Midwest Record Reviews New Albums from ROCCO JOHN Qt and MATT LAVELLE’s 12 HOUSES

UNSEEN RAIN UR9947_Embrace_The_Change Front
ROCCO JOHN QUARTET/Embrace the Change: A saxman that studied under the watchful eyes of some serious hell raisers, he picks up the baton and you can tell this is someone serious about his Sun Ra and didn’t just eat a bunch of BYG records for breakfast one day. Way out in left field, you can tell this is a hark back to the 70 when jazzbos were trying to expand their minds and connect with the universe, progressive tastes will enjoy this well.
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UR9945 Solidarity MINIMATT LAVELLE’S 12 HOUSES/Solidarity: Wow is someone doing a tribute to “Escalator Over the Hill” to kick off the celebrations for Carla Bley’s 80th birthday? The cornet player leads his big band off on some space explorations that feel sincere at the core as opposed to some ruse to grab some arts council money. If space is your place, this is the rocket to ride to get there.
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April 1, 2016
MIDWEST RECORD
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
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