Israeli keyboard player Sharon Mansur carries her many influences into Trigger, her debut album on the ACT label.
Those influences include classical piano, heavy metal, progressive rock, electronica and Middle Eastern traditions, all fused with improvisational flair to create an intriguing jazz hybrid.
It is her classical background and progressive rock influences that make the strongest impression and underpin the eight self-penned tracks. Her dramatic and intense piano and keyboard work is supported by her trio, made up of drummer David Sirkis and bassist David Michaeli.
Opening track, “Outside In,” immediately brings the drama with Mansur’s driving, classically connected piano phrases leading to swirling,…
Tag Archive: ACT
…On October 18, 2018, Danish conductor and former trombonist Mogens Dahl reached out to Nils Landgren with a bold idea: a new choral composition by Swedish composer Sven-David Sandström, written specifically for mixed choir, trombone, and voice. Sandström, despite his illness, embraced the challenge, crafting Sonnets of Darkness and Love – a work inspired by the poetry of Shakespeare, Federico García Lorca, and Friedrich Nietzsche.
Landgren met with Sandström, Dahl, and librettist Jakob Holtze in Stockholm in November 2018, marking the beginning of this extraordinary project. Sandström, though physically weakened, radiated creative energy, and within months, the piece was finished. By May 2019, Sandström…
When one of Europe’s finest jazz drummers releases a double live album based on a 2024 studio record, you don’t expect a simple reheating of familiar material. With Life Rhythm Live, Wolfgang Haffner delivers far more than a live replica, he offers an augmented reality of the original. The album’s themes remain intact, but they are reimagined for the stage, rewritten in spirit to give each musician the space to explore, create, and elevate.
Haffner, long admired as both a composer and an arranger with a distinct musical identity, transforms the concert hall into a place of revelation. His new release not only sounds alive, it breathes, pulses, and roars with energy. For an artist who once played in the shadows of legends…