(Contemporary Jazz) [WEB] Ari Hoenig (with Tivon Pennicott, Shai Maestro, Gilad Hekselman & Orlando Le Fleming) - The Pauper & the Magician - 2016, FLAC (tracks), lossless

Once upon a time, there lived a powerful magician with darkness in his heart. He was the greatest sorcerer in all the land, and he used his abilities for deeds both evil and strange. In a rare moment of weakness and boredom, the magician tossed his magical book to a panhandling pauper, inviting the pauper to be enveloped into the magician’s own unique, twisted dimension inside the book itself.
The Pauper & The Magician marks Hoenig’s first album as a bandleader in 5 years. With Gilad Hekselman (guitar), Orlando le Fleming (bass), Shai Maestro (piano) and Tivon Pennicott (tenor sax), Ari explores the link between storytelling and jazz by creating a soundtrack to the improvised and sometimes twisted stories he tells his two small children. You could say in the spirit of the two main characters, the Pauper and the Magician, Hoenig “attacks his kit like a child does pots and pans, with limbs flailing, face contorted in delight. From his physical mayhem comes music of bunsurpassed depth and control” (Philadelphia Weekly).    The album features five compositions by Hoenig and a version of “You Are My Sunshine”.