Nice feature piece in today's NYT (International) on JD Allen and his latest trio album with a brand new group. I've become a fan and that rarely happens with the newer generation (even though he's 46) because I'm a cynical Modernist D'Bus Pass...but I do find him someone who repays listening (with more going on than first appears). Thoughtful guy
"On Friday, Mr. Allen will release “Barracoon,” his 13th album as a leader and his 11th since starting the original trio in 2006. That formation had Rudy Royston on drums and Greg August on bass; over a dozen years, Mr. Allen hardly made any recordings without them. (On a few, he did add a guitar or a piano, to lovely — if sometimes mellowing — effect.) But Mr. Royston and Mr. August have thriving careers of their own by now, and Mr. Allen is committed to keeping a stable band going that can grow alongside him, as if life were one unbroken set, and the musicians around him were as central to his expression as the instrument he plays."
BN.
"On Friday, Mr. Allen will release “Barracoon,” his 13th album as a leader and his 11th since starting the original trio in 2006. That formation had Rudy Royston on drums and Greg August on bass; over a dozen years, Mr. Allen hardly made any recordings without them. (On a few, he did add a guitar or a piano, to lovely — if sometimes mellowing — effect.) But Mr. Royston and Mr. August have thriving careers of their own by now, and Mr. Allen is committed to keeping a stable band going that can grow alongside him, as if life were one unbroken set, and the musicians around him were as central to his expression as the instrument he plays."
BN.
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