Tim Niland

Blues and Jazz Examiner
Tim Niland is a lifelong jazz and blues fan, who began blogging about music five years ago. In real life, he is a public librarian living in New Jersey.
  

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Blues and Jazz Examiner

Fieldwork - Door (Pi, 2008)

POSTED June 20, 10:16 PM
Tim Niland - Blues and Jazz Examiner
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Fieldwork is a cooperative band made up of a rotating cast of some of the best players in modern experimental jazz. This edition of the group includes Vijay Iyer on piano, Steve Lehman on alto saxophone and Tyshawn Sorey on drums, and the trio produces dense, knotty improvisations that are complex but never overly stuffy or boring. The music retains its excitement despite being dark, ominous and complicated. There is a lot of mystery and pent up emotion in between the notes that keeps the music constantly engaging and interesting.

The contrast between the dark, mahogany tones of Iyer's piano, which is studded with bass notes and chords and Lehman's acid tinged and biting alto drives the music into very exciting territory. The swirling performance "Pivot Point" rampages like a musical tiger through a thrilling jungle of drums by Sorey is electrifying as is the finale "Ra" which starts out with a mysterious melody before moving into a startlingly fresh improvised segment. Some of the slower tempoed performances (it's hard to think of them as "ballads") have a feeling akin to improvisational artwork - cubist paintings hung in a house full of mirrors, where nothing is as it seems. This is heady stuff from talented musicians, and the music is very exciting to listen to.
Topics: jazz , fieldwork

More from Blues and Jazz Examiner

John Coltrane - The Major Works of John Coltrane (Impulse, 1992)

POSTED July 19, 4:09 PM
Tim Niland - Blues and Jazz Examiner
This two CD set brings together some very intense and transitional music recorded by John Coltrane in 1965. This was a fascinating period in his career, as his longtime quartet with McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums... Read More
Topics: jazz , johncoltrane

Various Artists - Jook Joint Blues (JSP, 2007)

POSTED July 18, 8:27 PM
Tim Niland - Blues and Jazz Examiner
For blues fans, the Juke or in this case Jook Joint has taken on the mystical place of a temple, where the Word of the blues is passed down from the musician-priests to the eager supplicants, who contort and speak in tongues on the dance floor. This... Read More
Topics: blues , variousartists

John Patton – Soul Connection (Just A Memory/Justin Time 1983, 2008)

POSTED July 18, 8:25 PM
Tim Niland - Blues and Jazz Examiner
“Big” John Patton never quite achieved the fame of fellow organists Jimmy Smith or Brother Jack McDuff, but he was a potent and soulful force on the instrument in the 1960’s, cutting some well received albums for Blue Note before drifting... Read More
Topics: jazz , bigjohnpatton

The Hold Steady - Stay Positive (Vagrant, 2008)

POSTED July 15, 12:54 PM
Tim Niland - Blues and Jazz Examiner
Anthemic sounding rock 'n' roll with the "big" sound like Bruce Springsteen, Arcade Fire, et. al. The character studies are quite interesting, almost beat like in their studies of the underside of American youth. Musicians running from the... Read More
Topics: rockandroll , theholdsteady

Watermelon Slim and the Workers - No Paid Holidays (Northern Blues, 2008)

POSTED July 15, 12:50 PM
Tim Niland - Blues and Jazz Examiner
Watermelon Slim and the Workers play the straight-up workingman's blues, for people who walk the hard road every day and are trying to make ends meet. Slim has been a soldier, truck driver and everything in between, and their latest album continues their... Read More
Topics: blues , watermelonslim

Earl Hooker - Blue Guitar (Paula, 1981)

POSTED July 15, 12:41 PM
Tim Niland - Blues and Jazz Examiner
Like many of the legends of the blues, guitarist Earl Hooker moved to Chicago in the post-war years from his birthplace of Mississippi. Earning a place for himself in the pantheon with his unique slide guitar and his aversion to singing, Hooker never... Read More
Topics: blues , earlhooker

Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog - Party Intellectuals (Pi Recordings, 2008)

POSTED July 10, 3:56 PM
Tim Niland - Blues and Jazz Examiner
In some recent pictures, guitarist Marc Ribot looks like that professor you had in college… complete with scruffy salt and pepper hair and a wry smile. But this belies the heart of a radical musical polymath that still beats within him. Jumping... Read More
Topics: jazz , marcribot

Interesting posts

POSTED July 10, 3:42 PM
Tim Niland - Blues and Jazz Examiner
The Allmusic blog has anice post about the music of trumpeter Woody Shaw:"Although Shaw would continue to record for various labels up until his tragic death in 1989, he never quite achieved the commercial success he deserved. Nonetheless, he is... Read More
Topics: jazz , blues , woodyshaw

Short reviews

POSTED July 7, 2:12 PM
Tim Niland - Blues and Jazz Examiner
John Zorn - Filmworks XIX (Tzadik, 2008): For this release, John Zorn puts down his saxophone and picks up his composing pen, to write eleven short sketches for the animated short film, The Rain Horse which was directed by Russian animator Dimitri Geller.... Read More
Topics: jazz , johnzorn , larryochs

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