Email Author Jim Macnie

2012 Stories by Jim Macnie

• 'Undead Music Festival Marathon Night and Tonic Reunion Show'

  published May 9, 2012

  This year's program kicks off with a remembrance of Tonic featuring the late lamented club's usual suspects, then finds Medeski, Martin, & Wood... More >>

• Lionel Loueke

  published May 9, 2012

  The agility that marks the Benin-born guitarist's deep sense of interplay can be jaw-dropping: Sometimes his melodies are a tad too sweet, but... More >>

• Steve Kuhn Trio

  published May 9, 2012

  The pianist's hard bop roots always give his late-in-life reflections a little extra oomph, one thing that makes Kuhn so singular. That and his... More >>

• Cecil Taylor

  published May 9, 2012

  After almost 60 years of iconoclastic action we know that Taylor’s wobbly rail is plenty strong, and hermetic or not, his personal piano... More >>

• Mary Halvorson Quintet

  published May 9, 2012

  The trumpet and sax of the guitarist’s quintet add extra textures to an already rich sound. In the last four years Halvorsons’s trio... More >>

• John McNeil's Urban Legend

  published May 2, 2012

  The trumpeter-bandleader calls this outfit "accessible but not dumb." Few things McNeil does are: He's a wily composer who loves to script a... More >>

• Davey Williams, LaDonna Smith, & Andrea Centazzo

  published April 11, 2012

  The Ictus Festival is celebrating the wiles and rigor of free improvisation at John Zorn’s romper room, and Italian percussionist Centazzo,... More >>

• Vijay Iyer Trio

  published April 11, 2012

  Tonight, the celebrated pianist leads a band that generates marvelous moments as a matter of course. Iyer’s unique design sense always finds... More >>

• Jim Hall

  published April 11, 2012

  This 81-year-old guitar virtuoso is an architectural master who constructs whispery solos that occasionally allow room for a surprising kerrang to... More >>

• Joshua Redman Trio

  published April 11, 2012

  Redman has always brought us engaging ideas, but in the last couple of years his music’s emotional depth has exploded. This depth is perhaps... More >>

• Tomas Fujiwara and the Hook Up

  published April 11, 2012

  A cagey wobble between design and abstraction makes the new The Air Is Different utterly enchanting. Or maybe wobble is the wrong word:... More >>

• John Escreet Trio

  published April 11, 2012

  The pianist's music boasts the kind drama that always pulls you deeper into the action, with tunes like "Somewhere Between Dreaming and Sleeping"... More >>

• Son of Goldfinger

  published April 4, 2012

  Love the rapport between guitarist David Torn and saxophonist Tim Berne: If one is waxing ethereal, the other is wrecking like a twister. (Roles... More >>

• Billy Hart Quartet

  published April 4, 2012

  The veteran drummer builds an elliptical world on his new All Our Reasons, challenging his younger colleagues to meet his poetic... More >>

• Craig Taborn Trio

  published April 4, 2012

  There’s virtuosity in play whenever Taborn sits at the piano, and it’s rendered in a way that goads his collaborators and engages his... More >>

• Ben Allison

  published March 28, 2012

  Doing their job under some of the most memorable jazz melodies being written, Allison’s rhythms glow with a rock-tinged heat. Across his... More >>

• Harold Mabern Trio

  published March 21, 2012

  The blues lives in every drop of sound that comes from Mabern’s piano. The Memphis-born master can romp through "Pent Up House" or get sobby... More >>

• Open Loose

  published March 21, 2012

  Marty Ehrlich has a gorgeous record entitledPliant Plaint, and that title could be used to describe the elasticity at the core of Open... More >>

• Matana Roberts

  published March 21, 2012

  The provocative saxophonist’s narrative work has a bit of Jean Toomer in it, with poetic tales told in flashes of vivid scenery. But when... More >>

• Herbie Hancock

  published March 7, 2012

  Don't let his so-so pop moves ever fool you into thinking that his jazz chops are by the board. Hancock's exquisite sense of interplay makes his... More >>

• Tom Rainey Trio

  published March 7, 2012

  The first half of the Stone's March calendar is dedicated to the Swiss Intakt label, and if there's a through-line binding these artists, it's a... More >>

• Matt Mitchell

  published February 29, 2012

  This pianist is currently making a mark with saxophonist Tim Berne's Snakeoil, and Berne’s rigorous flow of phrases fits snuggly in... More >>

• Linda Oh

  published February 22, 2012

  Tonight the bassist Linda Oh makes her first outing with a new trumpet trio, but looking at her work over the last couple of years we can count on... More >>

• Ben Wolfe

  published February 22, 2012

  This bassist continuously puts himself at the center of sharp little bands that can pull off just about anything: If Wolfe wants lyricism, they... More >>

• Ben Wendel

  published February 15, 2012

  The Kneebody saxophonist has proven his chops in myriad local gigs during the past few years. And while hearing him play in a trio setting is a... More >>