2014)
Album review by Neil Hobkirk Raised in a city readily stigmatized as an alternate take—an other London (Ontario), as opposed to the London (England)—I’m heartened […]
More surprising vocal collaborations
It’s a formula as old as Ella & Louis. Take two popular performers and put them together; if the music’s good and the chemistry is […]
Something Less: “Heaven & Earth” by Yes (Frontiers, 2014)
Album review by Neil Hobkirk Well, the cover art’s nice. And the music’s nice too. Or rather, the music’s too nice. Yes, nice music. So: […]
Definitive Statement: Dee Daniels’ “State of the Art” (Criss Cross Jazz, 2013)
Album review by Neil Hobkirk Dee Daniels should need no introduction. Unfortunately, she too often does. In a music climate clouded by jazz-singing sound-alikes, a […]