Tom Rainey

Just mentioning the members of the Herb Robertson NY Allstars makes you want to hear this new double album. The project is, as you might guess from the name, under the leadership of the trumpeter known for using the mutes as complementary instruments and megaphones as electronic processors: Herb Robertson.

A new Herb Robertson release is always cause for celebration, at least in my household. There’s always that anticipation to see what he’s done this time.

Just mentioning the members of the Herb Robertson NY Allstars makes you want to hear this new double album. The project is, as you might guess from the name, under the leadership of the trumpeter known for using the mutes as complementary instruments and megaphones as electronic processors: Herb Robertson.

Some say John Coltrane was mad with divine love. And they're right. The voice of the spirit flowed through everything he did, more and more so toward the end. He was indeed doomed to a life of eternal love.

By this day you get used to have only great albums coming from this new giant of the tenor saxophone, but watch out: “Voladores” is nothing less than a masterpiece, the best music ever Tony Malaby put to record.

Since the years he played with the big band Loose Tubes, side by side with the likes of Django Bates, Iain Ballamy, Steve Berry, and Ashley Slater, the most attentive music lovers noticed that the British Julian Argüelles was becoming one of the most original saxophone voices in contemporary jazz.

This new cooperative trio with Craig Taborn and Tom Rainey brings a very unusual instrument combination in a very organic way pointing new ways to possible future colaborations by the best musicians from both sides of the Atlantic. The music on this CD brings a new ground to improvised music and that's exactly what Sclavis had in mind when he brought this band together.

Avant-garde bassist Michael Bates identifies the connection between the Stravinsky-influenced modern classical music of Shostakovich and his own free jazz tendencies on Acrobat: Music for, and by, Dmitri Shostakovich.