Oran Etkin, Gathering Light, Motéma

From 2014. New star of the bass clarinet Oran Etkin here with a stellar empathetic band (trombonist Curtis Fowlkes, guitarist Lionel Loueke, bassist Ben Allison, and drummer Nasheet Waits) on a studio recording made in Brooklyn. With New Orleans, …

Published: 14 Nov 2019. Updated: 4 years.

From 2014. New star of the bass clarinet Oran Etkin here with a stellar empathetic band (trombonist Curtis Fowlkes, guitarist Lionel Loueke, bassist Ben Allison, and drummer Nasheet Waits) on a studio recording made in Brooklyn. With New Orleans, Indonesian, Chinese, and Israeli influences among the global musical currents swirling around, Etkin, who was mentored and inspired by the late Yusef Lateef, has a robust Michel Portal-like way about him with melodic and compellingly modern-sounding routines dotted throughout the dozen tunes. Pick of the set: the poignant ‘Shirim Ad Kan’ where Etkin “heard the essence of the blues” and communicates that feeling in an exemplary manner. SG

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Track of the day: ABC by Eskelin, Weber, Griener

From The Pearls by the piano-less trio of Ellery Eskelin, saxophone, Christian Weber, bass, Michael Griener, drums – an album that rags along jostling up against free improv as it proceeds. It is their second studio album and was recorded in …

Published: 14 Nov 2019. Updated: 4 years.

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From The Pearls by the piano-less trio of Ellery Eskelin, saxophone, Christian Weber, bass, Michael Griener, drums – an album that rags along jostling up against free improv as it proceeds. It is their second studio album and was recorded in Switzerland last year, the first was Sensations of Tone. Eskelin, who Tony Dudley-Evans has promoted to play live in UK, and has a scalding, visceral sound live as heard for instance one time at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, writes in the liner notes quoted by issuing label Intakt: "In making this recording I was struck by the ways in which time can simultaneously be so exacting, so malleable and so multi-dimensional. In these performances you’ll hear free improvisations as well as renditions of classic compositions from an earlier musical form directly addressing time, Ragtime."