All About Jazz Album Reviews: Recent Episodes
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These are two excellent recent large ensemble jazz recordings. One celebrates the work of a venerated master composer and arranger while the other showcases an outstanding newer writing talent. Ryan Truesdell Shades of Sound Outside in Music 2025 This is the third release from Ryan Truesdell's Gil Evans Project, which plays both familiar and previously unheard works by the legendary arranger... [ read more ]
After organ trios came to prominence during the 1950s, jazz groove has never been the same. Performers like Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff, and most notably Jimmy Smith introduced a new level of soul to jazz music... [ read more ]
Basie Rocks! A great idea? One best left on the cutting-room floor? Or perhaps a little of both? There are reasonable arguments to be made on all sides of the equation. On the one hand, this is the one and only Count Basie Orchestra, swinging in its own exceptional way... [ read more ]
Heraclitus once said, "No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." That may be true for most of us, but it does not quite apply to the music of pianist Alexander Hawkins... [ read more ]
Brothers Peter and Will Anderson's latest album, The Best of Berlin, has nothing to do with geography and everything to do with memorable music. The Berlin referenced here has a forename, Irving, a Berlin who happens to be one of the foremost writers of popular songs in the 20th century... [ read more ]
Any hardcore film buff will tell you that plot is not really what is important--or as the estimable critic Roger Ebert often said, the thing is "not what a movie is about, it's how it is about it." This is a lesson Kristoffer Rosing-Schow and The Counterfictionals have indeed taken to heart... [ read more ]
Where to begin with the music of Pat Thomas? The London-born pianist began his journey in classical music before a televised performance by Oscar Peterson led him down the path of jazz and free improvisation... [ read more ]
To create a new album after a twenty-year gap is intriguing. In his long career Steve Holt has worked with Archie Shepp, Larry Coryell Eddie Henderson, Pat LaBarbera, James Moody and Michel Urbaniak... [ read more ]
On Eclecticity, his 17th recording as leader of his own groups, Moroccan-born Australia-based guitarist Albare (given name: Albert Dadon) uses, for the most part, members of his working groups, the Alchemists and Harmonix Experiment, to help him plumb jazz tradition and breathe life into 10 of his distinctive yet custom-tailored compositions and arrangements... [ read more ]
To say that Spanish-born Ramón López is an in-demand drummer would be an understatement. His recent collaborators span a wide spectrum of creative music, including Satoko Fujii, Natsuki Tamura, Ivo Perelman, Barry Guy, Agustí Fernández and Angelica Sanchez--and that list reaches well beyond the realms of jazz and free improvisation... [ read more ]
Alto saxophonist Nick Biello's New America covers a diverse and colorful landscape, one over which his able quintet glides, springs and dances with ease and assurance. Respectfully, they unravel a half-dozen of the leader's elaborate yet accessible compositions and arrangements... [ read more ]
Distance to Empty is a phrase that carries a familiar feeling--something you might glimpse glowing on the dashboard as you pull away from a final pit stop before a long journey. Will Brahm, metaphorically and musically, poses these questions: How far can you go with what you have? What is left in the tank? What is possible, and what awaits at the edge of it all? Brahm is a jny: Los Angeles-based guitarist and composer whose music moves fluidly between jazz, rock and Americana... [ read more ]
Jason Kao Hwang is a child of Chinese immigrants, and previously recorded in Book of Stories (2023), Uncharted Faith (2022), and Human Rites Trio(2022), a CD completed during the Covid-19 pandemic. He places his music, on viola and violin, within the category of avant-garde-jazz-soul-folk... [ read more ]
San Francisco-based pianist and educator Charles Chen returns with Building Characters, his second recording in as many years, and as on his debut album, Charles, Play! (Cellar Music, 2024), he is backed by an all-star supporting cast that includes a front line of trumpeter Randy Brecker and saxophonists Bob Sheppard and Lawrence Feldman... [ read more ]
How to tackle a project of cover songs? Well, singer Kristina Koller tells us on her fourth release, Walk on By, a tribute to composing legend Burt Bacharach... [ read more ]
Vincenzo Virgillito is a Sicilian bassist, trained in Italy, living in jny:London. He has been exposed to a wide variety of influences including John Coltrane, Jaco Pastorius, and Pink Floyd... [ read more ]
Japanese pianist Junichiro Mataga made the move to the United States in 2019 to study jazz piano. He completed his Master of Music in Jazz Studies at the Aaron Copland School of Music in New York. With that background and a good deal of success in competitions--the Lennon Award in jazz for songwriting in the jazz category for his "Escher's Staircase," his future is bright... [ read more ]
Guitarist Ant Law exemplifies the modern jazz polymath. Beyond leading his own quintet, he maintains a musical partnership with British/Turkish vocalist Brigitte Beraha, sustains an ongoing collaboration with saxophonist Alex Hitchcock and co-leads the innovative Trio HLK... [ read more ]
For listeners of a certain age, this recording evokes memories of Melanie performing "Candles in the Rain." That was a long time ago--1970--and Melanie is no longer with us, but her influence is evident in Claudia Vorbach's stylings... [ read more ]
Recorded live at the Bird's Eye Jazz Club, jny: Basel, Switzerland, in 2024, From Bach to Ellington--Live, has Swiss pianist Michael Arbenz and British saxophonist Andy Sheppard reinterpreting four of Duke Ellington's classics, together with two original pieces from Arbenz inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach... [ read more ]
The Day Dream trio's album Duke and Strays Live is a two-CD release recorded at Bucknell University in September 2023. It is a sparkling exploration of the timelessness embedded in Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's music... [ read more ]
Sun Ra's 1978 performance at Baltimore's Left Bank Jazz Society ballroom had something for everyone. The great man and his Arkestra, along with singer June Tyson and dancers, performed jazz from its inception to what Ra predicted (correctly) as its future... [ read more ]
Over the years, quite a connection has built up between musicians from Amsterdam and the North East of England. Further affirmation arrives in the form of Something Happened by a co-operative trio comprising American expat reed man Michael Moore and the increasingly-regular rhythm team of bassist John Pope and drummer Johnny Hunter... [ read more ]
These two albums present prominent female musicians paying tribute to other women in the arts who have inspired them. Jamie Baum draws her inspiration from the work of several poets while Kris Davis tips her cap to other jazz pianists... [ read more ]
Prawit Siriwat, a New York-based guitarist and The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and NYU graduate, fuses jazz sensibilities with modern experimentalism into his jazz-rock explorations. On Blueberry, Siriwat demonstrates his knack for blending groove-driven sections with freewheeling improvisation, crafting a sonic journey that balances structure with freedom... [ read more ]
Here is a unique and intriguing concept: a baker's dozen collegiate anthems and fight songs, trimly recast in contemporary jazz settings by the seven-member Visions Jazz Ensemble, comprised of Indiana University alumni who stride Across the Field with an abundance of proficiency and perception. Although the hip arrangements by the ensemble's co-leaders, trumpeter Sam Butler and tenor saxophonist Garrett Fasig, sometimes turn these largely familiar songs inside out and upside down, every one of them has its own personality and charm, hallmarks that are superbly accentuated by the ensemble's expertise and dedication... [ read more ]
By largely leaving behind their main instruments, three stalwarts of the New York avant jazz scene tap into something timeless and elemental on Heart Trio. Instead of his customary bass, William Parker wields an array of flutes, double reeds, and the doson ngoni, a six-stringed hunter's harp from West Africa allegedly the ancestor of the banjo... [ read more ]
Caleb Wheeler Curtis is one of the more daring musicians in jazz today, not only in his approach to playing the saxophone, but in his fearless dedication to his own musical conceptions, expressed clearly in his original compositions... [ read more ]
Danish-born, New York-based pianist Rasmus Sørensen finds melody as well as fluidity in At The Right Time. This rising jazz star stands alongside other young musicians like Joey Alexander and Fergus McCreadie, exhibiting his ability to craft pieces that have a generous listenability matched by a sophisticated musicality in more freestyle sections... [ read more ]
Aim High, recorded as part of the 2024 Jazz Heritage Series, is the forty-sixth album by the U.S. armed services' premier jazz ensemble, the Airmen of Note, founded in 1950 to honor the tradition of Major Glenn Miller's Army Air Corps dance band, which entertained the troops during World War II until Miller's untimely death in 1944... [ read more ]
The first name Thelonious--does it come from the word theology? Is a parent giving a newborn a form of divinity with the appellation? This is speculation; the answer is up in the air, but the most famous Thelonious is Thelonious Sphere Monk, one of the brightest of jazz stars to emerge in the age of bebop... [ read more ]
Florida-based tenor saxophonist Jeff Rupert leads a superlative quartet on It Gets Better, a graceful and charming album recorded September 2021 at the renowned Van Gelder Studio in New Jersey. While comparisons to other musicians are as a rule less than viable, the striking similarities between Rupert and the late jazz giant Stan Getz cannot simply be overlooked or ignored... [ read more ]
Saxophonist Justin Chart is known for his cinematic, entirely improvised, live sessions. A stalwart of the Los Angeles, and Southern California, jazz scene, Chart has several superb albums to his credit. His 2024 record, Night Heat, maintains the same level of sophistication and spontaneity. It is culled from two separate appearances with different sidemen and consists of ten, relatively short, tracks that focus mainly on the intricacy of the melodies and the dynamic ensemble sound... [ read more ]
Miklós Lukács is one of the world's premier players of the cimbalom, the modern extension of the hammered dulcimer. The progenitors of today's cimbalom, common to many folk traditions, date to Mesopotamia circa 670 BC, or so ancient stone carvings suggest. Lukács is no stranger to folk music, but he is equally at home interpreting Franz List or playing contemporary classical music with noted international orchestras and chamber ensembles... [ read more ]
Drummer and composer Hilario Rodeiro Quinteto's PAUSA(which, no surprise, means "pause" in Spanish) invites listeners on a refreshing journey through jazz, with the band's rich heritage and innovative flair woven into every note... [ read more ]
Among jazz trombonists with a sense of history, the name J.J. Johnson is spoken with an admiration that borders on reverence. Johnson was a pacesetter, a creative and articulate slideman and improviser who, either alone or with sometime partner Kai Winding, held the keys to the trombone kingdom from the early 1940s until his retirement more than half a century later... [ read more ]
There has always been room in jazz for those creative minds who can bridge the gap between the heart of tradition and the leading edge of change. In the world of saxophonists, Thomas Chapin, Arthur Blythe, Julius Hemphill or David Murray easily come to mind... [ read more ]
This Is Nowis a venturous and engaging concert date by the Pony Boy All-Star Big Band, taped in May 2024 at Boxley's jazz club in North Bend, Washington. Pony Boy refers to the band's label, Pony Boy Records, while the term All-Star is, as always, in the eye (and ear) of the beholder. Clearly, there are some stars in this firmament, not least of which is drummer and music director Greg Williamson... [ read more ]
The music of bassist David Friesen is inspired by two major sources: his ancestral Ukrainian roots and his Christian faith. While the Christian aspect of the inspiration is probably long-term, the familial roots part of the equation seems to have gained traction with Testimony (Origin Records, 2021), a piece recorded with a jazz quartet 2018 in Kiev with the National Academic Symphonic Band Of Ukraine... [ read more ]
Making music is most often a collaborative affair. Big bands, duos, trios, quartets and quintets--take your pick. Miles Davis (or any other of your favorites) calls his guys into the studio or to the stage where they bump elbows and trade riffs, drawing their individual personalities out to form a collection of sound waves to craft a finished work of art... [ read more ]
In addition to being highly regarded as a classical composer, Czech pianist and composer Emil Viklický has been a significant presence on the international jazz scene for over 50 years. His jazz compositions, often influenced by Moravian folk songs, have seen him perform and record in the company of such significant artists as Bobby Wellins, Bill Frisell, Wynton Marsalis, Billy Hart, Herbie Hancock and fellow countryman Miroslav Vitouš... [ read more ]
Pioneering jazz bassoonist Karen Borca has had to wait a long time for her leadership debut. It arrives courtesy of the adventurous Lithuanian NoBusiness imprint, compiled from archival recordings of two appearances at New York City's fabled Vision Festival... [ read more ]
When recordings like Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs' seemingly falls from yonder jazz sky, we must stop to thank those swinging stars above for our grand fortune. Because despite all our flaws--a broken politic, a poisoned planet, constant wartime bickering--we are a fortunate, if mostly undeserving, race of peculiarities... [ read more ]
In the right hands, the acoustic guitar becomes a world of sound that transgresses the limitations of the instrument and the role as mere accompaniment. Genres become blurred and suddenly the strings start to sing instead of the troubadour. Or perhaps more correctly, the instrument becomes an extension of the guitarist, and the strings tell stories that seem to come out of everywhere and nowhere... [ read more ]
Laila Biali is an award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter and pianist whose recording Wintersongs offers an immersive journey into the delicate beauty and serene power of winter all through the lens of her jazz and classical roots... [ read more ]
Recorded in an abandoned munitions factory in Alvira, PA. using an ambisonics system without overdubs. The collaborative effort between vocalist and multimedia artist/educator Paul J. Botelho and avant-garde trumpeter/educator Jeff Kaiser push against the boundaries of conventional sound, creating an experience that redefines the relationship between voice and brass... [ read more ]
From working as a cloakroom attendant at Ronnie Scott's in jny: London to performing on the club stage to a sellout audience with one's own quartet is quite a journey. It might sound like a corny plot from a TV series, but since playing their first show in 2021, Finn Carter and his quartet have gone from strength to strength with a string of sold-out shows, including playing the main show at the venerated Ronnie Scott's and headlining the Brick Lane Festival... [ read more ]
Ruh marks the highly anticipated return of Macedonian jazz band Next to Silence, arriving at a pivotal moment of reflection and renewal. The album is deeply shaped by the loss of one of the band's founding members, trumpeter Aleksandar Nikolovski (Grobi), who tragically passed away from cancer in 2021... [ read more ]
Romance in the Dark, from highly-versatile vocalist-pianist-arranger Diane Marino and a team of Nashville's top studio players, offers 10 entertaining selections. Comprised of covers of well-known standards and classic soul material (with a handful-plus being remixed and remastered from the vocalist's previously released recordings), it is a thoroughly enjoyable and, yes, romantic effort... [ read more ]
At the very same time Beatlemania was slowly but surely beginning to engulf the globe, Miles Davis was inexorably proceeding toward what was the most adventurous music of his career. Miles In France -The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 captures a group of musicians led by "The Man with the Horn" on the threshold of forming what is referred to as his second great quintet, then actually coalescing into that stellar outfit... [ read more ]
Château Palmer is a wine estate in Margaux, in south-west France. Those that know about these things rate their wines as among the best anywhere in Bordeaux. If you are going to record a jazz album outside of the recording studio, then a light and airy wood-paneled salon at the château with French windows overlooking the serene estate seems to be an inspired choice... [ read more ]
In the early 1980s, Alice Coltrane built an ashram on fifty acres in the Santa Monica hills. A space for musical practise and Hindu studies, it closed in 2017 and was burned down by wildfires a year later. As a child, Surya Botofasina grew up there with his mother amid mountains, veggie food, peace lessons and devotional chants... [ read more ]
Brandon Seabrook's Object of Unknown Function feels like a sonic experiment gone rogue. In this album, Seabrook seems motivated by a desire to explore the liminal spaces between structured chaos and unstructured order, leaving listeners caught in the crosshairs... [ read more ]
It is difficult to create a big or stirring sound with a small group of musicians. However, Norwegian pianist Tord Gustavsen and his trio offer an expansive, sophisticated and diverse sound on their album Seeing. With its meditative qualities, the album follows in the footsteps of the trio's previous releases, such as The Other Side (ECM, 2018) and Changing Places (ECM, 2003)... [ read more ]
Who knows how the jazz harp paradigm might have evolved had the instrument's most adventurous twentieth-century player, Detroit-born Dorothy Ashby, lived beyond her premature passing in 1986. Since then, most American jazz harpists have stuck pretty closely to the neo-classical glissandos and block chords-based style established by Alice Coltrane... [ read more ]
Bevan Manson is an artist who has a creative duality. As a pianist, composer/arranger and educator, he's been successful in classical and jazz environments. With Talking to Trees, Manson provides an array of both originals and jazz standards, most with an arboreal tint, as the title indicates. The work is a validation that his pen, guiding the talents of vocalist Tierney Sutton and L.A.'s premium players, can make the familiar fascinating and the novel intriguing... [ read more ]
Some eighty-odd years ago a handful of trailblazers led by saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie changed the vocabulary of jazz, introducing bebop as a successor to trad jazz and swing and radically transforming the music's landscape and perspective... [ read more ]
The accomplished trombonist John Fedchock has released Justifiably J.J., a heartfelt tribute to one of the most innovative figures in jazz, trombonist J.J. Johnson on the occasion of his centennial... [ read more ]
Los Angeles-based Renaissance woman Cathy Segal-Garcia is well-known as an innovator, trailblazer and an artist who sets her own artistic paths. As a vocalist, composer/arranger, broadcaster, educator and more, she has never shied away from risk... [ read more ]
In the aftermath of George Floyd's killing in 2020, the relatively unknown Marley Munroe dropped a cover of Nina Simone's 1966 song "Blackbird." Having adopted the title into her new stage name of Lady Blackbird, she took sombre pride in seeing this version chime with a fiercely engaged Black Lives Matter community... [ read more ]
Bobby Wellins said about the composition of "The Culloden Moor Suite:" "It was something that came to me after reading John Prebble's book about the Battle of Culloden and the way he described events leading up to it and the dreadful aftermath..... [ read more ]
Nine years after the genre-busting Voyage (Wah Wah Records, 2015), Indian guitar/composer Dhruv Ganekar returns with the second leg of his ongoing journey of musical discovery. Not that Ganekar has been idle in the interim, with compositional credits to soundtracks for a host of films and documentaries... [ read more ]
We live on a rock. A few billion years of the workings of the complexities of carbon chemistry put us here. The systems and intricacies of every element that has unfolded to maintain us should be respected and preserved. Mike Holober's This Rock We're On: Imaginary Letters, featuring Holober and his Gotham Jazz Orchestra, digs into this theme in a sprawling, two-disc big band jazz outing... [ read more ]
Seven years is both an eternity and the blink of an eye. Enough of a stretch for individual circumstances to turn on countless dimes, it's also just a brief moment in the sea of existence and the greater, grander scheme. Seven is life itself...yet it's also one of its component cycles. South African-born vocalist Melanie Scholtz is well aware of these contradictions and truths, and, more importantly, the spiritual charge, gifts toward personal growth, well-placed challenges and overall wonder embedded within the number... [ read more ]
One of the reasons jazz is so intriguing is its wide range of styles and unpredictability. It has always been tricky to define. It is a genre that is constantly evolving, picking up influences along the way, and adapting in ways that can blur the lines between styles. While the term jazz often suggests something hard to pin down, labels can provide a useful way to describe the key features of a particular release... [ read more ]
Long-time fans of SoCal guitarist and arranger Bruce Lofgren are going to find this recording something of a departure. More akin to a chamber group than Lofgren's past forays into standards and big band jazz, the characterization of the recording as "instrumental adventures" is really quite apt... [ read more ]
Operating on the time-honored principle that one successful tribute deserves another, the Detroit-based Planet D Nonet has recorded Echoes of Harlem, Vol. 2, an homage to the great Duke Ellington and follow-up to the ensemble's well-received album from 2023, Blues to Be There: A Salute to Duke Ellington... [ read more ]
Darcy James Argue and Maria Schneider have produced music in recent years that is setting new parameters. They have broadened the scope of jazz by mining inspiration from unlikely sources: Argue finds inspiration in politics and conspiracy theories; Schneider looked at the data world, both artists revivifying the large jazz orchestra... [ read more ]
When one is diagnosed with multiple myeloma, as woodwind specialist Ken Peplowski was in June 2021, there are basically two alternatives: either accept the decision and throw in the towel or choose to fight and double down on doing what keeps you active and hopeful, in this case making beautiful music that swings... [ read more ]
When four highly regarded musicians like Percy Jones, Alex Skolnick, Kenny Grohowski and Tim Motzer join forces, expectations run high for an album like No Steps Left to Trace--and it delivers, effortlessly blending daring and organic soundscapes... [ read more ]
It is a fair conjecture to assume the axis of this recording is Frank Rosaly. The Puerto Rican drummer who caught jazz and improvised music listeners' attention during his years in Chicago now makes The Netherlands his home. Live At de Tanker connects Rosaly with his past, Chicagoan saxophonist Keefe Jackson and his present, Dutch bassist Raoul van der Weide... [ read more ]
This is music for the adventurous, especially those with the ears to deal with unusual harmonies. Michael Sarian is a now-Canadian trumpet player in the mold of Enrico Rava. His gift is his sound: dark, burnished, probing, even tentative at times... [ read more ]
Time is not the only thing that has taken odd turns in composer/trumpeter Tom Johnson's life and career. Even though a musician at heart, he chose a more practical and lucrative path, spending his adult years as a psychologist and full-time professor at Indiana State University, placing his dream of a musical career on hold while he earned a living elsewhere... [ read more ]
Terrence McManus' Music for Chamber Trio is a masterclass in the art of minimalism, a testament to the power of understated composition. The album, which features an unconventional trio, challenges traditional notions of chamber music, favoring textural exploration over melodic or rhythmic dominance... [ read more ]
Gira is one of those exhilarating beyond-category albums which London produces uniquely well, if the gentle reader will excuse a little partisanship. It is part música popular brasileira (MPB) and part jazz, but never entirely one or the other, swinging between the two as the fancy takes it. Add to that splashes of West African highlife, South African township jive, Maghrebi grooves, psychedelia, reggae and the sort of instantly addictive North Mediterranean quasi-novelty summer-holiday pop song that can take July through to the end of a chilly British autumn... [ read more ]
The four-movement suite If a White Horse from Jerusalem..., performed on this splendid album by soprano saxophonist David Liebman and the CNY (Central New York) Jazz Orchestra, was written by Israeli writer, poet and playwright Ada Aharoni, commissioned by Syracuse University, orchestrated by Bret Zvacek and had its world premiere in 2011, after which Liebman suggested that it be recorded... [ read more ]
At the age of 19, the Madrid-born, globe-hopping pianist Álvaro Torres fantasized about a life in New York, surrounded by influences and inspiration(s). And at the age of 29, he's living that dream. Studies at the Manhattan School of Music offered an initial pathway into all that the Big Apple has to offer, and life beyond that institution ultimately yielded two important musical relationships, a new trio and this gripping date... [ read more ]
A Decade is arranger-composer, trumpeter and vocalist Danny Jonokuchi's celebration of personal and musical evolution, encapsulating his growth over the last ten years as a musician and leader of his big band. The album draws on jazz's rich traditions while also serving as a reflection of the enduring spirit of the genre... [ read more ]
Released a year after the four-disc album AIR Vol. 1 (Creative Works Records, 2023) comes the three-disc AIR Vol. 2, which has a similar layout to the earlier release. Each disc of the four-disc album featured Swiss saxophonist Urs Leimgruber in a duo with a different player: American drummer Gerry Hemingway, Swiss pianist Hans Peter Pfammatter, Swiss amplified spinet player Jacques Demierre, German synthesiser player Thomas Lehn... [ read more ]
Argentine-born bassist and composer Fernando Huergo's heavy-duty Massachusetts-based big band delivers the goods on Relentless, a taut and vibrant review of oppression, discrimination, environmental challenges and other social issues, interwoven with Huergo's lively tribute to the saxophonist Ornette Coleman and a charismatic and thought-provoking survey ("La Vida Sigue") on life after the Covid-19 pandemic, with all compositions and arrangements by the leader... [ read more ]
When it comes to big-band recordings, commitment and enthusiasm can go a long way toward assuring success. Those benchmarks are fully displayed on Groove Junkies, the third album by trombonist Ben Patterson's Washington, DC-based Jazz Orchestra... [ read more ]
Denmark's Svaneborg Kardyb, comprising keyboardist Nikotaj Svaneborg and drummer Jonas Kardyb, are in direct line of descent from Brooklyn's Benevento Russo Duo, composed of keyboardist Marco Benevento and drummer Joe Russo, the second generation jam band who lit up the mid 2000s with psychedelic groove and whose Best Reason To Buy The Sun (Ropeadope, 2005) was the movement's highwater mark... [ read more ]
Joëlle Léandre is the definition of a force of nature. She is unstoppable, unforgettable, and full of boundless energy. It is the nature of her force that recordings like Lifetime Rebel attempt to capture. These four CDs--plus an interview and solo performance DVD--capture a moment, but just a moment of her inexhaustible spirit, before she moves on... [ read more ]
The blues is more about feel than form, but even so, the genre has its readily-recognizable structures. The A-A-B lyric format, shuffles in varying tempos and the 12-bar configuration are all stock-in-trade frameworks. Still, the essential simplicity of the blues lends itself to innumerable variations and so it is with these contemporary collaborative works of Luther Dickinson and JD Simo, Charlie Hunter and Jubu Smith, Mick Fleetwood and Jake Shimabukuro... [ read more ]
On March 30, 2023, Michael Sarian rolled into Detroit landmark Cliff Bell's with horn in hand. In the midst of a spring tour, that particular venue and evening provided an opportunity for the trumpeter and his bandmates--pianist Santiago Leibson, bassist Marty Kenney and drummer Nathan Ellman-Bell--to do what they do best... [ read more ]
On her first album in five years, trumpeter Bria Skonberg returns with a new sense of maturity and purpose in her music. She continues her usual style of mixing traditional jazz and soulful vocals with classic jazz and rock motifs, but this outing feels more confident than previous albums... [ read more ]
Trumpeter, composer and bandleader David Weiss delivers the fourth album from his exquisite sextet entitled Auteur, a French term originally used to define film directors as the "author' of the film and in musical respects here, to mean the director or "scene setters" of the music. A master of the bebop sound Weiss, as stated in the excellent liner notes from author Aidan Levy, "is dedicated to the proposition that there are still new stories to be told from within the bebop tradition." A gifted composer as well as bandleader, the trumpeter provides five original compositions with the Freddie Hubbard piece "Rebop," and Slide Hampton's "One for Bu" being the only two cover tunes on the seven-track recording... [ read more ]
Pianist Bryn Ro has steeped himself in sideman roles and collaborations with singer-songwriters. He has released five albums as a leader in quintet, quartet and duo formats, but 2024 finds him offering up his debut as a leader of a piano trio in Aloft, where he works his trio dream team of bassist Matt Penman and drummer Quincy Davis... [ read more ]
Where is the boundary between composed and improvised music? How many renowned improvisers use tried and trusted phrases that they have turned to so often that they have become cliches? How many classically-trained players are able to freely improvise despite never having been taught to do so? These and other similar questions are sure to be thrown up by the two albums below; one includes an improvised track that fits in alongside composed pieces while the other features a renowned improviser who has written music for himself to play alongside trained symphony orchestra players... [ read more ]
Dominik Schürmann is a Swiss double bassist from jny:Basle. At this point in his career, in 2024, he must surely be regarded as one of the best jazz players in Europe, a cautious assessment... [ read more ]
Note to conservative Republicans: stop reading this review now. Note to self: There cannot be but a handful of folks who are both MAGA and jazz and improvised music listeners. Jeff Lederer's Guilty!!! recalls a time when jazz was at the forefront of the zeitgeist... [ read more ]
Even when the recording (in this case, two) is a classic--as, for example, Charlie Parker's memorable Bird with Strings (Mercury Records, 1950)--some songs that deserve better are necessarily left on the cutting-room floor. Some may see that as disappointing, while others--like reed specialist Ken Peplowski--embrace it as an opportunity... [ read more ]
J.J. Johnson saved his instrument from possible obscurity. Rarely used as a front-line instrument pre-Johnson, the trombone might have faded away when bebop came along. Bebop--all those rapid-fire notes from trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and alto saxophonist Charlie Parker... [ read more ]
Australian explorative composer and sound artist Chloë Sobek is a prodigious talent. For her second release Burning Up Sobek takes two bold chances both of which pay off well. She joins master improviser, saxophonist Tim Berne for an entirely spontaneous set... [ read more ]
Eric Alexander and Mike LeDonne have been together many times--on recordings, in clubs, at concerts and elsewhere--but never quite as intimately so as on this splendid album, even though they are heard Together on only four of the album's nine tracks--LeDonne maps a solo course on three others, Alexander on two (moving to soprano sax on "Autumn in New York")... [ read more ]
Saxophonist Mike Casey won a few hearts and minds among AAJ readers in 2017 with his Take Five profile, which we published round about the time of the self-release of his debut album, The Sound Of Surprise: Live At The Side Door. Refreshingly happy to express an opinion, Casey slammed jazz festivals for their short-term "band aid" policy of bringing in rock and pop acts to bolster income, rather than investing instead in the sort of outreach activity that would nurture the long-term growth of the jazz audience... [ read more ]
In 2020 the ezz-thetics label released the two-disc CD European Recordings Autumn 1964 Revisited which comprised the six November 9th 1964 radio recordings made in Hilversum, the Netherlands, by the quartet of Albert Ayler, cornetist Don Cherry, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray, "Angels," "C.A.C.." "Ghosts." "Infant Happiness" (composed by Don Cherry), "Spirits" and "No Name." That album also contained nine other recordings by the same quartet, made in Copenhagen, Denmark, in September 1964... [ read more ]
Among the most welcome jazz events of 2024 is the return to active duty of the great British saxophonist Larry Stabbins following an absence of over a decade. Stabbins went into voluntary exile in 2013, after around thirty-five years at the deep end of British jazz... [ read more ]
Energy and enthusiasm fairly leap from the speakers--or headphones--on Sharel Cassity's daring "Call to Order," the opening number on Korean-born saxophonist Jordan VanHemert's fifth album as leader, Deep in the Soil... [ read more ]
Jazz Passion and Satin Latin from elite viola player Jimbo Ross offers a dozen selections drawn across a wide array of resources. From tried-and-true GASsers, to more obscure, but, fascinating, jazz compositions, all seasoned with Latin flavorings, Ross and his compadres deliver an invigorating session... [ read more ]
As serendipitous as was the confluence of circumstances that brought Davy Knowles and Jorma Kaukonen to The Essex Experience Summer Music Series, it was all the more providential that both men gave solo performances on two late summer night dates so close to each other... [ read more ]
Among the strangest all-horns discs ever heard in this parish is How It All Started (Hat Hut, 2007) by the Swiss quartet Mytha. Led by free improv and third stream trumpeter Hans Kennel, the group plays music made almost entirely on alphorns, heavy wooden horns ten to twelve feet long with curved bells that rest on the ground... [ read more ]
Several decades into the jazz reissue boom, first on CD and now increasingly on vinyl, one might imagine the bottom of the barrel is being scraped, and that any newly rediscovered obscurities might at this point have been best left alone. Yet so vast are the archives of recorded jazz that diamonds remain in the mine, exemplified by Green Line, a beautiful document of a single session in Tokyo on September 11, 1970, credited jointly to saxophonist Steve Marcus, bassist Miroslav Vitous, guitarist Sonny Sharrock and drummer Daniel Humair... [ read more ]
Jason Stein would never in a million years characterize Anchors as his variation of A Love Supreme (Impulse!, 1965). But a comparison can be made. John Coltrane's quartet recording was the most personal and profound statement of his career... [ read more ]
In years gone by, record stores would sometimes categorise their albums by genre, so there would be sections on jazz, pop and singer-songwriter, etc. Modern Flora from Dylan Hicks and Small Screens is the sort of album that could cause the record store owner a problem, as the album would comfortably fit into all those categories... [ read more ]
Wild-willed vibraphonist Patricia Brennan gets straight down to business without any fanciful mission declaration with the Afro-Cuban, effusively powered, clear-the-dancefloor and blow-the-ceiling-off this joint "Los Otros Yo (The Other Selves)," the opening cut of her third album Breaking Stretch... [ read more ]
The title of Sam Norris' debut album, Small Things Evolved Slowly, is sourced from an Erik Satie quote: "I took to my room and let small things evolve slowly." It is an apt title, as the album features compositions inspired by Norris' life in London that have been honed and polished in live performances over considerable time, in some cases over several years... [ read more ]
After many years in the Windy City, most notably as the leader of the JazzTech Big Band, trumpeter Rob Parton wanted a change of scenery, which brought him to the University of North Texas, where he joined the faculty in 2019. And of course, that meant he now had the opportunity to work with lots of premium large-ensemble talent, as the college has been an incubator for big-band jazz for decades... [ read more ]
When a February 2022 gig at John Zorn's experimental showcase The Stone was unexpectedly canceled due to Covid protocol, Wollesen seized the lemon juicer and booked the band into Shahzad Ismaily's famed Figure 8 studio in Brooklyn for the following two days... [ read more ]
Guitarist Juanma Trujillo's Howl explores some of the ways acoustic guitar can flourish in a small jazz group setting. Instead of playing simple rhythm parts, he is fully engaged in the music made by his three bandmates. His tangled strumming makes an interesting counterpoint to Kevin Sun's barrelling tenor sax on "Catharsis." On "Howl," his abstract phrases pirouette over the stormy bustle of Matt Honor's drums and Andrew Schiller's bass before Sun storms in, stuttering and wailing off Trujillo's chords... [ read more ]
Singaporean Jeremy Monteiro is primarily known as a pianist, having played with James Moody, Jimmy Cobb, Carmen Bradford, Charlie Haden and Ernie Watts, no less... [ read more ]
The History of the Vibraphone is a "tour de horizon" of the instrument and an exploration of its evolution in jazz. Joining Wolf in this meticulous selection of pieces from legendary jazz artists are long-time bandmates saxophonist Tim Green, pianist Alex Brown, bassist Vicente Archerand drummer Carroll Dashiell III... [ read more ]
Could there be a more intimate sound than that of Brink? The saxophone/drums recording by reedist Ingrid Laubrock and percussionist Tom Rainey is as personal as it gets between two working jazz improvisers... [ read more ]
Wandering Talk is the second part of a project from British bassist Orlando le Fleming which began with Romantic Funk: The Unfamiliar (Whirlwind, 2020). The album convincingly brings together the acoustic jazz tradition and the lush but muscular electric fusion which emerged in the 1980s. Not for nothing is one of le Fleming's heroes, paid tribute to on both albums, Wayne Shorter, a master of acoustic jazz and an architect of electric fusion... [ read more ]
All round shaman, musical advocate, and positive vibe provider, Nigerian-born Michael Olufunmilola (Funmi) Ononaiye (1968-2023) was known and beloved by everyone in the artistic and social circles of Manhattan's music scen. He was an AandR rep at Atlantic Records. He was a DJ, percussionist, and chief programmer at Jazz at Lincoln Center... [ read more ]
Baritone saxophonist David Larsen has produced one of the finest albums of pure hard bop music on the jazz landscape of today. Cohesion contains a treasure trove of fresh new original material from Larsen and tenor saxophonist Darryl Yokley... [ read more ]
The jazz world encompasses a multitude of local communities, each bringing its particular proclivities to bear on the music. Jazz came to jny: Delaware Water Gap and the jny: Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania via the inns and summer resorts for which the region has been known since the second decade of the 19th century, attracting New Yorkers and Philadelphians seeking summer refuge and fresh woodland air... [ read more ]
Friends and musical partners since the '70s, guitarist Lee Ritenour and pianist Dave Grusin continue their collaboration on Brasil, thanks to Ritenour's Brazilian wife Carmen, who was influential in recommending the project, and to the many outstanding Brazilian players who grace the album... [ read more ]
Many albums feature arrangements of standards, so what does it take to stand out from the crowd? Solutions to the problem include choosing the seldom-played lesser-known standards, changing the chords to reharmonize the songs while keeping the melody and changing the instrumentation throughout the album... [ read more ]
Saxophonist and flutist Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen is, above all, an explorer of sound. Jensen, who splits her time between her native Denmark and New York City, thrives in cooperative settings with other improvisers. On her twelfth release, the haunting Ephemeris, she joins forces with both old and new colleagues in crafting an absorbing and ethereal suite inspired by ancient cosmic mysteries... [ read more ]
Lana and Lilly Wachowski's The Matrix (1999)--an inspiration for Norwegian pianist and composer Espen Berg's Maetrix--divides opinion. The movie is regarded by some, including one assumes Berg, as a prescient masterpiece addressing the existential threat posed to humanity by digital technology... [ read more ]
Devin Daniels is an up-and-coming Los Angeles-based alto saxophonist whose debut album, Trio Exposition, dropped in 2022 on The Village label. Having toured with Herbie Hancock and played at an all-star tribute to Wayne Shorter at the Hollywood Bowl in the summer of 2023, it would seem that his star is rapidly rising... [ read more ]
It was surely a matter of time before Aengus Hackett got around to a contemporary jazz trio recording. The Galway guitarist has been a regular on the Irish jazz scene since graduating from the Conservatory of Amsterdam where he studied with Jesse van Ruller... [ read more ]
AAJ occasionally publishes reviews which call out the barbarism of digital-only albums (Heart is not one of these, please hang on in there). Item: the review of Brazilian saxophonist and flautist Vinicius Mendes' Macunaismo Tardio Vol... [ read more ]
Rose Mallett has an intriguing story, and that history comes out in her singing. While she is a chameleon, channeling Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald, she is also a powerhouse performer, witty and a born raconteur... [ read more ]
Fergus McCreadie's album Stream was recorded with his long-standing trio, featuring David Bowden on double bass and Stephen Henderson on drums. McCreadie explores the natural world, focusing on the element of water... [ read more ]
Among 2024's contenders for the most tireless and ambitious pianists in creative music, one has to put Matt Mitchell near the top of the list. When he is not working as a sideman alongside other pathbreaking musicians like Miles Okazaki, Ches Smith, Darius Jones or Kim Cass, he is busy crafting his own idiosyncratic compositions and assembling the uniquely capable ensembles required to bring them into being... [ read more ]
New and old converge on Water Music. Tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman showcases a quartet with longstanding partner Matthew Shipp on piano together with the fresh rhythm axis of bassist Mark Helias and drummer Tom Rainey... [ read more ]
Al Di Meola'sTwentyfour is a textured blend of acoustic and electric guitar set against a diverse palette of orchestral colors. Initially conceived as an acoustic project during the pandemic, the album evolved to include contributions from woodwinds, brass, percussion, keyboards, and a chamber orchestra... [ read more ]
Alto saxophonist Joan Hutton and tenor saxophonist Sue Orfield co-lead a quintet out of the US Midwest called Take That Back. The band's distinctive sound rises out of the rich dialogue between their two leaders... [ read more ]
Ryuichi Sakamoto's final album, Opus,, serves as the soundtrack for the documentary of the same name. In his final weeks, Sakamoto, an Oscar-winning composer, was filmed at the piano by his son, Neo Sora. This album stands as a stark, emotional farewell, highlighting the remarkable career of a man who profoundly influenced the world of music... [ read more ]
Andrew Binder's Conspiracy Deliracy builds a themed program that combines modern jazz sensibilities with the intriguing world of conspiracy theories. At the core of the album are Binder's compositions, which find inspiration in today's popular music and combine that with jazz and classical compositional techniques... [ read more ]
There cannot be too many jazz albums that find inspiration from as broad a spectrum as NASA's Mars rover missions and the horror novels of Clive Barker. Throw in some Kenny Wheeler influences and you have Everything You Could Be, the debut album from Canadian bassist Christopher Parnis... [ read more ]
Guitarist Denin Slage-Koch's third album, It Comes in Waves, is a contemporary jazz outing featuring eight original compositions and a reimagined pop classic. Known for his exceptional technique and thoughtful compositions, Slage-Koch has assembled a group of highly skilled musicians to bring his vision to life... [ read more ]
Alexis Valet's Following the Sun, is an enjoyable collection of contemporary jazz inspired by Valet's journey across continents--from the luminous streets of Paris to the bustling avenues of New York. Central to the success of Following the Sun is the symbiotic relationship between Valet and his fellow musicians: Dayna Stephens tenor saxophone, Aaron Parks piano, Joe Martin double bass and Kush Abadey drums... [ read more ]
On their third release for Germany's ACT Music, pianist Daniel Garcia, bassist Reinier El Negrón and drummer Michael Olivera display in spades why they have moved to the fore of the fiery foment of Spain's spirited and trailblazing jazz scene with the imaginative and highly approachable Wonderland... [ read more ]
Fans of Weather Report or the Zawinul Syndicate or for that matter most any of Joe Zawinul's work, will llikely appreciate this album led by keyboardist Scott Kinsey... [ read more ]
"I was in the house when the house burned down" is a thought sure to happen to many a concert attendee after a performance by legendary French bassist Joelle Leandre. She is a force of nature, a demanding and uninhibited artist. In her presence, a listener can feel the combustion generated by her performances... [ read more ]
Korean Fantasy offers another fascinating insight into how free improvisation and jazz have flourished across the globe. This 1999 live date brings together percussionist Kim Dae Hwan and trumpeter Choi Sun Bae, two of the few practitioners in the East Asian country active on the adventurous scene at this time, although it was recorded in nearby Japan... [ read more ]
Such is the proliferation of albums which in the 2020s are taking jazz in new and exciting directions--see AAJ's Best Jazz Albums of 2024: All-Star Break Edition round-up here--that it is easy to pass over albums which have their feet firmly planted in the tradition, and which show no ambition to redefine it, but which are by any standards fresh and first-class jazz... [ read more ]
Radiating an exhilarating, last-set-of-the-night ambiance, I Owe It All To You, Luther Allison's debut recording as a leader, places a premium on momentum, spontaneity and high spirits. An assertive, hard-swinging player residing in the modern, straight-ahead jazz piano tradition, Allison utilizes a bassist and drummer capable of holding down the fort and enriching anything he throws at them... [ read more ]
Shakai is a Japanese word for society, and Fragments, is an album that lives up to its name, presenting listeners with a collection of musical pieces that, while individually intriguing, struggle to coalesce into a truly satisfying whole. It is a blend of jazz-rock that is both soothing and intricate... [ read more ]
On his first two albums under his own name, London-based alto saxophonist Sam Braysher focused on the Great American Songbook. On this, his third album, he takes a sideways look at mid-twentieth century American popular music through the work of German-born, naturalized American composer, Kurt Weill... [ read more ]
Cosmic Wave is a stellar collaboration between tenor saxophonist Albert Beger, bass clarinetist Ziv Taubenfeld, bassist Shay Hazan and drummer Hamid Drake... [ read more ]
Frameworks is the sort of project that would be difficult to envisage anywhere other than the supportive cultural ecosystem of Norway. Calling on diverse funding streams, it brings together the 11-member Scheen Jazzorkester (SJO) and the forward looking quartet Cortex, in a venture masterminded by the latter's trumpeter Thomas Johansson... [ read more ]
In 2000, three years short of entering his eighth decade on this planet--a place of origin which at times seemed questionable, though he made less fuss about it than Sun Ra--Wayne Shorter finally did what he had resisted doing throughout his career... [ read more ]
Singer Monica Akihary and guitarist Niels Brouwer, the beating heart of Boi Akih, have been finding the common ground in Indonesian, Indian, African and European music traditions since the late 1990s... [ read more ]
Besides being a wunderkind in jazz and improvised music, is Jon Irabagon also a kind of math aesthete? Specifically, does he sometimes dabble in chaos theory? Within the apparent randomness of complex improvised music of Exhuberant Scars, Irabagon finds underlying patterns, interconnections, feedback loops and musical self-organization If one is keeping score, Exhuberant Scars is volume 3, part 2 of Ibragon's I Donʼt Hear Nothinʼ But The Blues (IDHNBTB) series... [ read more ]
Originally from Freeport, Long Island, New York and now residing on the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom, multi-faceted vocalist, composer, arranger, and engineer, Denise Mangiardi offers On the Brink, her eighth album as leader. Consisting of seven exceptionally well-performed selections with a handful of vivid originals and two classics, this is a masterful effort that is intriguing, enlightening, and a most enjoyable listen... [ read more ]
Los Angeles-based pianist/composer Greg Reitan jumped into the scene with an elegant splash in 2009 with his debut recording, Some Other Time (Sunnyside Records). He followed this up in 2010 with Antibes (Sunnyside Records). Both recordings were critically lauded, drawing comparisons to the work of legendary pianist Bill Evans... [ read more ]
Matt Pavolka, a seasoned bassist and composer, has carved a distinct niche in the New York jazz scene for over two decades. Initially focused on trombone (studying under the legendary David Baker), Pavolka's path took a sharp turn at Berklee College of Music... [ read more ]
Time waits for no woman. In terms of the importance of creating an ensemble to promote and empower female musicians, pianist Monika Herzig came to that realization back in 2014. So she did what was needed, gathering a band of Sheroes to deliver music and message to the people... [ read more ]
Chicago-based Andrew Vogt's Awakening is a profound exploration of the bass guitar's potential as a melodic and rhythmic force. The album highlights Vogt's exceptional musicianship and compositional skill as he delves into a rich sonic palette... [ read more ]
Swiss flugelhornist/trumpeter Franco Ambrosetti teamed with pianist/arranger Alan Broadbent in 2022 for the exquisite Nora (Enja Records), a top-shelf orchestral jazz album with a core group of mainstream all-stars... [ read more ]
Second Wind, which, as the title indicates, is John Lee's sophomore recording, is a vivid example of the art of the trio featuring the estimable rhythm section Peter Washington on bass and Kenny Washington on drums... [ read more ]
As the liner notes to Complete Link by Yoshiaki Kinno state, "In the 1960s, each of them [saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, trumpeter Toshinori Kondo and drummer Sabu Toyozumi] was inspired by free jazz, practiced it themselves and met each other in the process of overcoming free jazz." That is indeed a bold statement... [ read more ]
If there is a more masterly and majestic way to open a debut album than the running the circularity and capricious muscle of "Who Am I" it has not been often heard. It is that sense of hearing a new maker of myth and beauty with a fine ear and a finer talent reveal itself on Twin City's pianist/composer Kavyesh Kaviraj's beautifully balanced Fables... [ read more ]
If discovery is an element, and most certainly it is if one is an adventurous listener, uncovering new talent motivates your listening habits. With a release like Integration!, the exploration is nearly effortless. For those not yet familiar with the label Jersika Records, the album is a Latvian production under the careful guidance of its chief Mareks Ameriks... [ read more ]
With Long As You're Living ace jazz vocalist m: Lisa Rich and a team of New York A-listers soar across a dozen tracks of superior jazz. The album, her first since Highwire (Tritone Records, 2019) is a tour de force of musical talents and it once again validates Rich as one of our finest vocal artists... [ read more ]
Britain has been enriched by immigrants from many parts of the world, but people arriving from Spanish-speaking Central America and the Caribbean have been relatively few in number, and far less visible. So in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when salsa edged out of Spanish Harlem towards the US mainstream, Britain was mostly left out in the cold... [ read more ]
There is an elusive, impossible logic to Live In Munich, an album that could sound so much like so many before it. But it does not. Because the music that roils tidal between Catalan pianist Jordina Millà and British bassist Barry Guy on their debut concert performance may be more the sound of creation than music as listeners have come to comfortably conceive it... [ read more ]
Blues for Vita provides listeners with an outstanding eight-selection presentation that is a modernized throwback to the days when tenor-trumpet quintets such as Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Lee Morgan's, and Cannonball Adderley's ensembles were the mainstays of jazz labels such as Riverside, Columbia, and Blue Note... [ read more ]
Once the vinyl renaissance proved the adage that "there is gold in them there hills," labels began scouring their vaults to put out an ongoing stream of products. Owning the rights to over 1.2 million songs, Concord Records was perfectly poised to take advantage of a huge cash cow through vinyl reissues... [ read more ]
For ezz-thetics' revisited series' fourth Ornette Coleman album, the label has ventured back further than any of its previous Coleman albums, to New York City in December 1960 and January 1961. Recorded at AandR Studios on Wednesday December 21st 1960 from 8pm to 12.30am, the Free Jazz session produced two pieces, the thirty-seven minute "Free Jazz" itself, which was issued in September 1961 on an Atlantic album entitled Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation By The Ornette Coleman Double Quartet, and the seventeen minute "First Take" which was issued on the Atlantic album Twins in 1971... [ read more ]
Sooner Or Later is jazz vocalist Natalie Jacob's debut release. It is a refreshing addition to the jazz landscape, blending classic Great American Songbook tunes and bossa nova standards. Produced by Grammy Award winner Scotty Barnhart, the album benefits from the contributions of an outstanding ensemble, including Barnhart on trumpet, pianist Tamir Hendelman, guitarist Anthony Wilson, bassist Carlitos Del Puerto, drummer Clayton Cameron and percussionist Kevin Winard... [ read more ]
Pianist/composer Satoko Fujii has released over one hundred albums since 1996 and, in line with that prolific output, Aloft is the third record she has appeared on just in 2024; see also the Kaze ensemble's Unwritten (Libra Records, 2024) and the Tokyo Trio's Jet Black (Libra Records, 2024)... [ read more ]
In the internet age, the world abounds with musical prodigies. The instant availability of instructional videos on YouTube, sheet and tablature music sites, online megastores selling high-quality, inexpensive instruments shipped right to one's door, and online lessons make it easier than ever to learn how to play an instrument... [ read more ]
Love Cole Porter is pianist Antonio Adolfo's masterful tribute to the genius of Cole Porter, capturing his musical essence while infusing it with a Brazilian flair. This release is not just a tribute but a careful reimagining, bringing his timeless melodies, intricate lyrics, and sophisticated harmonies into a new light... [ read more ]
JD Souther might well be considered the unsung hero of country rock as we know it. Forget for the moment the ill-conceived and woefully mis-executed David Geffen vanity project that was Souther, Hillman and Furay: his early alliance in Longbranch Pennywhistle, with the late Glenn Frey, co-founder of the Eagles, led to Souther's collaborations with that group, including but not limited to what is arguably the pinnacle of their discography Desperado (Asylum, 1973) (he is one of the captured outlaws pictured on the album's back cover photo)... [ read more ]
A jazz pianist, arranger, theatre music composer and contributor to numerous other projects, Ross Lorraine now seems to have found his true calling as a songwriter. More From The Heart follows on from his songwriting debut on Heart of Mine (self produced, 2022) and follows a similar approach... [ read more ]
Lee Underwood's late father played trombone in a big band at the University of Colorado. Underwood recalls, "Whenever he thought of those days, my dad would close his eyes, purse his lips, and extend his right hand as if still playing this beloved trombone." Lee himself became a high-school jazz pianist, but caught his break as a guitarist, playing for Tim Buckley throughout the singer's turbulent and tragic career... [ read more ]
Guidance and Gratitude from trumpeter and composer Zachary Finnegan delivers nine highly-textured and involving selections. Each selection presents itself with a story background in its title and each is a multi-layered composition, a micro-symphony... [ read more ]
Cellist Janel Leppin and guitarist Anthony Pirog are both sturdy pillars of Washington, DC's creative music scene. Musical and life partners for over twenty years, the couple have spent a long time working together as a duo as well as pursuing individual projects... [ read more ]
Madeleine Peyroux's career took off in 2004 with her second album, Careless Love (Rounder), covering songs by such 20th century greats as Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Hank Williams. It was performed with a jazz sensibility, infusions of blues and touches of chanson, and mostly with jazz arrangements... [ read more ]
Strap yourselves in, spectral travelers, for a journey into the sonic labyrinth that is Peder Simonsen and Jo David Meyer Lysne's Spektralmaskin. This album is not background music for folding laundry... [ read more ]
Remixed, remastered, re-upped and re-amped from its original 2007 release, Rhythm Edge (CD Baby) immediately grabs you with its free-ranged, deep- rooted soulfulness and classic vigor. A gifted, Hudson Valley gentleman, multi-reedist Eric Person's serpentine and soaring tenor, alto, soprano, and flutes are veterans of many years with Chico Hamilton, Dave Holland, the World Saxophone Quartet, Houston Person, (no relation) and a far-flung range of others (McCoy Tyner and Vernon Reid among them)... [ read more ]
Apparently, you can roll quite a long way in a decade, slowly or not. To jump from Slowly Rolling Camera's self-titled debut (Edition, 2014) to Silver Shadow feels like hearing two different bands entirely... [ read more ]
Peter Van Huffel, the Canadian-born saxophonist and composer, has long been a force to reckon with in the avant-garde jazz scene. Known for his work with bands like Gorilla Mask and his various collaborations with other innovative musicians, Van Huffel has consistently pushed the boundaries of jazz, incorporating elements of free improvisation, rock and classical music... [ read more ]
Although reedman Rob Brown has a string of small group leadership outings to his name, dating back to his first, Breath Rhyme (Silkheart) in 1990, Oblongata may be one of his finest. The 2022 studio session reunites him with some of his most enduring collaborators, the same crew responsible for From Here To Hear (Rogue Art, 2019), as well as an outstanding appearance at the 2019 Vision Festival, namely trombonist Steve Swell, bassist Chris Lightcap and drummer Chad Taylor... [ read more ]
Reissued as part of ECM's 180gm-vinyl audiophile Luminessence series, Bright Size Life was originally released in 1976 and features Pat Metheny leading his then regular touring trio completed by bassist Jaco Pastorius and drummer Bob Moses... [ read more ]
Maybe in a world a-tuned to the sound of people seeking their own expressive modal dialogue to negotiate, barter, pray or prevent the king's rise, Gateway would have been the greatest jazz guitar trio album ever made. It certainly feels that way when one slips this handsome disc from its wrappings, handle gently to the turntable, and set the stylus down... [ read more ]
The improvising trio comprising Netherlands tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Luc Houtkamp, British pianist and player of electronics and objects Steve Beresford, and German drummer and percussionist Martin Blume is well established, having recorded their first trio album Live in Prague 2017 (the pow ensemble, 2017) in November 2017 at the Alternativa Festival in Czechia, followed by Shed 1 (FMR, 2020), recorded in concert at LOFT in Cologne, Germany, in October 2018... [ read more ]
Eric Alexander and Mike LeDonne's album Together is an acknowledgment of the magic that can emerge when two masterful musicians collaborate in a duo setting. This release, featuring nine tracks, captures the essence of their longstanding musical relationship, offering a rich tapestry of spontaneous interplay, deep grooves and expressive storytelling through sound... [ read more ]
Germany-reared saxophonist Welf Dorr has been a fixture in the New York City avant-garde jazz scene since 1995 and brings his distinctive blend of experimental and free jazz to life with this album. Dorr has been a relentless innovator, merging elements of blues, jazz and rock into his compositions... [ read more ]
Enduring connections. UK free music veterans, drummer Eddie Prėvost and saxophonist John Butcher first shared a stage in 1990, as part of guitarist Derek Bailey's famed Company weeks, but they still find plenty of worthwhile things to say to each other on Unearthed... [ read more ]
Tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover has been having an impact on modern jazz since she was a tenor phenom coming out of Portland, Oregon, before arriving in the New York metro area to study and eventually have a career in jazz. She was often seen at festivals playing with several different artists, prompting the obvious questions of who she was and "Where in the dickens did she suddenly appear from?" In 2024, such notions are a thing of the past for the on the rise tenorist... [ read more ]
The work of Australian-born singer, trumpeter, keyboardist and composer/lyricist Audrey Powne transcends traditional jazz styles. From the Fire (BBE Music, 2024) is a gem that melds jazz, new soul and soundtrack impressionism with penetrating lyrics to fashion a sonic journey... [ read more ]
The creative duo of saxophonist/flutist Karolina Strassmayer and drummer Drori Mondlak have been making exciting music together for over two decades. The pair seamlessly fuses the composed and the improvised on their engaging releases, that are usually, in intimate quartet settings... [ read more ]
It should come as no surprise that three of contemporary music's great improvisers should obliterate the boundaries between composed and improvised music. This is the second collaboration between pianist Izumi Kimura, double bassist Barry Guy and drummer/percussionist Gerry Hemingway following Illuminated Silence (Fundacja Sluchaj, 2019), a visceral live document where improvisation played out within conceptual compositional frameworks... [ read more ]
The married duo of cellist Janel Leppin and guitarist Anthony Pirog are no strangers to pushing boundaries. Their collaborative work under the Janel and Anthony moniker has long been admired for its innovative blend of genres, and 2024 proves to be a particularly fruitful year for the duo... [ read more ]
This jewel of an album was released just too late for inclusion in AAJ's Best Jazz Albums of 2024: All-Star Break Edition, where contributors were invited to name their three best albums released during the first half of the year (the article can be read here)... [ read more ]
South Korean vocalist June Yun's compositional debut, Enlightenment -Solid Waves, explores the feelings and emotions elicited by the concepts of light and dark. These things are difficult to describe in words but translate, with her music, into compelling, atmospheric soundscapes full of shadows, apparitions, angelic imagery and mystical moods... [ read more ]
Parallel Universes is the first album from the MYL trio, the group title incorporating the initials of the members' first names, Austrian violinist and vocalist Mia Zabelka, Japanese pianist and melodica player Yoko Miura, and British signal processing instrument player Lawrence Casserley... [ read more ]
For over six decades, composer, bandleader and musician Mike Westbrook has pursued a personal vision of jazz inspired by his hero Duke Ellington. That vision rests on the life-affirming, metamorphic potential at the music's heart... [ read more ]
One of the most ambitious composers working exclusively in the large-ensemble format, Jihye Lee is now offering her third release, coming on the heels of the well-received April (Self-released, 2017) and Daring Mind (Motéma Music, 2021). Lee is a fearless artist with a seemingly limitless imagination, with a multiplicity of themes and rhythms swirling through her complex, densely-layered compositions... [ read more ]
England-born, Netherlands-based alto saxophonist Sam Newbould uses the title of his third album to directly reference his temporary adoption of a Polish homing pigeon. But in a broader sense, Homing is about a man's pursuit to pinpoint his identity as an artist abroad... [ read more ]
The musicians who have featured on Another Timbre (AT) album releases more than anyone else are the ensemble Apartment House who have been on a quarter of the label's last hundred releases, usually performing works by other composers. The label has a penchant for promoting composers, be they young or older, male or female, from any country... [ read more ]
One of the more niche genres in the history of jazz is western swing. Primarily dance music and hugely popular in the Southwest, it originated as a jambalaya blending hot jazz, country, blues, pop and traditional fiddle playing, performed by combos such as the Light Crust Doughboys and Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys... [ read more ]
One hopes there will soon come a time in which the memories of the Covid crisis will fade conclusively, but until then its legacy seems likely to linger. As further evidence we have the ensemble Pandemic Solution, a trio originally assembled by pianist Norvald Dahl during the early stages of the pandemic in 2020... [ read more ]
Once More, Dear Friends! is the William Soovik Grand Finale ensemble's fourth album, offering a blend of free jazz, melancholy and authenticity. Swedish drummer Soovik's compositions evoke a sense of openness, inviting listeners into a world where musical boundaries blur. The band's sound feels genuine and timeless, full of character like a well-worn cast iron pan or weathered wooden planks... [ read more ]
When Swedish musician and composer Magnus Granberg's first album on Another Timbre, Ist Gefallen In Den Schnee, was released in 2012, it was credited to Skogen, the nine-(or seven-or ten-) member ensemble in which he played piano (prepared or not) and/or clarinet... [ read more ]
There are pluses and minuses to all recordings, the attributes stacking up like cordwood due to the virtuosity of the musicians, the compositional value of the tunes and the basic, primary aim of the leader. In this case, the leader, virtuoso drummer Robby Ameen, blurs the line between Afro-Caribbean rhythms and swinging post bop jazz... [ read more ]
Any release by Norma Winstone is an event and Outpost Of Dreams, her much anticipated first album since 2018's Descansado (Songs For Films) (ECM), rises to expectations. It presents her in a new duo setting with pianist Kit Downes, a star in his own right who is equally on point as an accompanist... [ read more ]
Art Hirahara's brief, cryptic solo piano intro to "Where Do We Go?," the opening track of trumpeter/flugelhornist Josh Lawrence's album, offers little indication of what immediately follows: Lawrence's warm-toned, delectable horn surrounded by relaxed, straightforward, middling-tempo swing courtesy of bassist Luques Curtis and drummer Rudy Royston... [ read more ]
Toronto-based pianist Cheryl Duvall is one of Canada's leading interpreters of contemporary music. In 2011, she co-founded the chamber group Thin Edge New Music Collective (TENMC) along with the equally praise-worthy violinist Ilana Waniuk... [ read more ]
More comebacks than Sinatra? Well, not really, given that this is the first one, but the return of the beyond-category British saxophonist and flautist Larry Stabbins after an eleven-year absence is headline news. In 2013, Stabbins (a.k.a... [ read more ]
Having a regular salary and a prestigious position would be considered as a successful achievement for many musicians. Israeli-born pianist and Amsterdam resident, Avishai Darash decided to buck the trend and gave up his position as artistic director and pianist for the innovative Marmoucha Orchestra to return to his solo career... [ read more ]
Anthony Braxton's music can often be compared to that reoccurring dream many people have where they have an upcoming university exam. Still, they neither attended the classes nor studied for the test. The reason may be that his graphic notations along with his scores can be formidable and downright indecipherable... [ read more ]
The music of South African saxophonist Linda Sikhakhane does not so much originate from a particular point in time or space or history as much as it expands and accelerates forth from the sub-Sahara's heady mists. Billowing, charging. Seething, soothing... [ read more ]
Janel Leppin, a multi-instrumentalist and composer known for her innovative approach to music, leads her Ensemble Volcanic Ash in their latest release, To March Is To Love. Her debut album, Ensemble Volcanic Ash, released in 2022, garnered widespread acclaim... [ read more ]
The late German reedman Peter Brötzmann thrived on hook ups with drummers. A roll call of his fellows over his career would read like a percussion who's who, but one of his most favored partners over the last period of his life was Paal Nilssen-Love... [ read more ]
In a world of autotuning and overproduction, it is not uncommon for musical ability to take a backseat to technology. However, only the truly talented can make the cut when all the effects and gimmicks are removed. Such is the case on From Me to You featuring Chicago- based vocalist Petra Van Nuis and pianist Dennis Luxion, which presents the duo performing together in a one-on- one setting... [ read more ]
Sometimes things are seen more clearly from a distance. That is the underlying conviction animating Tālskatis, the debut release from Latvian vocalist Līva Dumpe. "Tālskatis" is the Latvian term for a monocular, and the quest for vision, whether personal or political, permeates the album... [ read more ]
Guitarist Derek Bailey never compromised his approach to music, but was he influenced and his sound affected by set, setting, and playing partners? Those new to Bailey's working method may posit his approach was inflexible and unaccommodating, while long-time listeners can identify how a playing partner can affect the guitarist's sound... [ read more ]
Like a fine wine, Russian-born and New York-based pianist Misha Tsiganov, seems to improve with age. His music continues to evolve and his creativity hits a high spot with Painter Of Dreams. He has appeared on countless albums over the years and has played with such musicians as Wynton Marsalis, Bobby Watson and Michael Brecker... [ read more ]
Guitarist Ken Silverman, in addition to being a virtuoso, is an innovative composer and improviser. On his five releases as a leader Silverman has demonstrated a delightfully unique ability to fuse various musical traditions into a single unit. His sixth, Eclectic Vibes, lives up to its name and, like his previous work, is uncategorizable... [ read more ]
Three equally potent partners combine in a spontaneous and intense outpouring on The Recursive Tree. Neither reedman David Murray or drummer Chad Taylor require much introduction. Murray has been a colossus on the scene ever since he first erupted onto the stages of lofts across Manhattan back in 1976... [ read more ]
The Welsh pianist Huw Warren is not a household name--though he ought to be--so a little background to Choro Choro Choro is appropriate, just in case the album is taken to have effervesced out of nowhere. In the 1990s, Warren was co-leader of the singular London quartet Perfect Houseplants. The group's half-dozen albums positioned them approximately as the small-group inheritors of the unpredictable mantle of the city's maverick 1980s big band Loose Tubes, of which Warren, the Houseplants' saxophonist Mark Lockheart and drummer Martin France were alumni... [ read more ]
A lot of ink has poured from the pens of jazz writers in ruminations on the art of Satoko Fujii. With over a hundred album releases under her name and under the names of various groups she has led, she has given the scribes plenty to listen to and write about. Solo albums, big band albums and every size ensemble in between have come out in relative dribs and drabs--three or four releases a year--or in torrents (see 2022 comment below)... [ read more ]
While Oslo-based Belgian pianist Jonas Cambien's Maca Conu may be a new venture, it has a lot in common with his trio which made a series of acclaimed albums, including A Zoology of the Future (Clean Feed, 2016) and We Must Mustn't We (Clean Feed, 2018)... [ read more ]
Pat Metheny was first encountered in this parish in the autumn of 1982, promoting Offramp (ECM), released earlier in the year. He was making a London stopover on the tour which produced the live album Travels (ECM, 1983). Interviewed at Kensington's Royal Garden Hotel, where his well-worn denim stood him out from the generally snooty clientele, he gave off a first impression of a cresting speed freak, his hair wild and with more than plenty to say for himself... [ read more ]
Modern Vikings are a quintet formed by Stephen Henderson. He is perhaps best known as the drummer in Fergus McCreadie's trio, The quintet keeps that trio, consisting of Henderson, McCreadie and bassist David Bowden, as its core... [ read more ]
Happenstance played a hand in two of pianist Amina Figarova's finest recordings. The first time around it was September Suite (Munich Records, 2005). Though based in the Netherlands at the time, Figarova was staying in New York City when the planes flew into the World Trade Center buildings on September 11th, 2001... [ read more ]
There is a story, possibly apocryphal, about a young tenor saxophonist who, after some arm twisting from a friend, was persuaded to venture on to the bandstand and join in a jam session alongside Coleman Hawkins. Afterwards the player was asked by his friend whether he had enjoyed the experience... [ read more ]
Composer and bassist Nick Dunston's Colla Voce -"with the voice" -is a chamber construction which he describes as an Afro-surrealist anti-opera that operates in the concept of an individual experience, as opposed to a collective one. By that he asks, "what if the blue that I see is not that same blue that you see?" His caveat is that each listener's experience may differ... [ read more ]
The Path of a Tear from UK vocalist Jo Harrop contains eleven fine selections that tell tales of love and its vagaries and vulnerabilities. Opener "Beautiful Fools" is moderately-paced, a laid-back groove with a great deal of presence. Harrop dances across the poignant lyrics... [ read more ]
If memory serves, Woody Herman was once quoted as saying "it's tough to be a canary," or words to that effect. "Canary" of course, was just one of the many euphemisms used for female big band singers in the 1930s and 1940s. Herman's pointed observation was spot on... [ read more ]
South Korean pianist Jihee Heo has been in New York City since 2009. She arrived to work on her Masters after studies in Amsterdam and has become a fixture on the Gotham club scene, often appearing with a trio or quartet sharing the bandstand with some of the city's finest players... [ read more ]
Trumpeter Alex Sipiagin has always been a deeply devoted musical explorer. From early bop origins to more modern forays, he has ventured far and wide, developing both improvisationally and compositionally. With Horizons this fine artist continues his path, delivering--along with frequent sidekick Chris Potter and a superior rhythm section--yet another breakthrough album... [ read more ]
Drummer Matt Wilson continues his tradition of recording humorous and humanistic jazz here with the debut of a new quintet, Good Trouble, which includes both old and new associates. This group has a two-saxophone front line with Wilson's long-time colleague, Jeff Lederer on tenor sax, and Tia Fuller on alto sax... [ read more ]
Imagine a musical universe where jazz's avant-garde explorers join forces with the precision of Swiss watchmakers. In this paradoxical realm, the Stemeseder Lillinger Quartet thrives, crafting intricate sonic tapestries that defy conventional melodic structures. At the helm of this audacious ensemble are Elias Stemeseder (piano) and Christian Lillinger (drums), two maverick minds whose collaborative chemistry could power a small city... [ read more ]
There is an art to arranging the guests at a dinner party or wedding reception. One wants to foster interesting conversations, sometimes between strangers, and create new friendships. The same can be said of Ere Guitar, a party organized by Downtown legend Elliott Sharp... [ read more ]
Any vocalist who can call upon top-shelf talent in support of their debut recording is worth hearing. Hyeonseon Baek is no exception. The South Korean singer, who has studied at Maastricht University in the Netherlands and at the New England Conservatory, has already forged the connections that should allow him to distinguish himself in the jazz world... [ read more ]
There was a Steinway in the Zeitlin household in the outskirts of Chicago in the early 1940s. During this time Denny Zeitlin would find his way to the piano playing parental laps and sit at the keyboard, where he, he says: "I would put my little hands on their hands and go along for the ride...and I was just very intrigued by the entire panoply of sounds that were possible with that instrument." (from the 2010 AAJ interview with the pianist... [ read more ]
This release from guitarist Andrew Scott and trombonist Kelsey Grant, Horizon Song, is a tutorial in jazz which feels both refreshingly innovative and an ageless classic. This collection of original compositions from Scott or Grant can be categorized by their unwavering coolness and a distinct absence of musical anxiety... [ read more ]
Music is communication, and jazz, especially jazz improvisation is the purest form of expression of one's intercourse. Think of this in terms of the contrast between Buddy Bolden, who is believed to be the very first jazz musician and Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones... [ read more ]
There are in effect two albums on this disc by Italian pianist Giovanni Guidi's trio, and whether a listener would prefer to have just one of them will be a matter of personal taste. The duality stems from the presence of guest tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis on four of the seven tracks... [ read more ]
The certifiable beauty of Phoenix Reimagined (Live) is that it all happens in very very real time as Lakecia Benjamin comes fiercely into her immediate own and then, in a tear of a performance that blisters the paint on the wall, surpasses herself... [ read more ]
The jazz trio of Alex Hendriksen on tenor saxophone, Fabian Gisler on bass, and Paul Amereller on drums has been making waves in the European jazz scene for several years, being known for their dynamic live performances and innovative interpretations of jazz standards... [ read more ]
Without musical ideas a band's shelf-life as a vital entity is usually limited--that is a given. Commitment is perhaps a more underrated quality. Pianist Leopoldo Osio and bassist Peter Erdei have bags of that, steering the Dublin band formerly known as CEO Experiment through the choppy waters of a key member leaving, followed by the long hiatus provoked by COVID-19... [ read more ]
Canadian pianist Paul Tobey was on a fast track in 2004, with his debut release on Arkadia Records garnering a Juno Award nomination (the Canadian Grammy) and an eight-record deal with the label. Enter tendonitis, and severe inflation in his forearms that pushed a promising career way back on the back burner... [ read more ]
Rob Mazurek has long been hailed as an innovator in the realm of avant-garde jazz, his interdisciplinary, abstract journey taking him through projects like Exploding Star Orchestra, Chicago Underground Duo, São Paulo Underground, and Black Cube SP... [ read more ]
Someone with a musical personality as bright as Chance Hayden's does not need much of a reason to throw a party. If past recordings are anything to go by, the fellow is already willing and eager to kick off a fun rocking jam session at the drop of a hat... [ read more ]
Here are five notable vocal jazz releases that have come out in the first half of 2024. Jacqui Naylor Treasures of the Heart Ruby Star Records 2024 Jacqui Naylor is a veteran singer with a distinctive husky voice... [ read more ]
A great deal of power can be generated by saxophones and brasses played in unison. That power can be directed in different ways. The Dutch band Gallowstreet have decided on the route of maximum impact. Focusing on innovation rather than improvisation, they identify as a brass band but incorporate elements of jazz, electronics and dance beats... [ read more ]
Drummer Clarence Penn, a serious force on the scene for more than three decades, has worked with a who's who of vocalists--Betty Carter, Kandace Springs, Luciana Souza, Kate McGarry, Nellie McKay, Claudia Acuña, Paula Cole, Melissa Walker and Nneena Freelon, to name just a few... [ read more ]
If one wanted to capture a 'who's who' snapshot of the jazz icons of the mid-'70s, into the '80s and beyond, one of the best ways to start was to see if they had added their name to the list of artists who recorded and/or released a 'Live at Sweet Basil' collection. The New York City club debuted as a restaurant in 1974 and, within a few years, artists including Art Blakey, Gil Evans, Cecil Taylor, McCoy Tyner, Mal Waldron and others began performing at the compact venue, and had recorded sessions there... [ read more ]
Danish composer, arranger and pianist Kathrine Windfeld is held in high regard as the leader of her contemporary big band, having released four albums to international acclaim. She also works with other band formats, including the Kathrine Windfeld Sextet... [ read more ]
Live At Smalls is trumpeter Jack Walrath's vibrant exploration of contemporary jazz, showcasing his deft leadership and inventive compositions. He is surrounded by an ensemble of stellar musicians including tenor saxophonist Abraham Burton, pianist George Burton, acoustic bassist Boris Kozlov and drummer Donald Edwards... [ read more ]
Born and raised in São Paulo, drummer Alex Kautz moved to Mexico City with his parents in 1996. His sound world growing up included his parents' MPB (música popular brasileira), bossa nova and samba, along with North American rock and a bit of classical music... [ read more ]
Inside the twenty-page booklet enclosed within the Feats Don't Fail Me Now (Deluxe Edition), an erudite essay by esteemed author/biographer Dennis McNally gives due recognition to artist Neon Park's outlandish front cover image for Little Feat's fourth longplayer... [ read more ]
Synchronicity is a wondrous thing. Item: At around the same time that Albert Ayler was developing his sound in the U.S.A., the Ethiopian tenor saxophonist Getatchew Mekurya was forging a strikingly similar one in Addis Ababa... [ read more ]
On their entrancing debut duo outing Farahser-- Toronto/Berlin-based keyboardist and composer John Kameel Farah and eminent Toronto area drummer Nick Fraser--engage in a thrillingly unpredictable and genre-defying musical conversation... [ read more ]
Here is an odd one. Originally released on the short-lived Detroit label Strata in 1975, Larry Nozero's Time defies categorization. First-generation spiritual jazz, Henry Mancini, Motown, strings (real and synthed), the Swingle Singers, Braziliana and Shaft era Isaac Hayes jostle around the mic, along with Sibylline hints of Kamasi Washington... [ read more ]
Anyone who ever studied philosophy or literature has probably encountered the term dualism. Dualism represents two different aspects of one thing, much like two sides of one coin. Although the concept is generally associated with academics, it certainly applies to many different areas, and music is no exception... [ read more ]
Warm To The Touch is a triumph for Dutch percussionist Vinsent Planjer, displaying his talents as both a drummer and a composer. The album is a testament to his ability to blend intricate rhythms with evocative melodies, creating a listening experience that is both captivating and comforting... [ read more ]
There are no prizes for guessing that this album from 9 Horses is called Strum because every track features the sound of a strummed instrument. There are over 20 stringed instruments involved, with mandolins, violins, guitars, banjos, basses and pianos, in various combinations, forming the main components... [ read more ]
Ensemble 5, a forward-thinking jazz quintet hailing from Switzerland, has been making waves in the avant-garde jazz scene since its inception. The group, consisting of percussionist Heinz Geisser, bassist Fridolin Blumer, pianist Reto Staub, trombonist Robert Morgenthaler, and guest vibraphonist Christopher Dell, brings a fresh perspective to improvised music with their latest release, The Human Factor... [ read more ]
From the onset of its spiraling, corkscrew self, A Letter to the Earth finds two ever-emerging forces--pianist Kris Davis and drummer Ivanna Cuesta Gonzalez--locked into the mindset that home base (Earth) is screwed-up and (we) had better do something about it! Like yesterday... [ read more ]
The integer most integral to Numerals is the number two. A duo date highlighting the communicative and experimental bents bonding drummer-composer Don Peretz with pianist Jacob Sacks, it was recorded in two parts, in two states, with two different modi operandi in play... [ read more ]
Per the marketing release, LDL emerged from the trio LDP, which had already made waves in the European music scene. However, the transformation did not stop there. The addition of analog synthesizer ace Thomas Lehn expanded the group, resulting in the quartet LDP+L... [ read more ]
The Path of a Tear is Durham-born singer and songwriter Jo Harrop's fifth album release on the Lateralize label, which was established in 2018. Harrop's first album was Songs For The Late Hours (Lateralize, 2019), a download-only release on which she and her guitar, piano and bass trio arranged and played a selection of Tin Pan Alley songs, including the Gershwins' "How Long Has This Been Going On," which showcased Harrop's voice well... [ read more ]
Flavio Silva, the talented Brazilian, New York-based guitarist and composer, has electrified his beloved Brazilian jazz with EKO, released on his own Break Free Records. This third album follows the artist's 2018 release, Break Free, and delves even deeper into the fusion sound which has always been a simmering ingredient in his musical brew... [ read more ]
The term "promising" is typically used to describe a new arrival on the jazz scene. It may be synonymous with "hard to pigeonhole," or, perhaps, not yet completely realized in some stylistic sense. In the case of Ellie (Seunghyung) Lee, the word is misleading... [ read more ]
During her final year on the planet, Hermeto Pascoal filled a notebook with chorinhos and other musical offerings to Ilza da Silva Pascoal, his wife of 46 years (1954-2000). Twenty-four years after her death, the great Brazilian sorcerer of universal music presents us with 13 precious songs from his Ilza notebook in the form of a recording, the enchanting and poignant Pra Você, Ilza... [ read more ]
Following hot on the heels of Cecil Taylor Unit's Live At Fat Tuesday's February 9, 1980, First Visit (ezz-thetics, 2024)--the inaugural release of ezz-thetics' First Visit series--comes another never-before-released live album. This one dates from July 7th, 1984, and was recorded live at Altes Schlachthaus, Bern, Switzerland... [ read more ]
For many musicians, releasing their first album as a leader represents the high point of their career to that point. Even though it is daunting, alto saxophonist Kasper Rietkerk takes it all in his stride, making it seem straightforward. He brings his sextet, KRSIX, top-quality guest musicians and a string quartet to the studio to record eight of his compositions for The Island... [ read more ]
Years after Splashgirl's first album, Doors. Keys (Aim Records, 2007) was recorded, it is a pleasure to welcome their seventh album, their sixth on Hubro, particularly as years have elapsed since their last release, Sixth Sense (Hubro, 2018). The trio at the core of Splashgirl have known each other since 2000--Jo Berger Myhre on bass, Andreas Vold Løwe on keyboards, and Andreas Lønmo Knudsrød on drums, with all three also employing electronics... [ read more ]
Chicago guitarist Kenny Reichert works extremely hard to make his sound come across as casual on Switch. If you do not count the numerous discs with his partner Sara d'Ippolito Reichert, this is his third release as a leader. It follows Deep Breath (Shifting Paradigm Records, 2023) and returning from that previous outing are vocalist Alyssa Allgood and drummer Devin Drobka... [ read more ]
2024 marks the 20th anniversary of Threeway. This chamber jazz trio without drums consists of bassist Ben Crosland, pianist Steve Lodder and Steve Waterman on trumpet and flugelhorn... [ read more ]
Whether the listener accepts a certain definition of logistics as set in scriptural stone or they do not, does not really faze the the logics of saxophone colossus Daniel Carter, pianist Matthew Putman, and drummer Federico Ughi when they report to the stage and cavort with the muse... [ read more ]
The correct response to Jeopardy gameshow answer Gnash is, "what is KUZU minus one"? The established trio (KUZU) of saxophonist Dave Rempis, guitarist Tashi Dorji, and drummer Tyler Damon have toured extensively and released five discs since their formation in 2018... [ read more ]
Some music defies definition. If it fits into a recognizable style, it is not that difficult to describe. When artists step outside traditional boundaries to create a different sound, it frequently becomes one of those "you just have to hear it" moments. Such is the case with Boundaries, the debut release from the trio of trumpeter Jake Baldwin, guitarist Zacc Harris and drummer Pete Hennig... [ read more ]
Minneapolis-based jazz trio The Early Planets features the impressive talents of composer and guitarist Mike Wolter which may take listeners on a transcendent journey with their latest release, The Waits / InBetween Music. The album opens with "Tone Down Your Vibe," in which Wolter's intricate melodies float atop a Latin-like pulse... [ read more ]
Oddly, Paratonnerre is the first album release from the duo Griffure which comprises Léonore Grollemund who plays cello, sings and composes, and Amaryllis Billet who plays violin, sings and composes. Since adolescence, the partnership of Grollemund and Billet has been a field of experimentation involving voice and composition... [ read more ]
Hailing from the Parisian suburbs, though based in London, bassist, composer and dancer Amy Gadiaga has steadily carved out a name for herself since graduating from Trinity Laban Conservatoire in 2023. Early neo-soul singles "Everything I Do" (2022) and "Nephi" (2023) introduced Gadiaga's appealing vocals and her socially conscious writing... [ read more ]
Norbert Stein, a luminary of the European jazz scene, is celebrated for his ingenious compositions and distinctive approach to the genre. Central to Stein's musical philosophy is his "Pata" ideology, which draws from the surreal and abstract, blending whimsical, unorthodox elements with the essence of traditional jazz... [ read more ]
Water is My Song, from Sarasota-based vocalist Synia Carroll, sends up ten terrific vocals, tasteful solos and surprises. Water-related selections and themes span across the date wherein Carroll and her team of fine players hit on the classics, hand-picked gems and uniquely presented traditional fare... [ read more ]
There is an old saying that you should judge a person by the company that they keep. If that is true of musicians, then Italian pianist Antonio Faraò is highly regarded. For his sixth trio outing, he is joined by bassist John Patitucci, who achieved worldwide acclaim for his work with Chick Corea's Elektric Band and Akoustic Band... [ read more ]
Eric Alexander's album Timing Is Everything is an acknowledgment of his mastery of the tenor saxophone, highlighting a combination of power, precision, and profound musicality. Accompanied by pianist Rick Germanson, bassist Alexander Claffy and drummer Jason Tiemann along with a handful of special guests, Alexander leads this nine-track outing with a confidence and ease that can only come from deep familiarity with the material and an unspoken rapport with his bandmates... [ read more ]
There is that image from one of Sergio Leone's spaghetti Western films where three gunfighters stand in the dusty town center, guns drawn, waiting for someone to flinch. That depiction of the Old West is somewhat appropriate as the UK-born pianist, John Escreet, who was based in New York for nearly a decade, moved to Los Angeles... [ read more ]
With balletic verve, Latin violinist Alexa Torres goes about her debut disc, the hugely confident, ear and eye opening In Situ, with an inquisitive gusto and aplomb that belies her thirty-one years. A skilled, peer-reviewed ethnographic researcher, Torres is also the first woman and first violinist to graduate from the University of North Texas jazz strings program... [ read more ]
The innovative Swedish trio Space is a collaborative unit that consists of three masters of improvisation. Pianist Lisa Ullen, bassist Elsa Bergman, and drummer Anna Lund separately and together work in the border zone between the modern western classical idiom and that of free jazz... [ read more ]
The odd picture on the cover of Ricky Alexander's Just Found Joy is neither a takeaway from The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (Capitol, 1966) album cover, nor a play on the GOAT acronym. Actually, the album art was photographed at the Store Barns Farm in Downstate New York... [ read more ]
Mike Clement makes no bones about his love for the classic organ trio configuration. The Canadian-born, New Orleans-based guitarist uses his liner statement to praise the format and namecheck a handful of his legendary six-string forebears who've made their mark in said domain (i.e... [ read more ]
Brazilian-born bassist Marcelo Bonfim is relatively new on the scene. This is his debut recording, and it is a good one. Based in Chicago, Bonfin entitles one of his compositions "When I First Met You." One thinks it must have been some first date, because the tune is a bit more frantic than most on this recording... [ read more ]
For composer, author and saxophonist Anders Svanoe place is the space. That last part needs no correction as the proud Wisconsinite creates an abundance of sound 150 miles north of Chicago. He has been releasing his State Of The Baritone series, and Astro Eclipse is volume 6... [ read more ]
Scottish pianist and composer Fergus McCreadie and his trio have carved out a distinctive style. They have reached a point where they are immediately recognisable. Many musicians strive to find their musical identity, but this remarkable trio have achieved this quickly... [ read more ]
It is always interesting to learn about the world views of the parents of a significant artist, and to consider how they may have influenced their offspring's work. Take the filmmaker Spike Lee. His father was the bassist and composer Bill Lee, who in the 1960s worked with Johnny Griffin, Aretha Franklin and John Lee Hooker, and who, under the nom de guerre The Descendants Of Mike And Phoebe, in 1974 released A Spirit Speaks (Strata-East), a politically charged salute to the Lee family's enslaved ancestors... [ read more ]
Jason Stein, a saxophonist with a penchant for pushing boundaries, brings his avant-garde sensibilities and razor-sharp technique to the fore in Volumes and Surfaces. Known for his dexterous command of the bass clarinet, Stein has made a name for himself in the jazz world with his innovative approach and fearless improvisation... [ read more ]
After four albums together in saxophonist Trish Clowes' quartet My Iris, Clowes and pianist Ross Stanley peel away from the quartet for this intimate duo outing, recorded in Wigmore Hall, jny:London in July 2021. A studio album by design, there is, nevertheless, an unguarded, searching quality to these exchanges which is more in keeping with the energy of a live performance... [ read more ]
Still famed for her "silents" and early retirement from sound movies, lonely star Greta Garbo once conjured a dreamy fantasy of "permanent moonlight" in a letter to someone who was about as enigmatic a creative icon as she was, Noël Coward. In 2012 singer Maud Hixson came across that Garbo letter while reviewing personal effects of Coward's at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts... [ read more ]
With Tourismo's debut album Torque, the mischievous Australian quartet not only throw their hat into the progressive jazz ring but do so with a distinctly Outback-bred flair. The brainchild of drummer Alex Hirlian and pianist Matthew Thomson--both laureates of the National Jazz Award--this album bursts onto the scene with electrifying energy that proves these musicians are here to jazz things up... [ read more ]
For some years, Werner X. Uehlinger's Ezz-thetics label has been bringing smiles to the faces of countless lovers of free jazz by re-releasing albums featuring such luminaries as Albert Ayler, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Jimmy Giuffre, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor (to name but a few of many) all with state-of-the-art sound quality... [ read more ]
Jazz music has proliferated through generations traditionally by means of the oral tradition--meaning that knowledge is passed on by mentors, some by personal connection and others by more casual means. In modern times, this tradition lives alongside the jazz school phenomenon, where classrooms and studios incubate talent, while students inescapably still must pay their dues on the bandstand, playing with musicians that are more accomplished and more experienced... [ read more ]
How sorely Tomasz Stańko is missed. When he passed in 2018, his career had spanned practically the entire lifetime of homegrown Polish jazz, kicking off approximately with the Dave Brubeck Quartet's seminal tour of Poland in 1958, three years after the ban on jazz had been lifted by the country's ruling Communist Party... [ read more ]
Helveticus makes a striking contribution to the jazz scene with its second album, Our Way. Comprised of a Swiss super-trio featuring the distinguished Samuel Blaser on trombone, the legendary Daniel Humair on drums, and the versatile Heiri Känzig on bass, this ensemble offers a masterclass in musical constructive interaction and innovation, blending original compositions, jazz standards, and Swiss folk songs... [ read more ]
Comparable to the rare and valuable likes of a first edition book worth treasuring, Yelena Eckemoff's Romance of the Moon is no small achievement. The keyboardist/composer creates music as vivid as the images in her own paintings that adorn the inside and out of the CD package, all of which graphics (as well as those in the enclosed booklet) appear in a glossy finish... [ read more ]
Denny Zeitlin's Panoply is a diverse array collection of unreleased performances comprising solo piano recordings at the Piedmont Piano Company in Oakland, California, trio sessions with bassist Buster Williams and drummer Matt Wilson captured at Mezzrow Jazz Club in New York City, and duo pieces with drummer/percussionist George Marsh collected over a decade of home recordings at Zeitlin's Double Helix Studio... [ read more ]
The Siberian composer and sound artist Dmitri Mazurov has left a notable imprint on his homeland's artistic landscape with his creativity spanning a wide range of genres: from new music and experimental electronics to techno and post-rock. Mazurov's self-professed mythology includes intrigue in remote and mysterious places, conspiracy theories and UFOs... [ read more ]
The British pianist John Tilbury believes that some free-improv musicians play for too long without pausing for literal or metaphorical breath and, to make matters worse, do not listen hard enough to their bandmates. How right he is. Tilbury has not named names, but many AAJers could surely suggest some... [ read more ]
Of the twenty-nine Elsewhere albums that had been released before the two discussed below, well over sixty percent of them have focused on compositions for piano played by the composer themselves, such as Melaine Dalibert, or by other pianists, such as Reinier van Houdt and Dante Boon playing Jurg Frey's pieces for two pianos... [ read more ]
Simultaneously an open call to prayer and a frisky dance of the debutantes, "Epilogue" and "Child You" beckon and pirouette the muse, the spirit, the higher gods of our calling to come and celebrate My Prophet. Crazy good from the solemn "Epilogue" to the rattling closer, "Last Bike Ride In Paris," My Prophet is the current crown jewel in the burgeoning basket of jewels that Israeli-born but Brooklyn-wise saxophonist Oded Tzur has given the world... [ read more ]
Israeli-born drummer and composer Eden Har-Gil, now making waves from his New York City base, debuts with Hearts of Palm--an album that boldly dances to its own beat, weaving together jazz textures with an audacious spirit. At the core of this vibrant soundscape are saxophonists Caroline Davis and Lo Wood, who do more than play their instruments; they engage them in eloquent dialogues that span the album's entirety... [ read more ]
Richard Fairhurst was 19 when he released the first of three albums as the leader of The Hungry Ants. Approaching his 50th birthday in 2024, he has gone on to become one of the most distinctive pianists and composers in the UK. He presents his ideas on Inside Out in a piano trio arrangement. This is a format he began exploring when he formed Richard Fairhurst's Triptych with Danish bassist Jasper Hoiby and New York drummer Chris Vatalaro and released Amusia (Babel, 2009)... [ read more ]
Kenny Barron, = 3659}}, the mastermind behind Beyond This Place, leads us on a journey through the corridors of jazz. As of of the genre's most outstanding pianists, Barron is accompanied by an ensemble of formidable talents, including alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, vibraphonist Steve Nelson, double bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Johnathan Blake... [ read more ]
Lights was recorded live at Cafe Oto, London, on May 26th 2016. It features the trio of John Butcher on saxophones, German-born Thomas Lehn on analogue synthesizer and John Tilbury on piano... [ read more ]
It is reasonable to suppose that a recording like this might have a limited audience, although "adventurous" might be a better choice of words. Zarek Silberschmidt is a virtuoso acoustic guitarist, familiar to audiences in Switzerland and Germany, and a disciple of Django Reinhardt, even if some Chet Atkins seems to slip in as well... [ read more ]
Pianist Mathias Landæus has been a notable presence in Swedish jazz for some time, with his debut leader release, Blåbete (Amigo Records) dating back to 1996. At times he displays rather adventurous tendencies, revealed keenly in a freewheeling trio with saxophonist Oliver Lake and drummer Kresten Osgood on 2023's Spirit (SFÄR), but he also possesses a winsome melodicism... [ read more ]
Insouciance is not the correct word to describe Not To Want To Say by the trio Devouring The Guilt. The music is not "cool" or '"ndifferent" as much as it has an equanimity or a casualness not commonly found in free improvisation. This release, which follows the trio's eponymous debut (Amalgam, 2017) and Prison Planet (Kettle Hole Records, 2020) differs in that it contains not an ounce of anxiousness... [ read more ]
Over the course of his fifty-plus years of active musicology, Taj Mahal has explored all manner of roots music, but he always returns to his main influences in the blues. His delving into reggae and Caribbean styles has not only illuminated the links connecting the genres, but also increasingly honed a feel for sharp musicianship that was ever-so-incisive to begin with on his eponymous debut album in 1968 for Columbia Records... [ read more ]
After maintaining an almost impossibly prolific recorded output during the 1980s and 1990s (with over fifty releases in the 1990s alone), saxophonist David Murray eased up considerably in the 2000s, leaving his fans wondering if he might ever return to his earlier fecundity... [ read more ]
Released as the long-anticipated encore to his avant-garde debut, Rotational Templates (New Focus, 2011), Travis Reuter's Quintet Music is a masterpiece of musical sorcery, brimming with bold invention and innovative creativity. Reuter, a maverick guitarist who is unafraid to color outside the lines, leads his band of equally audacious virtuosos through a sonic wonderland that most musicians only dare to visit in dreams... [ read more ]
In the third decade of the 21st century saxophonists Jon Raskin and Phillip Greenlief have been slowly releasing albums from their 2+2 series. These are sessions, both improvised and using Raskin's graphic scores, which match Raskin and Greenlief with two other musicians who play the same instrument.... [ read more ]
Zara McFarlane's fifth album--a recording that actually fits the vogueish description "project"--represents a marked change of focus for the singer, from London to New York City and points west. Closely associated with London's radical underground jazz scene, McFarlane has previously peopled her touring and recording bands with fellow adventurers such Shabaka Hutchings, Shirley Tetteh, Idris Rahman, Robin Hopcraft, Nathaniel Cross, Binker Golding and Moses Boyd... [ read more ]
Jon Gordon, an alto and soprano saxophonist, steps into the limelight with his latest release 7th Ave South, a melodic memoir of a transformative place for jazz history in the early 1980s. This journey is a testament to the fascination of discovery and the allure of artistic camaraderie four decades later... [ read more ]
German-born London-based violinist, singer and composer Johanna Burnheart made a big impact fast on the Britain's underground jazz scene. After graduating from Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2018, and before the pandemic shut things down, she played on three significant albums: spiritual-jazz band Maisha's There Is A Place (Brownswood, 2018), trombonist Rosie Turton's 5ive (Jazz Re:freshed, 2019) and trumpeter Yazz Ahmed's Polyhymnia (Ropeadope, 2019)... [ read more ]
Since guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Joanne Shaw Taylor effectively recapitulated her roots on Blues From the Heart Live (Keeping The Blues Alive, 2022) she has earnestly endeavored to expand her style. In no short order later that same year, a more pop-oriented and highly-polished studio outing arrived in the form of Nobody's Fool (Keeping The Blues Alive, 2022), thereby setting the stage for the Brit's second outing with producer Kevin Shirley, who also oversaw Wild (Axehouse, 2016)... [ read more ]
There are few examples of ranking jazz saxophonists collaborating with rock bands, and even fewer that are as successful as this one featuring tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and the instrumental trio The Messthetics. One notable precedent is the partnership of Ethiopian tenor saxophonist Getatchew Mekurya with Dutch punk band The Ex, which exploded into life in concert and on record periodically between 2006 and 2012... [ read more ]
When one thinks of the jazz harmonica, two names immediately come to mind, the late great Toots Thielemans and the incomparable Hendrik Meurkens whose new project The Jazz Meurkengers fully captures Meurkens' desire to produce a new and exciting swinging jazz album... [ read more ]
Few albums capture the sheer joy of music-making as vividly as NatJim, the first duo recording from trumpeter-composer Natsuki Tamura and drummer Jim Black in over a quarter century... [ read more ]
Smoke Sessions Records, based out of NYC's Smoke Jazz Club, has a fascinating recording model: artists play a few nights at the club, take a day off, and then go into a studio such as the famous Sear Sound to record their repertoire for release... [ read more ]
Long recognized as one of the finest jazz pianists around, Roberto Magris has an extensive discography documenting his talents as a composer and his skills as a virtuoso pianist. In 2005, Magris and his all-Italian quartet of saxophonist Ettore Martin, bassist Danilo Gallo and drummer and percussionist Enzo Carpentieri toured the Far East and upon their return the group recorded Love is Passing Thru... [ read more ]
In his mostly sane and admirable book Black Nationalism and the Revolution In Music (Pathfinder Press, 1970), Frank Kofsky describes Kenny Dorham as "house trained." The calculated insult attempts to conflate Dorham's respect for form and structure with an Uncle Tom outlook on the world. Some might say Dorham would have been justified in following (or, rather, anticipating) the example of the writer Stanley Crouch, who on spotting in a Manhattan restaurant a critic who had recently dissed one of his books, walked over to his table and punched him in the face... [ read more ]
Domas Žeromskas is a Lithuanian pianist and composer living in Boston. For his debut album, Infinite Itinerant (Vinilo Studija, 2019), he collaborated with numerous musicians from his home country. Subsequently, he worked with musicians such as Tom Scott and Jacques Schwarz-Bart before forming his trio with drummer Héctor L... [ read more ]
Black Lives is not just a band; it is a movement. Comprised of globally recognized artists across generations and genres, their mission transcends mere musical performance. They aim for a utopia, especially in these turbulent times where words of hate and racism proliferate faster than cat videos on the internet... [ read more ]
For drummer, composer, and bandleader Scott Amendola it ain't nothing but a party. From his early days with guitarist Charlie Hunter's ensembles and their later collaboration with T.J... [ read more ]
The eight-piece Hill Collective hails from deep space via Brighton, a town an hour's train ride from London on Britain's south coast. In the contradictory way of many so-called collectives, it appears to have a leader, the alto saxophonist and composer/arranger Pete Piskov... [ read more ]
Lebanese-American violinist and composer, Layale Chaker starts off 2024 with a pair of releases with two different ensembles. These coincide with the premiere of Chaker's first opera Ruinous Gods at the Spoleto Festival USA . The albums are equally enchanting--there is not a more suitable adjective than that--and they are both in Chaker's signature style that is an elegant fusion of Western classical, Arabic and spontaneous music.... [ read more ]
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive one in American history. Seven states were affected and the political fallout saw Herbert Hoover reach the White House by 1929. The saxophonist Byron Asher believes another political action was the development of New Orleans jazz, early in the twentieth century, in direct resistance to the racism of Jim Crow Louisiana... [ read more ]
Max Kutner's album Partial Custody is a captivating odyssey through intricately woven soundscapes. With this debut recording from his new trio, Kutner unveils a refreshing evolution in his artistic journey. Having previously dipped his toes into the avant-garde pool with the enigmatic Kutner's Evil Genius, known for their sonic experimentation, the artist now embarks on a new venture that defies easy categorization... [ read more ]
If the purest form of communication is music then Magical Incantation--the latest free-form essay to flow from the spirits of free jazz titans sax master Ivo Perelman and piano master Matthew Shipp--could very well be the very definition... [ read more ]
A vitally important platform for apartheid-era expatriate South African musicians, Ogun Records was founded in London in 1973 by the bassist Harry Miller, then in self-exile from South Africa, and his wife, Hazel Miller. Chris McGregor, Dudu Pukwana, Mongezi Feza, Johnny Dyani and Louis Moholo were among those recording with Ogun in the 1970s under their own names or as members of bands such as Isipingo and McGregor's Brotherhood Of Breath... [ read more ]
A jazz classicist since his heady and historic days founding The World Saxophone Quartet, David Murray takes to a studio just outside Zurich with a rhythm section of the next generation and emerges triumphant with the standout Francesca... [ read more ]
Andrea Wolper is an active jazz singer, composer, and educator but this album is her first recording since 2011. On it, she reestablishes herself as a creative vocalist and arranger who can excel in many different styles. She also benefits from the support of excellent musicians such as reed player Jeff Lederer and violinist Charles Burnham... [ read more ]
Cincinnati-based veteran jazz guitarist and composer Greg Chako presents his 17th album as leader with the light and tender Standard Roots, returning to his musical foundation of performing in the guitar trio format as he joins forces, once again, with two stalwart players of the Cincinnati jazz scene, bassist Mason Daugherty and drummer Michael Meloy... [ read more ]
There are two faces of Julius Rodriguez and they are opposing rather than complementary. One face is the pop-jazz one presented by multi-instumentalist Rodriquez on his own albums. The other is the adventurous, strikingly singular modern-jazz face presented by pianist Rodriguez on other people's albums... [ read more ]
Abundantly, beatifically, and beautifully ebullient, uNomkhubulwane, Nduduzo Makhathini's eleventh overall effort but third masterwork for Blue Note (his 2020 Blue Note first, Modes of Communication: Letters From the Underworlds and 2022's In the Spirit of Ntu still shimmer and transcend) is, as is the South African pianist's quickly evolving tradition, radiant and revelatory... [ read more ]
Leave it to Relative Pitch Records' Kevin Riley's ingenuity to release a unique, live session which brought together three of the world's preeminent cellists-improvisers. The result is the provocative, captivating and simply titled Reid/Edwards/Coudoux... [ read more ]
It's not too late to catch up with alto saxophonist and composer Marion Brown. Thanks to this excellent reissue and remaster series, you can hear the innovative recordings from this master musician. This release follows his 1965/66 discs Capricorn Moon To Juba Lee Revisited (ezz-thetics, 2019) and 1966/67 discs Why Not? Porto Novo! Revisited (ezz-thetics, 2020)... [ read more ]
Much like listening to late period John Coltrane or modern-day Charles Lloyd, listening to Oded Tzur is akin to a spiritual experience. The tenor saxophonist's fifth album, My Prophet, is his most affecting yet... [ read more ]
Imperfect Bread were formed in 2021 and, combining the traditions of British singer-songwriters with Dutch free jazz, they have created an unusual sonic landscape. After spending time honing their sound, performing throughout the Netherlands and winning awards, they have in 2024 released their debut album... [ read more ]
One of the minor but intriguing mysteries of modern culture is why the trombone is commonplace in African American music yet only rarely heard in Africa itself. Since its earliest days, jazz in the US has featured the trombone, as did ska in Jamaica. In analog-age samba and bossa nova in Brazil, the instrument was practically de rigueur... [ read more ]
This multi-generational trio featuring the Danish father/son team of Benjamin Koppel (alto sax) and Anders Koppel (organ), alongside ace drummer Brian Blade, is a decidedly forward-looking affair... [ read more ]
Every now and then, a musician comes along out of nowhere and blows one's unprepared mind. Such is the case with the Brazilian saxophonist, flautist and composer Vinícius Mendes. Based in Belo Horizonte, Mendes began recording, it transpires, in 2013 and has since been a face on the city's jazz-samba scene... [ read more ]
While Behn Gillece's Stick Together, the vibraphonist's seventh disc for the Posi-Tone imprint, includes an abundance of highlights and exciting moments, there is something more substantive here than a band of excellent players constantly going full bore... [ read more ]
Marta Sanchez and her trio of bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Savannah Harris want their listeners to endeavor to keep up... [ read more ]
Once one finds oneself sucked into the fervent undertow piloting the live, previously unreleased September Night it is too late: The boat has left shore. Beginning with bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz's full throated rumble, "Hermento's Mood" spins off into fable somewhere around the one minute forty mark, when pianist Marcin Wasilewski begins his warm, welcoming symmetries and the band gathers steam.... [ read more ]
Sunlight beaming into a church through a stained-glass window is a different light--tinted and soft-hued, suggestive of the presence of divinity. Saxophonist Carl Clements' quartet outing, A Different Light, gives the same impression. Looking to the album's stained glass-like cover art, artist Amanda Barrow's visual for the album seems a fine fit for this distinctive, modern jazz quartet... [ read more ]
Pianist Zaccai Curtis's recent album Cubop Lives! is a vibrant acknowledgement of the rich legacy of bebop and Afro-Cuban jazz offering a compelling blend that respects tradition while infusing it with a contemporary flair. Backed by a scintillating ensemble of top-flight exponents of the style, including bassist Luques Curtis, drummer Willie Martinez III, conguero Camilo Molina and on bongos Reinaldo De Jesus, the group dives into an extended track list of seventeen compositions comprising Curtis originals, bebop classics, American Songbook standards and several numbers that pay tribute to one of Curtis' favourite piano players, Noro Morales... [ read more ]
In a world where heavily crafted narratives, thematic tie-ins and pointed productions are increasingly becoming the norm, it's a breath of fresh air to encounter a first-rate recording that's focused on music rather than messaging. Now that's not to say that vocalist Gabrielle Stravelli's longstanding trio with pianist Michael Kanan and bassist Pat O'Leary is without stories to tell... [ read more ]
Anyone who has made multiple visits to Goa, where they formed the Goa Afrobeat Band--as Tel Aviv-based guitarist and composer Tal Sandman has done--is self-evidently on the right team. Sandman lives in the Jaffa neighbourhood in southside Tel Aviv, an area in which Jews and Arabs live cheek by jowl, and diverse cultures co-exist, and where, according to the press materials for Where Did You Go?, war in Israel and Gaza has strengthened rather than weakened crosscultural bonds within the community... [ read more ]
Swabian-born saxophonist Moritz Stahl's direct and purposeful debut, Traumsequenz is certainly, as translated, a dream sequence, but its seventeen intimate miniatures could also serve as long-lost themes to long-lost noir TV shows about down-and-out detectives on the case of any moral lassitude... [ read more ]
Maybe the surprise release of 2021 was the trio recording Room Of The Present (Fundacja Słuchaj!). Adventurous bassist Damon Smith and percussionist Jerome Bryerton have had a long working relationship as a duo, in various groups and settings, large and small... [ read more ]
Alto saxophonist Nicole McCabe's Mosaic is produced by guitarist Jeff Parker, among whose other plus points is his relationship with International Anthem (IA), the Chicago-based label which has brought us Makaya McCraven, Jaimie Branch, Irreversible Entanglements and Ruth Goller, among other artists of note... [ read more ]
Somewhere near the point where jazz, Americana and alt-folk meet, Belgian singer-songwriter Chantal Acda can be found. She has carved out a distinctive sound using a restricted and intimate sonic landscape crafted to enhance her vocal delivery... [ read more ]
There's something effervescent and addictive about the music of the late 1920s. Perhaps it is the fact that technological advancements allow for superior sound quality of the music of Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven, Bix Beiderbecke and Sidney Bechet... [ read more ]
Based in South West England, Superlocrian is an acoustic septet specialising in chamber jazz. Presumably named after the altered scale, they are led by trumpeter Sam Massey, the main composer and musical director. Their debut album, Hills and Valleys, a blend of five originals and three cover versions, features a neat blend of woodwind and brass... [ read more ]
The vibraphone came to prominence during the Jazz Age of the '20s and has remained a staple in that genre ever since. Over the years, performers such as Lionel Hampton, Milt Jackson and Gary Burton have added to the popularity of the instrument... [ read more ]
Even some 60 years after its birth, the free jazz of the American New Thing remains a fertile source of inspiration in 2024. On its sixth album, Circles, Norwegian quintet Friends and Neighbors continues to find rich avenues to explore in its updated repurposing of the naked expressionism of the 1960's avant-garde... [ read more ]
Bassists in the jazz world frequently have to toil in the trenches for years, building their resumes in fits and starts as they gradually establish themselves, commonly hidden (figuratively and literally) behind the players up front who get most of the attention and credit. Luke Stewart is an undeniable exception, having enjoyed a mercurial rise to prominence since 2017 in outfits like Irreversible Entanglements, Heroes Are Gang Leaders and his own ensembles, not to mention a host of other projects in the Washington, DC area that often take him well beyond the confines of jazz... [ read more ]
The jazz world overlooked pianist and composer Herbie Nichols in his lifetime, but musicians such as Roswell Rudd, Misha Mengelberg, and Ted Nash have tried to keep his music in circulation over the years in various projects... [ read more ]
spi-raling horn by these genre-destroying avant-garde jazz artists is a whirlwind journey through the vast landscapes of jazz, where the boundaries between tradition and innovation blur into a kaleidoscope of ultrasonic exploration. This album is not just a collection of tracks, but a sonic crusade led by a quartet of virtuosos who wield their instruments like sorcerers conjuring spells... [ read more ]
What a coup on the part of Jazz in Britain to celebrate the launch of their new label with veteran Trevor Watts. It is a great experience listening to an eighty-five-year-old playing like an unshackled Ornette Coleman... [ read more ]
Project Earth: The Blue Chapter, is credited to the Iris Trio, a classical group that features Christine Carter, on clarinet, Zoe Martin-Doike on viola and Anna Petrova sitting in the piano chair. Poet Don McCay recites his poetry throughout. The project's theme is humanity's impact on the environment, expressed in three sections: "Bird Island Suite," "Chorus of Wishes" and "Kinds of Blue." It is an ambitious work, with more chapters in the planning stages... [ read more ]
South Korean Ellie Lee's debut highlights her significant skills as a composer and pianist, grabbing listeners' attention from the get-go. It plunges us into a universe where melody and emotion fuse to spin tales sans words. The opening title track ushers in a vibe that is both comforting and invigorating, laying down the red carpet for an album that intertwines through the tapestry of human emotions with elegance and a touch of flair... [ read more ]
Alto saxophonist Bob Mover and pianist Walter Davis Jr. embark on a captivating journey in a 1989 live concert from La Botteghelle, Salerno, Italy, which has now been released by Reel to Real Records... [ read more ]
Red Planet is the first public performance of an ad hoc quartet convened by Area Sismica, an arts initiative in Forli, northern Italy, dedicated to allowing tradition and innovation to coexist. The band brings together four stalwarts of the Italian scene, reedmen Marco Colonna and Edoardo Marraffa plus two drummers Fabrizio Spera and Marco Zanotti... [ read more ]
It is an interesting idea to pair a young, gifted guitarist just starting their career with a well-known jazz pianist. The guitarist in question is Italian Gianmarco Ferri. Following auditions, he won consecutive scholarships to attend Berklee College of Music, where he graduated with honours in 2022... [ read more ]
These are a few recent releases where guitars have a featured role. Jeanfrancois Prins Blue Note Mode GAM Records 2024 Guitarist Jeanfrancois Prins is from jny: Belgium but his music comes straight out of the American jazz tradition... [ read more ]
Titled Chinwag (a long and pleasant conversation between friends), this album is more than just a musical tête-à-tête; it is a melodic rendezvous between two old pals, keyboardist Larry Goldings and trumpeter John Sneider... [ read more ]
Solo albums for single-line instruments such as the saxophone always present a challenge. One that many but not all rise to meet. For New York City reedman Rob Brown, Oceanic is only the second such document in a career stretching back some 35 years, following an obscure CDR-only release, Silver Sun Afternoon (Nolabel, 2003)... [ read more ]
Duke Ellington hated flying so, in 1958, Ellington and Co sailed into Southampton UK to prepare for a tour of Europe. Before going on to Copenhagen, Ellington completed a tour of the UK, taking in Leeds where he met Queen Elizabeth, an event which eventually resulted in the "Queen's Suite." Earlier in the year, his strange obsession with royalty had produced a piece for Princess Margaret, "Princess Blue'" The band was particularly strong in this part of its history and the personnel had been stable for some time.... [ read more ]
They can be stuffy and old-fashioned. That is the view that many, especially the younger demographic, have about big bands. Making serious headway into changing those perceptions is Michael Lamb. He is the main composer, arranger and trumpeter for the Strictly Smokin' Big Band... [ read more ]
As much as master banjoist Bela Fleck loves to play, he loves to perform with other like-minded musicians virtually as much. Consequently, in addition to his long-standing role as leader of The Flecktones ensemble, he has continued to explore his love of the bluegrass music by which he first made a name for himself, My Bluegrass Heart (Renew, 2021), but also ventured far afield to collaborate with equally adventuresome creative partners like Edgar Meyer and Zakir Hussain for As We Speak (Thirty Tigers, 2023)... [ read more ]
When Sonny Rollins recorded "A Night At The Village Vanguard" (Blue Note, 1957) and later toured Europe in 1959, he was frequently asked about performing without a pianist. His saxophone, bass, and drums lineup was unconventional at the time, but it gave him the added freedom to explore his creative powers... [ read more ]
This is late period Art Pepper, he died a year later, in 1982. The music is full of striving, intensity, urgency. Pepper's sound and tone changed over the years moving from the smooth alto with the Stan Kenton band, altering to a more searching Lee Konitz-like in the fifties, before absorbing an edge from John Coltrane in the 1960s... [ read more ]
When Jimmy Smith brought the tablets down from the mountain, one of the commandments decreed that the job of an organ trio was to mix jazz standards with pop tunes and mash them all up into a seamless joyous brew. Guitarist Bobby Broom keeps to the original recipe on the live album Jamalot, his second disc with his Organi-Sation trio completed by Ben Paterson on Hammond B3 and Kobie Watkins on drums Broom comes with an impressive provenance... [ read more ]
Felicity finds its way into the heart and soul of David Bixler's music on BEATitude. Reconvening the quartet that drew wonder out of adversity on In The Face Of Chaos (Red Piano, 2019), this acclaimed alto saxophonist delivers eight numinous originals that speak to conviction and faith in moving form(s)... [ read more ]
There are, Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote, no second acts in American life. For pianist Hampton Hawes, born in 1928, there was scarcely a first. No sooner was he established as an up-and-coming talent than he was drafted into the Army. When he got out, he tried to pick up where he left off... [ read more ]
Time brings perspective. The three members of the Swedish band Gush--pianist Sten Sandell, drummer Raymond Strid and saxophonist Mats Gustafsson--were amazed at the quality of the music on this archive tape when they heard it again a quarter century after it was recorded, having forgotten about it completely in the interim... [ read more ]
It is an unchallenged law of nature that wherever or whoever anyone happens to be when they encounter Sun Ra, they are certain to be somewhere and someone else after the meeting. That holds especially true of Sun Ra at the Showcase: Live in Chicago... [ read more ]
Embark on a cosmic odyssey with Sun Ra and his Arkestra as they unveil At the Showcase Live in Chicago 1976-1977, a celestial offering dripping with mystique and intrigue. This transcendent collection not only unveils previously unreleased tracks but also grants access to the legendary Showcase Lounge, overseen by the venerable Joe Segal... [ read more ]
Mad Dream is the fourth release by Sued Nandayapa Bergmann Saunders, a far-flung ensemble with geographic roots in North, South and Central America, plus Europe. Natalio Sued, an Argentinian saxophonist, Andrew Bergmann, a bassist from Massachusetts and Gustavo Nandayapa, a Mexican drummer, met in Holland, while studying at the Amsterdam Conservatory... [ read more ]
Pianist Håkon Skogstad's 8 Concepts of Tango is a bold and ambitious exploration of nuevo tango, drawing motivation from Astor Piazzolla. Skogstad sets out to acknowledge Piazzolla's groundbreaking work, expand the boundaries of the genre, and carve out his own musical identity... [ read more ]
Bassist Bruno Raberg released a nonet recording, Chrysalis (Orbis Music), in 2002--review here. That was his only foray into recording with a large-ish ensemble. Since Chrysalis he has primarily recorded in small ensembles... [ read more ]
So called spiritual-jazz seemed to come out of nowhere with John Coltrane in the mid-1960s. If one jazz musician was the catalyst for the emergence this sub-genre of jazz it was he. Coltrane acolytes Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane and Charles Lloyd, among others, subsequently took up the mantle... [ read more ]
Ever since the untimely passing of the pianist Esbjörn Svensson in 2008, and the consequent diminution of his trio's radio-friendly but lightweight style, Sweden's then predominant place in Scandinavian jazz has ceded ground to Norway... [ read more ]
Beatin' the Odds. To baritone saxophonist Leigh Pilzer, that is far more than a catchphrase: it is a grim yet ultimately happy reality. In 2017, Pilzer was diagnosed with cancer. After extensive treatments, her odds of surviving more than five years were reckoned as around thirty percent... [ read more ]
Remember the good old days when bandleaders would give a downbeat and their bands would start swinging and keep on doing so until their audiences literally begged for more? Welcome to the past--present tense--courtesy of pianist Geoff Stradling's superb Los Angeles-based StradBand, which swings heartily and with seldom a pause on its radiant and power-laden introductory album, Nimble Digits... [ read more ]
As a genre, jazz-opera is thinly populated. The recorded archive is marked more by quality than quantity, with albums by Mike Westbrook and Kate Westbrook, Carla Bley and Charlie Haden to the fore... [ read more ]
Soundlift Berlin-New York is the second release documenting NYC tenor saxophonist Stephen Gauci's visit to the German capital following Live At Sowieso, Berlin (Gaucimusic, 2023)... [ read more ]
An excellent companion piece to the comparably memorable Live in Bakersfield August 21, 1970 (Rhino, 2023) and Live At The Matrix 1967: The Original Masters (Rhino, 2023), Live at Konserthuset, Stockholm September 20, 1968 features a live radio broadcast from September 20, 1968. Capturing The Doors at one of their performing peaks, it is apposite to another stop on the same European tour with Jefferson Airplane where lead vocalist Jim Morrison missed a show... [ read more ]
A supergroup of the best sort--based on talent rather than streaming numbers--Flukten consists of four musicians from some of the most creative bands in Norway, a stylistically varied crowd including Hanna Paulsberg Concept, Atomic, Espen Berg Trio Trio and Trondheim Jazz Orchestra... [ read more ]
The writer and critic Amiri Baraka (1934-2014) spoke of free jazz in terms of an essential and spiritual Blackness. Further, he described a return to collective improvisation as the "all-force put together." More vitally he suggested that free jazz reinforced the valuable memories of a people while at the same time creating new forms... [ read more ]
Pianist Andy Ezrin should be heard more often, and by a far wider audience. Like all commanders of the keyboard, he can make his chosen instrument sing, sigh, sway or soar, as he does the Fender Rhodes and Hammond B3 organ whenever he so chooses... [ read more ]
Roger Kellaway's latest offering Live At Mezzrow is a masterclass in jazz artistry. With Kellaway on piano--leading his trio of first class musicians, including bassist Jay Leonhart and drummer Dennis Mackrel along with guest guitarist Roni Ben-Hur on a couple of tracks--they embark on a celebration of mostly historical jazz standards from the songbooks of Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Billy Strayhorn among others, as well as one of Kellaway's own pieces "All My Life." For those of a certain age with long memories, Kellaway's compositional efforts embraced other media as he wrote the ending theme "Remembering You" for the ground-breaking TV series "All In The Family," which aired on CBS for nine seasons starting in January 1971... [ read more ]
Best known in the U.S.A. as a member of the late Sons Of Kemet and now The Smile with Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, Tom Skinner has been a vital presence on London's underground jazz scene for twenty years. Yet remarkably, only in 2022 did the drummer and composer release his first album under his own name... [ read more ]
Harmonica virtuoso Hendrik Meurkens brought together an outstanding group of musicians in The Jazz Meurkengers, which is a swinging tribute to the allure of hard-bop jazz. Supported by the resourceful and highly adaptable rhythm section of pianist Steve Ash, bassist Chris Berger and drummer Andy Watson, the band was augmented by the impeccable guitarist Ed Cherry on four tracks and bebop tenor saxophonist Nick Hampton on four different tracks giving the ensemble the energy, creativity, and reverence of the jazz tradition... [ read more ]
Chicago-based saxophonist Alex Beltran delivers a tour de force with Rift, an exploration of identity in a musical form. Beltran, who grew up in two distinct cultural spheres, those of his Latino father and his white mother, describes in the liner notes how he never fit with either side of the family... [ read more ]
On occasion with so many artists presenting recordings, a reviewer may innocently fall into the trap of bypassing a jewel by an unfamiliar singer. Such was the case here. The subsequent discovery was fortuitous. Seattle-based vocalist and composer, Nancy Erickson Lamont's Through the Passages is a thoroughly fascinating, absorbing 12-original-track session with the artist surrounded by an A-1 crew of the Pacific Northwest's best... [ read more ]
Movin' from John Lamkin II, and The Favorites Jazz Quintet, marks only the third album in a career that has spanned four decades. The trumpeter and composer is a native of Atlantic City, New Jersey, and had his first taste of jazz on Kentucky Avenue before casinos took over that space... [ read more ]
Trumpeter and composer Curtis Taylor's debut album, he writes in the liner notes, "was over twenty years in the making." Ever since he was a teenager, Taylor confesses, he dreamed of recording his music with a group of stellar musicians and calling it Taylor Made... [ read more ]
Step once more into the whimsical realm of Airoea, where The Chronicles of Father Robin, Norway's illustrious purveyor of progressive folk-rock, unveils their latest auditory tale, The Songs and Tales of Airoea -Book III. In this fantastical journey, listeners are whisked away on an adventure teeming with magic, mystery and enough excitement to make a dragon nod in approval... [ read more ]
Jacqui Naylor's Treasure of the Heart sends up fourteen highly unique jewels, with ten of those being original compositions from Naylor and spouse Art Khu and four classics, all offering a wide range of grooves from funk, jazz, and rock... [ read more ]
Long before Irish guitarist Louis Stewart released his debut album, the punningly titled Louis The First, none other than Joe Pass was singing his praises. Pass was not the only one; Ronnie Scott, who hosted many of the great jazz guitarists in his famous London venue, considered Stewart to be one of the best... [ read more ]
Jazz albums that feature violin-piano duets are uncommon. With two instruments, the musicians need to synchronise at a deep level and if successful, they can elevate their performance and the listening experience from good to great. To achieve this they need to be receptive to every move the other makes... [ read more ]
Saxophonist Grace Kelly, who some years ago graduated from the Child Prodigy class in which she was a prominent member, has entered her third decade by recording for the first time with a string-based orchestra. The theme is At the Movies, and Kelly opens with a James Bond medley and closes with five themes from Walt Disney films... [ read more ]
Over the decades, Italian trumpeter Luca Aquino has delivered intelligent and thought-provoking music which, if one allows immersion in it, yields a treasure trove of beauty. He is a soulfully introspective artist whose lush playing and textural compositions channel, and at times rival, that of players such as Chet Baker, Tomasz Stanko, Roy Hargrove (with whom he has recorded), Miles Davis and Chris Botti... [ read more ]
Even while pursuing a long and successful career in the physical sciences, Bostonian Ron Rieder never abandoned his life-long love for jazz, especially the tantalizing melodies and lively rhythms of Latin America, composing music at every opportunity before returning to writing full-time and at long last recording his debut album, Latin Jazz Sessions It was worth the wait... [ read more ]
Itinerant creatives manifest in both literal and figurative terms. Yes, they most clearly present in true formal fashion, traveling from place to place, sharing their art wherever they may roam. But their venturesome virtues extend to the interior, too. In fact, what's often of the greatest importance and interest is the roving surrounding and propelling their work--exploration of narrow paths, walks through obscured alleys and hideaways, and time spent in secret sanctums that offer peace and space to think in new ways... [ read more ]
In the enchanting realm of musical collaboration, Shiver Meets Matthew Bourne Volume 2 emerges as a tantalizing sequel to their inaugural rendezvous. This second installment in their creative escapade not only builds upon their initial fusion of jazz and electronic experimentation but also pushes the boundaries of sonic exploration with an audacious flair... [ read more ]
Exuberance is part of a "long-form tonal conversation" between two award-winning artists in complementary fields, composer Christopher Zuar and animator Anne Beal. Zuar, a Long Island New Yorker, describes the work as "a journey of personal growth," which began in 2017 when he and Beal met as fellows at the MacDowell Colony in the woods of New Hampshire... [ read more ]
Motherhood is a salient subject if ever there was one. Yet few jazz musicians ever touch on it in their work, never mind dedicating an entire record to the topic. The real or keenly felt need to keep up with the Joneses in a musical atmosphere that typically applauds and promotes standard bearers, hyper-masculine happenings, politically charged firebrands, and cutting-edge quests doesn't leave much room for an honest and open-hearted look at the scope of selflessness and self-discovery involved with maternal matters... [ read more ]
In a captivating showcase of musical virtuosity and creative synergy, pianist Dave Bass' latest album Trio Nuevo transcends the traditional confines of jazz by seamlessly weaving together a variety of genres from Bach to bebop and beyond. Accompanying Bass on this musical adventure are bassist Tyler Miles and drummer Steve Helfand who prove to be exemplary partners and imposingly proficient players... [ read more ]
Body Of Light by clarinetist and composer Jeremiah Cymerman is an album, a collection of recordings that make up a complete work. Cymerman's underlying message here is for the listener to consume these 42 minutes of sound not as four individual tracks but as one whole... [ read more ]
It took Fred Hersch a long time to begin recording for ECM--four decades and 17 Grammy nominations since his first own-name album--but when he arrived he did so in style. The Song Is You (ECM, 2022), a duo recording with flugelhornist Enrico Rava, reviewed here, was quietly sensational... [ read more ]
Adventurous listeners who have been following the separate journeys of saxophonist Silke Eberhard, trumpeter Nikolaus Neuser and drummer Christian Marien have reason to rejoice whenever their paths converge, as they do once again in their trio I Am Three... [ read more ]
Milana Sarukhanyan began singing as a young child in Ukraine. Later on, she attended the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatoire in St. Petersburg, Russia, for two years. From there, she moved to London where she studied at the Royal Academy of Music, graduating with first-class honours in 2018 and a Master of Arts diploma in 2020... [ read more ]
If one were to use this recording for a blindfold test, it would be interesting to see what emerged. Pianist (composer?) has an affinity for minor harmonies and repeated figures. Somewhere, deep in the background, there are echoes of Maiden Voyage (Blue Note, 1965). Band is all good players, post-bop, for sure... [ read more ]
The various meanings of home are the themes behind Feels Like Home--somewhere to belong to, a place to rejoin loved ones, a birthplace. This is the second album from Vasilis Xenopoulos and Paul Edis... [ read more ]
A Kiss for Brazil is Kansas-bred Grammy-nominated singer Karrin Allyson's third release to feature Brazilian music (From Paris to Rio, Concord, 1999; Imagina, Concord, 2008), and her first to showcase Brazilian musicians: Vitor Gonçalves on piano and accordion, Rafael Barata at the drums, plus the acclaimed singer-guitarist and songwriter Rosa Passos... [ read more ]
Bay area composer and saxophonist Raffi Garabedian is the descendent of survivors of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. These life defining events have had a major impact on family lore and on cultural expressions primarily in the form of literature. Garabedian draws inspiration from these oral and written stories to craft the cohesive eight part suite that is his third release as a leader, the lyrical The Crazy Dog... [ read more ]
If there's such a thing as casual sophistication, Yvonnick Prené has it in spades. That aspect of this chromatic harmonica pro's playing has shown itself to varying degrees across his discography and it's highly pronounced in these gorgeous and intimate duo performances with pianist Geoffrey Keezer... [ read more ]
In the grand saga of his tenth album as a leader, we tiptoe into the whimsical wonderland of saxophonist Daniel Bennett's mind. He does not just wield the saxophone; he also performs on the flute, clarinet, guitar and keyboard, all while basking in the fervent performances of his bandmates... [ read more ]
The splendid Oklahoma State University Jazz Orchestra seldom pauses for breath on Angular Tuesday, its third album under director Tommy Poole. The ensemble enters as though shot from a cannon on Don Menza's frenzied "Time Check," and keeps on swinging and swaying through a lively program that encompasses sunlit compositions by Maria Schneider, Bob Mintzer, Thad Jones, Don Grolnick, Matt Catingub and Matt Harris, plus the animated and funky title selection, written by saxophonist Matthew Howell in 2021, his senior year at OSU... [ read more ]
Canadian pianist Daniel Janke calls the trio responsible for his Available Light the Winter Trio. The leader manages piano duties, accompanied by bassist Basile Racola and drummer Ariel Tessier. The inspiration for the name was Janke's home base, Whitehorse, Yukon, a city of thirty thousand hearty souls at sixty degrees north latitude, in the rain shadow of the Coast Mountains... [ read more ]
In an era when the echoes of jazz legends resonate through the ages, pianist Sean Fyfe emerges as a torchbearer of the hard-bop tradition with his latest release Stepping Stones . This album is a testament to the power of collaboration, as Fyfe is joined by the dynamic ensemble of tenor saxophonist Dave O'Higgins, drummer Matt Fishwick and bassist Luke Fowler, each of whom brings their unique talent and deep respect for those who came before... [ read more ]
Born in 1966, British composer and musician Paul Newland studied composition at the Royal Northern College of Music, at the Royal Academy of Music, in London, and at Royal Holloway, University of London, receiving his doctorate in 2006. He has taught composition at Guildhall School of Music since 2006 and is currently a Professor of Composition there and is also a Professor at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, Greenwich... [ read more ]
Although Elephant9's plugged-in lineage includes the usual suspects--Miles Davis' electric bands and Soft Machine--the Norwegian organ trio's tap root is unmistakably planted in the work of the late British musician Keith Emerson, keyboards player with the Nice in the late 1960s and Emerson Lake and Palmer from 1970... [ read more ]
In the dense jungle of contemporary jazz, where rhythm is both compass and sustenance, Belgian drummer Stéphane Galland emerges as our audacious guide. His European ensemble, The Rhythm Hunters, embarks on a musical safari that transcends borders, time zones and conventional beats... [ read more ]
New Beginnings from trumpeter, composer and producer Keith Fiala offers up ten varied tracks of exciting, originally-composed and superbly-performed jazz. It delivers a vibrant mix of engaging melodies and intelligent hard bop jazz improvisation with platforms both in and beyond the smooth jazz vein... [ read more ]
Say what we might about quartets, quintets, sextets and beyond, it might be fair to say the trio is the most potent instrumental lineup of them all. Three-piece ensembles hold a special place in the annals of improvisational music (and not just in the jazz milieu: the term 'power trio' was coined in the rock realm to describe Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience), if for no other reason than groups led by piano and organ have created some of the most memorable music in its history (see Bill Evans' and Jimmy Smith's various lineups)... [ read more ]
Jazz cello has come a long way since Fred Katz's pioneering work with Chico Hamilton in the 1950s. Back then, the instrument was looked on as a novelty turn. In 2024, while still relatively avant-garde, its presence in a lineup is less exceptional... [ read more ]
Pianist Oliver Schwerdt's Fucking Ballads is not just an album title; it is a declaration of sonic defiance, a rallying cry for those who dare to challenge the status quo. The juxtaposition of the genteel term "ballads" with the bold expletive "fucking" sets the stage for a musical escapade that is as cheeky as it is profound... [ read more ]
It has been over a decade since a release from the Norwegian jazz band The Core. Founded in 2001, the quartet released half a dozen albums before mostly going their separate ways. Saxophonist Kjetil Møster worked with Gard Nilssen, Mats Gustafsson, and Per Zanussi, pianist Erlend Slettevoll with Hedvig Mollestad and Petter Wettre, bassist Steinar Raknes with Tord Gustavsen, and drummer Espen Aalberg in the Basement Sessions with Jonas Kullhammar and Torbjörn Zetterberg... [ read more ]
On Standards II, pianist Noah Haidu embarks on a captivating journey through the jazz tradition, accompanied by bassist Buster Williams and drummer Billy Hart... [ read more ]
Here we have a timeless theme that has been providing inspiration for artists as long as people have made art. It's easy to see why water is a perennial subject, and for something so endlessly changeable, it's no surprise that these works could hardly be more different. Fergus McCreadie Trio Stream Edition Records 2024 If the historical lineage of jazz is a series of classy figures dressed sharply for a night at the club, the Fergus McCreadie Trio is the mischievous sibling that's always sneaking out to play in the wild and straggling in with green knees and muddy boots... [ read more ]
When does one become an elder statesman in jazz? Is it a function of age? Awards? Discography? While that question is up for debate, it is beyond doubt that Dave Douglas is an éminence grise, except one who definitely does not work behind the scenes... [ read more ]
Harpist Alina Bzhezhinska and saxophonist Tony Kofi's musical partnership began in 2015 and two years later made the main stage of the London Jazz Festival, opening the bill of A Concert For Alice And John at the Barbican concert hall... [ read more ]
This is a reissue of an album by bassist Joe Fonda which was originally released in 1997. In his liner notes for this edition, Fonda notes that this session had several unique aspects for the time; the musicians included Brenda Bufalino mostly tap dancing, and Vickie Dodd, a healer and bodyworker, contributing wordless vocals... [ read more ]
Chilean-born pianist Antonio Flinta, based now in Italy, catches the ear with his solo piano presentations. His alone-at-the-keyboard albums include Secret Of A Kiri Tree (2022) and 2023's marvelous Peripheral Songs's--both self-produced discs that make a great argument for self-production; they can sit on a serious listening shelf with Keith Jarrett, Kenny Werner or Marc Copland... [ read more ]
Bassist-composer Stephan Crump's sonic odyssey Slow Water is a profound exploration of the essence and myriad forms of water. It goes beyond merely depicting its physical flow; rather, it delves into the symbolic and existential significances that water holds... [ read more ]
Pianist Spike Wilner, bassist Paul Gill and drummer Anthony Pinciotti have crafted an exquisite jazz listening experience in their release Contrafactus... [ read more ]
Drummer, composer and producer Jake Long's house-rocking City Swamp is part of a trilogy of post-2022 albums out of jny:London's underground jazz scene which are connected by adjacent sources of inspiration, identical creative processes, and crossovers of personnel... [ read more ]
IRIS is a self-titled debut, encapsulating the vibrant spirit of Chicago's jazz scene. The ensemble, composed of Arman Sangalang (tenor saxophone), Kirby Fellis (trombone), Austyn Menk (piano), Morgan Turner (bass) and Paul Barrilles (drums and cymbals), marries the rich traditions of hard bop and post-bop with a fresh, contemporary outlook... [ read more ]
Formed in Rio in 1968 when he was 17 and Brazil was under military rule, O Terço (The Third/Rosary) was singer-songwriter and guitarist Vinicius Cantuária's first working band. He played drums with the trio, which was, as he put it, "under the influence" of Crosby Stills and Nash... [ read more ]
The exceptional tenor saxophonist and composer Joe Henderson, who passed in 2001, recorded three premium-grade tribute albums: Lush Life: The Music Of Billy Stayhorn (1992), So Near, So Far (Musings For Miles) (1993) and Double Rainbow: The Music Of Antonio Carlos Jobim (1995), all on Verve... [ read more ]
For Tim Garland, the title, Moment of Departure, describes the "dive into the fresh unknown as improvisors, leaving the solid ground of what has been composed." Many of the tracks were inspired by the free-flowing artwork of Turkish painter Esra Kizir Gokcen... [ read more ]
Sacred music for what many consider a very sacred place, Central Park's Mosaics of Reservoir, Lake, Paths, and Gardens unites two natural forces- -the trumpeted truth of Wadada Leo Smith and the open air church of pianist and organist Amina Claudine Myers--for their first collaboration since their early years as active members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM)... [ read more ]
As much as one can appreciate the astonishing stylistic breadth of music that is gathered under the banner of "jazz" today, for many listeners there remains nothing like a supremely swinging straight-ahead date for listening pleasure. For those folks, Brian Bromberg's gorgeous new album LaFaro delivers on many levels: musicianship, sound quality, thematic cohesion and classic tunes... [ read more ]
Fire music. Free jazz. Third stream. Fourth stream. Avant improv, noise chamber blues, and whatever the meta and hashtags say it is, this sextet of loose cannons knows better and holds all the cards. Imagine for a moment what the reaction might be if your facial muscles suddenly, involuntarily, started to freeze, leaving you without expression and, without your art... [ read more ]
Noah Haidu and Dave Bass may be too much the traditionalists to become true innovators, but such observations hardly dismiss their efforts as exceptional stylists. Both men's recent releases certify them as musicians who can reliably remind us where the most fruitful sources of inspiration lie in terms of both material and musicianship... [ read more ]
There is an abundance of listenable music on Green Lights, the album from New York-based tenor saxophonist Troy Roberts--his sixteenth as leader in sixteen years. Clearly, he must be doing something right. That "something" includes playing graceful and eloquent tenor, mustering admirable sidemen for this quartet date, and focusing on largely agreeable music (Roberts wrote all of the album's ten generally likable songs)... [ read more ]
Along with the soprano saxophone, the bassoon in the right hands and mouths can invoke whatever spiritual visions one places faith in. Maybe it lies in the promise of divine warmth, conjured by Eastern or Indian reed instruments with similar qualities. As often noted, the word "oboe" sounds like something a bassoon might emit... [ read more ]
Groove junkies searching for a fix need look no further. Mainlining this music--a hard-hitting big band set that satisfies as it soars--offers a serious high. With a pen and mind untrammeled by norms and expectations, and a tight crew of musical compatriots bringing stentorian sound and vision to his book, trombonist-composer Ben Patterson delivers the goods and then some... [ read more ]
More faux-intellectual codswallop has been written about Cecil Taylor than about any other jazz musician, dead or alive. He has been, and continues to be, misrepresented as an arcane Einsteinian theorist by a cult whose members are afraid of visceral reactions to his art (or to anyone else's). But Taylor's work demands a visceral response... [ read more ]
Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, a force on the jazz scene for more than two decades, simply does his own thing on Tomorrow's Another Day, the twenty-fourth album as leader of his own groups, inviting any interested listeners to come on board for the ride... [ read more ]
Chicago composer and drummer Gustavo Cortinas is a musician with a message, one of social justice. He delivers it in a style that fuses the melodic sensibilities of his ancestral Mexico with the complex syncopations of jazz. The exciting Live in Chicago documents an unedited, two-set concert that was recorded at Constellation Chicago on December 15, 2022... [ read more ]
Wood Metal Plastic is a septet that consists of a jazz quartet (trumpet, alto saxophone, bass, drums) and three-member string section presided over by San Francisco Bay area-based trumpeter Ian Carey, who wrote and arranged the material on his seventh album as leader, Strange Arts... [ read more ]
Released in 2023 with next to no fanfare, the very gestation of the Eric Krasno/Stanton Moore Project's first effort carries a cachet all its own. Recorded at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, New York, and mixed by Jim Scott (Tedeschi Trucks Band, Wilco), Book of Queens is tribute to women in music wherein the nine covers offer homage to the work of musical cons such as Nina Simone, Peggy Lee, and Aretha Franklin as well as contemporary figures of note like Sharon Jones and Kacey Musgraves... [ read more ]
When Marco Baldini's first ever album, Vesperi (reviewed here), was released by Another Timbre in 2023, its arrival was not exactly awaited with bated breath. Born in 1986, near Florence, Italy, Baldini had no degree in music or composition and had not studied with an established composer... [ read more ]
Revival is a captivating collaboration between vocalist Chanda Rule and guitarist Mickylee, highlighting their remarkable synergy and artistic talents. Right from the start, it is evident that this record blends their skills, instincts, and open-mindedness, resulting in music that not only grooves but also deeply resonates and inspires... [ read more ]
Bob Marley and the Wailers' Catch A Fire 50th Anniversary Edition is a logical extension of the 2001 Deluxe Edition of the title. Whereas that latter double-CD package included this seminal reggae record in both its original and overdubbed form, this latest exhumation from the vault includes the studio album as originally released, the complete concert of the band 'Live at the Paris Theatre in London' (previously only ever bootlegged) and a third compact disc of alternate, extended and instrumental Jamaican tracks where three more live tracks reaffirm the preternatural bond of the Wailers before Bob Marley assumed top billing... [ read more ]
London's Empirical quartet, which first recorded in 2007 as a quintet, has had a steady lineup since 2009's sophomore album, Out 'n' In (Naim): Nathaniel Facey on alto saxophone, Lewis Wright on vibraphone, Tom Farmer on double bass and Shaney Forbes on drums... [ read more ]
Insularity is a funny thing. With globalization on everyone's mind--one way or another--it is ironic that parochialism affects the fine arts in any important way. It is not as if Pablo Picasso or Gustav Mahler were merely local celebrities. In classical music, composers have long been peripatetic figures--think of G.F... [ read more ]
Describing the music of Sun Ra is always challenging--perhaps even more so when it is documented on a live recording. A case in point is this offering from the Jazz Detective label, a substantial slice of Ra taken from two concerts at Chicago's Jazz Showcase in the mid-'70s... [ read more ]
Underbrush is the first project led by drummer and composer Federico Chiarofonte. The title is appropriate as it alludes to the undergrowth from which biological forms emerge, as well as a secure space where concepts can flourish. Those natural world elements are also reflected in many of the track titles, all eight of which were composed by Chiarofonte... [ read more ]
John Coltrane and Rashied Ali might not have been the first to record as a free jazz duo with Interstellar Space (Impulse!,1974), but the pair did set the bar for future performances from the likes of Frank Lowe and Rashied Ali, Peter Brötzmann/Peeter Uuskyla, Anthony Braxton/Max Roach, and Joe McPhee/Hamid Drake... [ read more ]
Yusef Lateef's performance in Atlantis Lullaby is a masterclass in communication and demonstration of synergy. In this previously unreleased performance recorded in Avignon, France in 1972, Lateef, on soprano sax, tenor sax and flute, is accompanied by Kenny Barron on piano, Bob Cunningham on bass and Albert "Tootie" Heath on drums... [ read more ]
In his most natural setting--onstage alongside brother Nat Adderley--and accompanied by pianist George Duke, bassist Walter Booker and the trusty Roy McCurdy on drums, Cannonball Adderley pops and bops to all heart's content on Poppin' In Paris: Live at the Olympia 1972 ... [ read more ]
The Milan-born, Marsailles resident Alessandro Bosetti may have started as a saxophonist and member of the influential free improvisation group Phosphor, but he has morphed into a composer and sound artist. Working solo, or with Kenta Nagai and Tony Buck in Trophies, he concentrated on the musicality of language and individual voices... [ read more ]
In Perfect Harmony: The Lost Album presents an intriguing collaboration between trumpeters Chet Baker and Jack Sheldon. Derived from a newly unearthed studio session from 1972 and released on the Jazz Detective label, it was co-produced by Zev Feldman and film producer Frank Marshall... [ read more ]
In the annals of jazz history, certain recordings stand out as treasures, not only capturing the essence of a particular era but also the sheer brilliance of the musicians involved. Jewels In the Treasure Box, the 1953 Chicago Blue Note Jazz Club recordings, featuring the virtuosic trio of Art Tatum on piano, Everett Barksdale on guitar and Slam Stewart on bass, is undeniably one such gem... [ read more ]
Beginning with 1963's Page One, Joe Henderson led a series of five albums for the Blue Note label that firmly established his reputation as a unique and budding artist with something vital to say. He was one of many artists at that time who utilized his Blue Note contract to document his every move while establishing his creative muse during this process... [ read more ]
Drummer and composer Dan Weiss turns his experiments and percussion exercises into compositions on this trio recording Even Odds. In other words, he composes, not on a piano, but with his drum kit for the twenty tracks heard here. That fact may not be groundbreaking except that Weiss recorded those tracks and sent the music to alto saxophonist Miguel Zénon and pianist Matt Mitchell to contemplate before gathering in the studio to improvise in this overdubbed recording... [ read more ]
Disaster Pony, the eponymous debut from the trio composed of Gordon Hyland, Adam Hindle and Ian Docherty, transcends the confines of a typical musical album to become a tempestuous jazz endeavor that finds itself amidst an electronic dance music (EDM) celebration... [ read more ]
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes ... Since signing with with Impulse! in 2018, Shabaka Hutchings has become best known for his incendiary work on tenor saxophone with Sons Of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming and Shabaka and The Ancestors... [ read more ]
When thinking of bassist Tom Kennedy, it can be instinctive to think of drummer Dave Weckl. Or vice versa. The two became friends and musical colleagues in their early teens. That is roughly a half century of playing, recording, touring, and much more together... [ read more ]
Cuareim Quartet's third album, "A Jazz Story," serves as a captivating journey through the rich legacy of jazz music, full of contemporary flair and poetic depth. On this record, the Cuareim Quartet embarks on a captivating musical journey through the annals of jazz history, offering listeners a rich and immersive experience that spans genres, eras, and emotions... [ read more ]
Any time an instrumental group includes a bandoneon in the lineup, that provides a pretty good idea as to where its sentiments lie. Norwegian-born pianist Hakon Skogstad includes not one but two bandoneons in his octet, and as if that were not enough in the way of a definitive clue, has named his latest album 8 Concepts of Tango... [ read more ]
Drummer Christian Marien represents the kind of omnivorous musical sensibility that is so valuable in an age in which conventional musical categories seem increasingly irrelevant. His undeniable reverence for the jazz tradition is evident through his work with I Am Three, in which he has teamed with saxophonist Silke Eberhard and trumpeter Nikolaus Neuser to offer marvelous re-interpretations of Charles Mingus, both on Mingus, Mingus, Mingus (Leo Records, 2016) and, joined by vocalist Maggie Nicols, Mingus' Sounds of Love (Leo Records, 2019)... [ read more ]
While the opener suggests a blowing session from veteran British saxophonist Paul Dunmall, as good as that promises to be, the reality is better still. Joining him is a starry cast drawn from succeeding generations, with the addition of American drummer Hamid Drake... [ read more ]
This ear-grabbing date from Remy Le Boeuf's Assembly of Shadows--the band's third release, following its eponymous debut (in 2019) and Architecture of Storms (SoundSpore Records, 2021)--is a sonic mirror, reflecting the multihyphenate leader's recent travels in both life and sound. Influenced by an odyssey across inland America, sights encountered along the way, and the adventitious, airwaves-dictated soundtrack to the journey, Heartland Radio offers up a striking portrait of a Promethean artist with an unfettered imagination... [ read more ]
Blues, ballads, bossas, burners--it made no difference to the late Joe Pass, an uncompromising perfectionist who took them all in stride and was, if anything, almost too flawless to arouse in the listener an earnest emotional response. Listening to Pass, one quickly gains the impression that there wasn't anything he couldn't do--an impression that is borne out by his uncanny ability to weave deceptively candid single-note lines into a remarkably poetic tapestry while swinging prodigiously in any context... [ read more ]
Leave it to the irascibly spirited and octane-charged Veronica Swift to release the party record of the year! From the pure joy scatting of the blast-off opener "I Am What I Am" (from Broadway's grand musical La Cage aux Folles) to the rabble rousing, mad-cap Joan Jett jam with The Ramones finale "Don't Rain On My Parade" (only available on the CD and digital versions), the incredibly talented and free-swinging Swift swings for the fences and wins the home-run derby hands down on her latest, transgenre triumph Veronica Swift.... [ read more ]
Regardless of one's opinion of the music (from this vantage point, quite favorable), it is always a pleasure to welcome a jazz group led by a woman whose talents reach beyond voice or piano. Maddie Vogler, who presides over an admirable sextet on While We Have Time (and wrote all the music therein), plays alto saxophone, and does so about as well as any of her peers, male or female... [ read more ]
This collection of seven duets from pianist Simon Nabatov and reedman Frank Gratkowski stands as one of those times when the late Misha Mengelberg's term "instant composition" for a series of seat-of-the-pants encounters makes absolute sense... [ read more ]
Here are some interesting recent releases that all feature guitarists, either as bandleaders or sidemen. Michael Musillami Trio Block Party Playscape 2023 Michael Musillami's trio with Joe Fonda on bass and George Schuller on drums has been around since 2003... [ read more ]
As he continues to do his part in maintaining the relevance of the flute in contemporary jazz, Christian Artmann also provides plenty of food for thought in his wide-ranging, thoughtfully constructed compositions. There is a contemplative dimension to his vision, evident on Our Story (Sunnyside, 2018), which explored the interdependency of human relationships through the lens of his Buddhist faith; and it is also present on his latest release, which involves taking stock of this moment in the planet's fragile existence and considering its challenges and possibilities... [ read more ]
An adage goes: "Patience Is A Virtue." That saying may be perfectly exemplified with the release of violin virtuoso Aline Homzy's recording Éclipse, which has been ten years in the making. This Canadian-American artist's long-awaited debut combines the jazz violin tradition into the contemporary world with improvisation and subtle composition... [ read more ]
Chicago-based pianist Jahari Stampley is a definite prodigy. Raised in a musical family, Stampley, like his mother, also composes and plays other instruments. His debut Still Listening is a mix of four solo and five ensemble tracks, all his originals, which also showcase his leadership skills. The unaccompanied pieces are gems of musical virtuosity... [ read more ]
In 2023, some 36 years after his death, the name of Buddy Rich is still synonymous with the word "drums" in many quarters, as is his reputation as a swinging, driving, fiery, and charismatic drummer/leader of a series of superb big bands, roughly in existence from 1966 until his passing in 1987... [ read more ]
Belgian guitarist Nicolas Van Belle is the primary composer for the quartet Suura. Since their debut Suura: Luwte (bwaa, 2020) the band has reorganized, released the live album Live at de Koer (1911582 Records DK2, 2022) and released this second studio album... [ read more ]
Vanessa Racci describes herself a jazz / cabaret singer of Italian-American descent with a passion for retro jazz and music made famous by Italian Americans. She has a previous album, entitled Italiana Fresca (2017, self-produced), and currently performs several shows that celebrate American jazz composers, Italian American music and contributions to jazz and pop in the US... [ read more ]
2023 news reports and events acknowledged and celebrated 50 Years Of Hip-Hop. While noteworthy, it is doubtful that hip hop classics such as "Get Ur Freak On," "Sucker M.C.'s and "Nuthin' But a G Thang" will ever find themselves in the Great American Songbook. The genre simply cannot compare with the vast extent of musical influence emanating from that 1960s period in which Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim, et al, took the popular and jazz worlds by storm with the exciting bossa nova sounds of Brazil... [ read more ]
Dr. Eddie Henderson, 82 years old at the time of writing in 2023, has one of the most interesting stories in modern jazz and is a true Renaissance man. His parents were entertainers; his mother was a dancer at the original Cotton Club while his father was a member of the popular singing group Billy Williams and the Charioteers... [ read more ]
Saxophonist Clark Gibson's Counterclock demonstrates the synergy that can be generated by an outstanding group of performers, including trumpeter Sean Jones, trombonist Michael Dease, Hammond B-3 organist Pat Bianchi, vibraphonist Nick Mancini and drummer extraordinaire Lewis Nash... [ read more ]
Violin and drum duos are something of a rarity in the jazz and improvised music arena. Swift Are The Winds Of Life (Survival, 1976) by Leroy Jenkins and Rashied Ali, and Bangception (Hat Musics, 1983) by Billy Bang and Denis Charles come to mind, but few others... [ read more ]
When we last heard from Popa Chubby, he was on his own, producing, recording and mixing at Chubbyland, his upstate New York music compound, making the most of his time in the lock-downs of the COVID pandemic on Emotional Gangster (Dixie Frog Records, 2022). Now the man born Ted Horowitz is in his preferred element, back out on the road, captured in the autumn of 2022 in all his redoubtable glory within the modern blues environs of G Bluey's Juke Joint in Long Island City, New York,... [ read more ]
Maggie Nicols, Caroline Kraabei and Charlotte Hug first came together as a trio in the autumn of 2000 when they played together in Nicols' front room. In May 2001 they came together again, playing a concert at the (now defunct) Freedom of the City festival in London's Conway Hall. At the same venue, on June 4th, 2001, they were recorded, without an audience, by Martin Davidson for his Emanem label... [ read more ]
Does Ex Machina settle the long-standing debate about whether saxophonist Steve Lehman is human or a replicant. Lehman and his approach to music may remind one of Rick Deckard, played by Harrison Ford in Blade Runner (1982) a movie adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K... [ read more ]
Whether 23andMe.com, MyHeritage.com, or ancestry.com can positively divine gypsy blood in award-winning, Canadian violinist Aline Homzy is conceptually and musically neither here nor there. What is important is that she jumps from the gate on her robust debut recording with a zesty momentum which she mightily sustains throughout... [ read more ]
Perhaps it is just the cumulative effect of what this title represents as the third and last release in a series of similarly- designated editions, but a dramatic sense of history arises from mere perusal of the artwork adorning John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers' Live in 1967 -Volume Three... [ read more ]
Idris Ackamoor paints on a big canvas, in vivid colours. Listening to the 2023 episode of his multi-decade Afrofuturist odyssey, there are times when he and The Pyramids stir memories of Fela Kuti's Afrika 70 and Egypt 80 bands. At other times, it is Sun Ra's Arkestra... [ read more ]
Vin Venezia won't blow your mind or even knock your socks off--that's simply not his style. The New Jersey-based guitarist will, however, lure you into his orbit with the sort of smooth and mellow sounds and precisely articulated phrases often associated such masters as Jim Hall, Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass and others who blazed a trail for contemporary jazz guitarists... [ read more ]
The transatlantic trio of electric harpist Zeena Parkins, saxophonist Mette Rasmussen and drummer Ryan Sawyer, working under the moniker Glass Triangle, reunites for Blue And Sun-Lights... [ read more ]
Sometimes an experience is too special and rewarding to simply leave as a one-off. If it requires traveling 8,300 kilometers across the hemisphere, then maybe you cannot continue making it a habit as regular as popping off to the pub on weekends, but the right repeat can still be worth the effort, even if it takes a few years... [ read more ]
The subtitle of Synergy is "Bobby Kapp plays the music of Richard Sussman," which is true to some extent. To be more precise, drummer Kapp is at the heart of a septet, conducted by Scott Reeves, which features composer Sussman at the piano... [ read more ]
Chicago bassist Christian Dillingham is a truly versatile musician. In addition to excelling at various genres, including jazz, western classical and gospel, he appeared on singer Kirk Franklin's Grammy winner Long Live Love (RCA 2019). Dillingham is also an accomplished educator, composer and bandleader... [ read more ]
Awaiting the arrival of his first child while locked down in New York City during the pandemic were probably not the circumstances which pianist Ben Winkelman would ideally have chosen for writing new music. Nonetheless, taking inspiration from the anticipation of fatherhood and the feeling of isolation acted as the catalyst for the nine compositions which make up his sixth album, Heartbeat... [ read more ]
At its core, trumpeter Chad McCullough's album, The Charm of Impossibilities is an homage to the music of classical composer Olivier Messiaen, whose singular approach to composition has inspired McCullough since he first happened upon works by the French writer soon after the turn of this century... [ read more ]
Nick Green's latest release, Green On The Scene, is a captivating musical journey which combines masterful instrumentation, intricate compositions and a profound sense of improvisational exploration. Accompanied by trumpeter Joe Magnarelli, pianist Jeb Patton, bassist Mike Karn and the inestimable drummer Kenny Washington, the band embarks on a set list of compositions which are at the intersection of tradition and modernity... [ read more ]
A relentlessly active and inventive guitarist whose first recordings date back to the '80s, Michael Musillami began to hit his stride in the '90s alongside veterans of the New York downtown scene such as bassist Mario Pavone, drummer Michael Sarin and saxophonist Thomas Chapin... [ read more ]
Gaea Schell's In Your Own Sweet Way is a captivating journey through the realm of jazz that delivers a fresh perspective on a variety of compositional forms, including Latin-tinged originals to innovative interpretations of songs from the Great American Songbook... [ read more ]
When native New Yorker Steve Lehman releases an album, the odds are it will turn up at the top of year-end polls. If the composer and saxophonist has a formula for success, a listener would be unlikely to discern a methodology across his previous sixteen leader releases... [ read more ]
Yelena Eckemoff and Cory Smythe have configured mirror images in music that reflect global mindsets of race, gender and class in the wake of COVID lockdowns and in the midst of climate change (among other controversies)... [ read more ]
Family is a major theme on Terell Stafford's Between Two Worlds, with compositions dedicated to his daughter, mother and wife. His band has been playing with him so long they must feel like family too. They include tenor and soprano saxophonist Tim Warfield, pianist Bruce Barth, drummer Johnathan Blake and bassist David Wong... [ read more ]
On a good day it is strenuous to stay current with pianist Matthew Shipp's imposing and voluminous output. On an even better day it is a fool's hardy errand to say the least. Now with the planned re-issuing of some of his great early deconstructions of musical thought and theory, starting here with 1990's daringly incongruous yet hypnotically accessible, Circular Temple, keeping up just got a whole lot harder... [ read more ]
Locked down and socially distanced during the pandemic, composer-arranger Daniel Hersog had an interesting idea: rearrange some well-known and well-loved folk songs, most with Canadian roots, for jazz orchestra and throw in a handful of his own original compositions with a folk-tune ambience... [ read more ]
Darcy James Argue's superb double-album Nonesuch debut offers compositions written throughout his career. He turns to twentieth-century thinkers for "ideas that can help us in the present, that we can reexamine and reconfigure for our own purposes." These include futurist designer Buckminster Fuller, cryptanalyst-computer scientist Alan Turing, composer-arranger Bob Brookmeyer, actress- screenwriter Mae West, trumpeter- mentor Laurie Frink, and musician- beyond-category Duke Ellington, among others... [ read more ]
Recorded in Copenhagen, Denmark, on June 17th 2022, John Butcher's The Very Fabric is welcome and notable for several reasons. Firstly, it is the first release on which he is the sole musician since Nigemizu (Uchimizu Records, 2015), recorded in August 2013. Secondly, at the invitation of Thomas Buhl-Wiggers of the Cejoro festival and label, Butcher recorded The Very Fabric in Copenhagen's Brønshøj Vandtårn, a concrete water tower built about a century ago in the suburbs of the city... [ read more ]
If we are the sum of the stories we riff to ourselves then podcast to others, then Tales of Utopia is a grand narrative by the Israeli trio of pianist/keyboardist Gadi Stern, double bassist David Michaeli and drummer Matan Assayag... [ read more ]
The term "proof of concept" might be the appropriate subtitle to Kris Davis' Diatom Ribbons' Live At The Village Vanguard. Her concept, first heard on the eponymous release Diatom Ribbons (Pyroclastic, 2019), is demonstrated on two discs taken from 12 sets over six nights at the famed Greenwich Village nightclub... [ read more ]
The ongoing Grateful Dead archival series, Dave's Picks, is becoming more fascinating as it evolves. Together and apart, Volumes 46 and 47 are cases in point: the former comes from that early flashpoint of inspired material and musicianship epitomized (but not wholly encapsulated) by Europe 72 (Warner Bros., 1972), while the latter takes place in the first year of keyboardist/vocalist/songwriter Brent Myland's decade-long tenure with the group... [ read more ]
Imagine walking down a street after dark, with nothing important happening, when the sound of music nearby can be heard. Pausing for a moment to listen more closely, the thought occurs that "this is really rather good; should hang around for a while." That is exactly the vibe which Kansas City-based organist Chris Hazelton and his ensemble wish to convey on this bright and smoothly swinging album... [ read more ]
Coming amid a flurry of Chick Corea titles set for release in 2023--Candid Records' 10-LP set ,Chick Corea Electric Band: The Complete Studio Recordings 1986-1991; the previously unreleased, Corea curated, 2-CD live Electric Band The Future Is Now and ECM's re-release of the pianist's first session for the label as a leader with Dave Holland and Barry Altschul, A.R.C... [ read more ]
With the passing of Pharoah Sanders in September 2022, almost a year ago at the time of writing, and bearing in mind advances in sound-restoration technology, we can anticipate a stream of previously unissued Sanders recordings being released in the years ahead. If this outstanding 2-CD / 2-LP box set is anything to go by, bring it on... [ read more ]
Veronica Swift is one of our top jazz singers. Her craft is immaculate. She scats like nobody's business and her texted improvisations are inventive. What's more, she always seems to sing straight from the heart. All that might be enough for some people, not Swift... [ read more ]
There are only so many times that one can use phrases such as "emerging talent" or "upcoming star" before one must concede that the artist in question has in fact made it into the major league of jazz. With the August 2023 release of her second full-length album Chroma on the label ACT, this is precisely the point that tenor saxophonist Emma Rawicz has reached in her career... [ read more ]
Guido Basso, known for his mastery of the flugelhorn and trumpet, died in February of 2023. From his earliest days in Montreal playing with the Maury Kaye band, to working in the US with top performers such Vic Damone and Pearl Bailey, Basso gained a reputation as a consummate musician who was capable of working in a variety of settings... [ read more ]
The drummer Johnathan Blake was born in Philadelphia in 1976. His father was the esteemed jazz violinist and educator John Blake Jr. who played in many diverse settings, (most notably Archie Shepp and McCoy Tyner), before releasing seven albums under his name... [ read more ]
As trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso and his EarRegulars had been performing every Sunday night for more than sixteen years at New York City's historic Ear Inn, Kellso reasoned it was time that one of their concerts should be recorded to share more broadly the fun and enthusiasm which animates every session... [ read more ]
Alexander Claffy has released an impressive album entitled "Music From Big Orange" which showcases his skills as a bassist and composer, and captures the essence of contemporary jazz while paying homage to the rich traditions of the genre... [ read more ]
Classically trained pianist and composer Alexandra Ivanova discovered her passion for jazz in her teens, and was mentored by Lebanese- American jazz pianist, Tarek Yamani. Perhaps as a result of having lived on three continents and speaking six languages fluently, she has experienced a range of cultural influences, giving her an unorthodox approach to her compositions... [ read more ]
To paraphrase an old saying: You can take the girl (geographically) away from the raga, but you cannot take the raga away from the girl... Pianist Chatu Suri was born in India, where the raga holds sway, and she listened to the ragas her father played on the radio. But she left her homeland and has lived in four continents... [ read more ]
Emily Kuhn is a trumpet player from Chicago with a calm, lyrical tone whose music is influenced by the folk and classical worlds as well as jazz. That shows up strongly on the track "In Lieu of Certainty, Movement" here, where pianist Meghan Stagl keeps a rippling neo-classical melody going while Kuhn and guitarist Erik Skov solo in front of her with ever-increasing force and purpose... [ read more ]
Shades of Link Ray's "Rumble," from 1958. Shades of Dick Dale's 1963 hit "Miserlou." Shades of every guitar/bass/drum band that has ever set up in someone's garage in an attempt to work on their hard rock and roll chops, trying to become the next heavy metal band to hit the charts. Canadian guitarist Dan Pitt rolls with the guitar trio format on his Stages, though his trio is a good deal more intricate and musically skilled than the typical garage band... [ read more ]
The work of the late George Shearing, or Sir George Shearing OBE to give him his full title, is the subject of the debut album from Shear Brass, a band dedicated to playing new arrangements of his music. They are led by Shearing's great nephew, drummer Carl Gorham... [ read more ]
Balladextrous, a collaborative jazz album featuring vocalist Sienna Dahlen and guitarist Bill Coon, is a delightful exploration of the ballad form which allows the artists to make moment-to-moment choices about how they are feeling the rhythm or letting it breathe... [ read more ]
Based in the northern English city of Manchester, trumpeter Matthew Halsall debuted on record in 2008 with Sending My Love (Gondwana), a stylish take on the meditative end of the spiritual jazz of Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders... [ read more ]
Believer or nonbeliever, either way it is simply impossible to deny the doxological nature of saxophonist Francesco Aroni Vigone's Orbita. His solo recording has a paradisiacal, even divine, sense about the sounds captured in this 32-minute disc... [ read more ]
When Irving Berlin wrote "Puttin' On the Ritz" in 1927 on a unique "transposing piano" tuned to his preferred key of F#, little could he ever know that one day, among the myriad numbers of covers of the tune, that it would title an album that features, among other attractions, Electronic Voice Instrument "wah-wah" solos... [ read more ]
Drummer Joe La Barbera has an extensive and impressive resume. At the age of 20, he played in the second drum chair for the Buddy Rich Big Band before driving the 1972 stellar lineup of Woody Herman's Thundering Herd... [ read more ]
In the introduction to alto saxophonist Maddie Vogler's debut recording, While We Have Time, are two striking images. The first is the cover shot, a pair of venerable unmatched hands, depicting those of the artist's immigrant grandmothers, beautifully and simply adorned. The second image is the inside photo of a vibrant young woman, an alto saxophone cradled in her hands... [ read more ]
If one is looking for an artist whose ambition and indefatigable spirit seemed destined to withstand the rigors of the Covid pandemic and its deleterious impact on the jazz community, guitarist Miles Okazaki could be near the top of the list... [ read more ]
"Roussel Maajon" is the thinly veiled pseudonym of Preservation Hall stalwart, saxophonist/vocalist Clint Maedgen, who is easily identified after a few bars if one is at all familiar with his distinctive voice and energetic music style. And every jazz fan, at least in New Orleans, knows who Roussel is--Kyle Roussel, keyboardist with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band... [ read more ]
After Dark from Chris Hazelton is a mesmerizing journey into the world of nighttime musings and atmospheric melodies. Jazz musicians are creatures of the wee small hours of the morning and dimly lit streets. Accordingly, Hazelton crafts a nostalgic and contemporary experience that sets the ambience for introspection and contemplation... [ read more ]
It is something of a challenge to review Freddie Hubbard's work from the early 1980s. He had changed direction in the early 1970s with Red Clay (CTI, 1970) moving toward soul-jazz and jazz-rock, although anyone listening to Hubbard's playing would hear his standard vocabulary of licks. Some listeners approved; some listeners did not; and some simply labelled him a sell-out... [ read more ]
Soft Machine had played in Rotterdam several times before this 1973 show in the small theater De Lantaren. But this version of the band was relatively new. One of the earliest shows by the quartet of electric bassist Roy Babbington, Karl Jenkins (on multiple horns and electric piano), keyboardist Mike Ratledge and drummer John Marshall was documented on NDR Jazz Workshop-- Hamburg, Germany, May 17, 1973 (Cuneiform Records, 2010)... [ read more ]
In a broad-themed 2023 interview with All About Jazz, Matthew Shipp described The Intrinsic Nature Of Shipp as his "grand statement for who I am now." With this solo release, we have a time-stamp in the composer's constantly evolving portfolio... [ read more ]
Love is not for the faint of heart. Its tides are unpredictable, bound to different souls, intensifying and ebbing in parallel to the feelings and favors of each individual who exerts their gravitational pull on an evolving romance. Musically charting those waters--depicting the full scope of that sea through song--is no simple feat... [ read more ]
When a band of four leaders in their own right still exists over ten years after its inception, then something worthwhile is afoot. Illegal Crowns comprises the familiar American triumvirate of guitarist Mary Halvorson, cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum and drummer Tomas Fujiwara, who first crossed paths with French pianist Benoît Delbecq in 2012... [ read more ]
If ever there was a band which screamed to be taken up by Impulse! (or Strata-East back in the day), it is the semi-free agit-jazz quintet Irreversible Entanglements. Now, after three albums with the on-song but tiny International Anthem label, it has happened and, hopefully, greater exposure and recognition will follow... [ read more ]
It would probably be a hyperbole to say that young jazz pianists are "a dime a dozen." Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that there are some stellar younger jazz pianists working today, such as Emmet Cohen, Kenny Banks Jr., and Paul Cornish, and that if you are going to play in this league, you must have a style which sets you apart from the rest... [ read more ]
Rogue pianist and noted polymath Kris Davis exercises the mercurial fluidity of her future-forward-thinking quartet, Diatom Ribbons--drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, turntablist and electronic musician Val Jeanty, and bassist Trevor Dunn--ushers guitarist Julian Lage into the maelstrom and voila! Another memorable Live at the Village Vanguard emerges boldly and triumphantly... [ read more ]
Henry Hey's name may be unfamiliar to some--he is more of a collaborator than a headline hog--but a good percentage of us have heard his music. He played piano for Rod Stewart during the singer's Great American Songbook phase, and he contributed to David Bowie's 2013 comeback album, The Next Day (Columbia Records), served as musical director for George Michael and has co-written songs for Australian electronics music duo Empire of the Sun... [ read more ]
While tenor saxophonist Geof Bradfield's versatile Chicago-based quintet does not play "free jazz" on Quaver-- customary rhythmic and harmonic precepts underline every number--the music is explicitly adventurous and forward-looking, as Bradfield and his mates seize every chance to take flight within prescribed boundaries... [ read more ]
Renderings by Chuck Owen and The WDR Big Band is a remarkable jazz album that showcases the artist's mastery as a composer, arranger and bandleader. This release stands as a testament to Owen's innovative approach to jazz music blending traditional elements with modern influences to create a unique and captivating sonic experience... [ read more ]
Zoöphyte is a ten-piece pop band boasting some of London's finest jazz musicians. Its debut album, Signs Of Life (Howlin' Werewolf, 2020), was a pleasing hybrid of uber-catchy grooves, ear-bending psychedelia and sizzling jazz virtuosity... [ read more ]
In jazz terms, trumpeter Paul Tynan and baritone saxophonist Aaron Lington's Bicoastal Collective is a long-running series, as this marks the sixth recording produced during their sixteen-year partnership... [ read more ]
Humans have seemingly always feared new technologies. We're not even talking about AI and ChatGPT. When the first electric light bulb was invented, folks worried it would end civilization as they knew it. Artificial light certainly changed how late one stayed up at night. On the other hand, it also allowed people to find their keys after the sun had set... [ read more ]
Cartas ao Vento marks a return and a departure for Claudia Villela. Born in Rio, she moved to jny:Santa Cruz in 1984, where she has remained. Years later, this is her first album made in Brazil... [ read more ]
Secrets of the Shore, Nashville-based drummer Sophia Goodman's second album, is thematic, and its essential element is water. Goodman wrote or co-wrote the ten numbers, each of which is designed to induce in the listener's mind some aspect of water, from placid to turbulent, gentle to intense. As is true of all thematic enterprises, it rests with the listener to hear and appreciate what the composer has in mind... [ read more ]
"(Put Your) Trust in Love" from Heat (a multi-artist recording source created in 1979 and led by Tom Saviano) and trumpeter Bill Dowling's "Horn Engine" is a throwback to the recordings of great male vocalists such as Al Jarreau, Luther Vandross, and George Benson... [ read more ]
In the half-century plus since it came out, the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo (Columbia Records, 1968) arguably has not received the accolades it deserves for its marriage of country music with rock and roll. But that misperception may be grounded in the reality that the album as it was released is not exactly how it was recorded or intended for issue... [ read more ]
Give Canada's Bellbird credit as they come right out of the gate with a chip-on-the-shoulders confidence. Their debut, Root In Tandem, looks like one of those late-50s/early-60s, time-themed Dave Brubeck albums. Credit the gorgeous abstract cover painting... [ read more ]
Chicago-based tenor saxophonist Arman Sangalang, still in his mid-20s, makes his recording debut with Quartet, wherein his talented four-member ensemble uses delicate textures and shadings in lieu of heated fire and brimstone to amplify its even-tempered musical purpose. That was clearly Sangalang's idea, as he wrote all save one of the album's ten by and large tranquil themes (chaperoning the lone standard, Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen's "Polka Dots and Moonbeams")... [ read more ]
The geometry, if you will, of a terrific big band recording is such that the three major elements--the players, the arrangements, and the performance--balance in every regard. Grooveyard from the John La Barbera Big Band is such an offering... [ read more ]
A rhythm section which includes Santi Debriano and Billy Hart is nothing if not part of a potential dream band. In Craig Handy, one finds a post-bop saxophonist who played with virtually everyone worth hearing over the last third of the twentieth century... [ read more ]
Imagine yourself in Greenwich Village June 25, 1961. You are in attendance at a small pie shaped club called the Village Vanguard run by Max Gordon. This is before it was to be crowned as a jazz holy ground. Sonny Rollins had recorded his famous A Night At The "Village Vanguard" (Blue Note, 1957)... [ read more ]
Some years ago, after Penn Jillette heard Mike Smith playing in a small club in Las Vegas, he approached the pianist, introduced himself, and said he would like to hire Smith to open his popular magic show, Penn and Teller--on one condition. And what might that condition be, Smith asked, to which Jillette replied, "I'm your bassist." Smith quickly agreed, starting a long-running collaboration which has led at last to this superlative album --with Jillette on bass, of course, and drummer par excellence Jeff Hamilton rounding out the trio... [ read more ]
Socially conscious black troubadours such as William Warfield, Harry Belafonte, Odetta and many others were challenging the U.S. government's questionable policies on numerous things including war, civil rights, equality and more, by the mid-20th century... [ read more ]
If the tired old cliché "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" ruled the roost, perhaps the talents of pianist Mike Jones might have been limited to being the music director for the Penn and Teller Las Vegas show of mind-blowing illusions. Fortunately, a tired old cliché is just that... [ read more ]
When it comes to talent, there's no shortage of gifted jazz artists that call Michigan their home. The Jones brothers long ago put Detroit on the map, but water- tight music programs at Michigan State and the University of Michigan have produced a thriving community of vital musicians. On any given evening, there's live jazz to be found in many night spots from Northport to Kalamazoo... [ read more ]
jny:Philadelphia-based singer Maci Miller gives her audience a variety of looks, all of them good. On first hearing, Blossom Dearie, but then, Blossom Dearie was Blossom Dearie... [ read more ]
More often than any are willing to confess, it is a pundit's easy way out to compliment and praise an artist by saying that they are reminiscent of some legend and that this legend inspired the artist etc, etc. It looks good for both the reviewer and subject, and serves to make the reviewer sound smart and the artist great... [ read more ]
Keith Richards once said if "you don't know the blues, there's no point in picking up the guitar." This is certainly true about rock, but it could just as easily apply to jazz. Many of the great jazz guitarists have roots in the blues, and Jim Josselyn is no exception... [ read more ]
The Italian group, Wasted Generation can often be found playing the clubs and festivals around Rome. They usually play straight ahead jazz but their first album Introducing Wasted Generation, reveals a totally different side of their character. This album shows a young band focused on free contemporary jazz, melodic explorations and an avant-garde approach to improvisation... [ read more ]
Eunmi Lee is a quick learner. The South Korean-born pianist, who now makes her home in New York City, did not become acquainted with or interested in jazz until a friend introduced her to the GRP Records catalogue. That was more than a year after she had received a degree in contemporary piano from the Seoul Institute for the Arts, in 2005... [ read more ]
After years of gigging in the New York City area, while honing his credentials as a first-call contemporary jazz pianist, Bill O'Connell and his family moved to Montauk, the easternmost point on Long Island, where he expressed his appreciation of the area's many wonders by recording this impressive album at the celebrated Gosman's Dock, during the annual Hamptons Jazz Festival in August 2021... [ read more ]
Luckily there are no record producers or record executives for creative music these days, because clarinetist Beth Custer and guitarist Will Bernard would be out of a job or, at least, a recording contract. That is because neither of the artists' interests can be categorized, pigeonholed, or compartmentalized... [ read more ]
For guitarist George Freeman, The Good Life has also been a long life. He was a nimble-fingered ninety-five-year-old plectrist when this splendid album was recorded in May and June 2022, which makes it all the more grievous to know it would be organ maestro Joey DeFrancesco's last recording date; he died of a heart attack some three months later at the relatively young age of fifty-one... [ read more ]
Pianist Michael Ragonese is called Rags, a nickname given to him in childhood that stuck. His sophomore effort is entitled Stracci which means rags in Italian--a more musical sound than its English equivalent. It is a piano trio outing, a top-notch one. Ragonese's musical backstory is a common one. He began in classical studies and after a time felt constrained... [ read more ]
Ed Cawthorne, also known as Tenderlonious, is a versatile multi-instrumentalist able to combine genres and styles which to date have included Indian classical ragas with his quartet Jaubi, jazz fusion takes on the music of John Coltrane and Yusef Lateef with his bands Ruby Rushton and 22archestra, and electro funk and ambient electronica in his solo studio work... [ read more ]
Los Angeles-based guitarist Doug MacDonald, busy as ever, is comfortable in any setting, from big band to solo. On Edwin Alley, MacDonald leads a trio (Mike Flick, bass; Kendall Kay, drums) through eight of his bright and well-drawn original compositions and one standard, the amorous entreaty "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To." The album is a follow-up to MacDonald's impressive trio date Serenade to Highland Park and is his tenth recording as a leader in the last six years... [ read more ]
While veteran vocal improvisers Judy Niemack and Jay Clayton have known each other since the '70s, Voices in Flight marks their first time together in the studio. They have performed some of the album material in live shows since the early 2000s, including their medley of "Body and Soul" and Idrees Sulieman's gorgeous contrafact of it, "Orange Blossoms" ("With You")... [ read more ]
JD Walter beckons listeners into a soulful and captivating journey through modern jazz interpretations of non-jazz material. With his unique vocal stylings and innovative arrangements, he brings a fresh perspective to familiar popular tunes, and several jazz standards, while delivering thought-provoking original compositions... [ read more ]
When studying to become a jazz drummer, students are often exposed to other percussion instruments in the course of their studies and sometimes that results in finding a specialty. That was the case for Jalen Baker, who started experimenting on the vibraphone and has now gone on to be one of the most compelling players around... [ read more ]
While it remains to be seen whether rising star Benny Benack III's third album as leader is a charm (that is up to the listener), it is definitely a charmer, with delightful turns by trumpeter (and vocalist) Benack and pianist Emmet Cohen complementing stellar performances by a number of well-known and talented guest artists... [ read more ]
Tenor saxophonist and record executive Cory Weeds presents another album in the series of releases by up-and-coming black artists, to give them a voice which might not otherwise be heard. In this case, the artist is vibraphonist Jalen Baker; he and his frequent collaborators, pianist Paul Cornish, bassist Gabriel Godoy and drummer Gavin Moolchan, run through some songs which have been both inspirational and representational to Baker as his career has developed.The opening number "T'Was" is a Baker original which may have a rough texture, but never tempers his exploratory instincts... [ read more ]
Kenny Reichert is a jny:Chicago-based guitarist of broad background, Berklee training, and wide-ranging tastes in pop and jazz. He has self-released one studio album, Interpretations (2015). Reichert records mostly originals. If you are looking for influences, "Spears" (a play on "Sphere"?) sounds Thelonious Sphere Monk-ish enough, with plenty of solo space for saxophonist Tony Barba woven in... [ read more ]
Although Hot New York Minutes is Chicago-based pianist Kevin O'Connell's date, it could well be saxophonist Adam Brenner's, as the two share roughly equal time soloing and contribute their talents as writer and/or arranger on half a dozen of the album's ten numbers... [ read more ]
Working jazz musicians have long been accustomed to the necessity of playing just about anything, in any setting, and Claire Daly is no exception. The intrepid baritone saxophonist has recorded tributes to Thelonious Monk and Rahsaan Roland Kirk and, in 2016, she even offered a distinctive take on Motown classics with 2468 West Grand Boulevard (Glass Beach Jazz)... [ read more ]
To the uninitiated, Rory Gallagher's All Around Man -Live in London may appear to be nothing more than a routine live release from the late Irish bluesman's archive. Even to fans who take only a cursory glance at the title and its contents, it could well seem to be a somewhat desultory effort in the wake of the deluxe anniversary box sets, the eponymous solo debut Rory Gallagher: 50th Anniversary Edition Box Set (Universal Music Enterprises, 2021) and Deuce: 50th Anniversary Edition (Universal Music Enterprises, 2022)... [ read more ]
Formed in 2019 by London-based drummer and percussionist Yahael Camara Onono, the sixteen-piece Balimaya Project blends traditional West African Mandé music with modal jazz and other sounds out of modern Black London. The ensemble's closest comparator, albeit at some remove, is the veteran Senegalese band Orchestra Baobab who, in the 1980s, were hugely popular at home and abroad... [ read more ]
The music on these Islands is almost as sizzling as the summer weather in sun-drenched Miami, thanks to composer/arranger Dan Bonsanti's Florida-based, world-class The 14 Jazz Orchestra, whose fourth album provides yet another textbook lesson in the art of colorful and swinging big-band rhetoric. Bonsanti formed the ensemble as a rehearsal band in 2013, stocking it for the most part with former students at Miami's prestigious Frost School of Music to give teachers and students a forum in which to work on their music... [ read more ]
Portuguese trumpeter Luis Vicente wrote the four compositions which make up House In The Valley during lockdown. His intention was to evoke childhood memories of times at his grandparents' rural house. Judging from the outcomes there must have been a lot of '60s American New Thing on the turntable at the time... [ read more ]
Some reviewers have been known to complain that contemporary big bands can do most anything but swing. Like all generalizations, there is some merit to the observation. But, like all generalizations, the occasional exception falsifies it. Looking for a big band that pushes all the right buttons? Look no further... [ read more ]
Nigerian-born singer Douye has integrated the essence of Western jazz with the polyrhythmic sounds of African percussion. In doing so, she has spun the incomparable musical and lyrical genius of The Great American Songbook off its axis. These precious standards have been rearranged and reimagined hundreds if not thousands of times over the years... [ read more ]
A question any composer for improvisers must face is whether they can create something more worthwhile than what they might come up with if left to themselves. It can be a tough call. For some, such as Alexander von Schlippenbach's Globe Unity Orchestra or Peter Brötzmann's Chicago Tentet, the ultimate conclusion was no, while for others such as Anthony Braxton and Barry Guy the answer has been far less clear cut... [ read more ]
A regular in the Mingus Big Band and Wynton Marsalis' quartet, New York-based Mark Lewandowski has won numerous awards for his sonorous double bass playing, which can be appreciated in settings as diverse as John Zorn's The Book of Beri'ah (Tzadik Records, 2018) and Joe Chamber's Dance Kobina (Blue Note Records, 2022)... [ read more ]
On Kemet (The Black Land), trombonist/composer Javier Nero pays homage to a highly advanced African civilization that flourished before the Egyptian kingdom was established and thousands of years before the Greek and Roman empires that are hailed today as the pillars of modern/western culture... [ read more ]
The Belfast-based DJ and broken-beat pioneer Kaidi Tatham travels a parallel orbit to that of the London-based DJ Ash Walker. Both are loosely associated with Britain's alternative jazz scene. Both draw on a similar patchwork of influences, including hip hop, rap, techno, old school jazz-funk and modern Brazilian dance music... [ read more ]
This music--nine Matt Otto originals--has the feeling of shadowy sounds. Shapes without defined borders emerge. On the opener, "Little Things," the core trio--the leader plus bassist Jeff Harshbarger and drummer John Kizilarmut--are joined by Fender Rhodes player Matt Villinger and guitarist Alex Frank... [ read more ]
Oregon-based pianist Gordon Lee leads a trim quartet through its paces on his seventh album, How Can It Be?, written for the most part during the Covid pandemic and recorded shortly afterward, in October 2022. Before recording, Lee had worked often with tenor saxophonist Renato Caranto and bassist Dennis Caiazza... [ read more ]
Audible Spirits is not your father's or for that matter your grandmother's book of standards. Vibraphonist Matt Moran, trombonist Curtis Hasselbring, and vocalist Sarah Elizabeth Charles reinvent, reinterpret, and definitely reimagine eight classic jazz compositions... [ read more ]
Here are three examples of vocalists working in close partnership with either a pianist or guitarist, all producing excellent results. Edward Simon Femeninas ArtistShare 2023 Pianist Edward Simon gets sole credit on the cover of this album, but this is equally a feature for vocalist Magos Herrera who appears on every track... [ read more ]
Originally from The Netherlands and now settled in the UK, vocalist Wilma Baan's story is one of perseverance. Mid-way through her singing career in the '80s, she was diagnosed with a condition that meant gradually worsening hearing loss. Although she could still hear high tones, she had little choice but to pause her career... [ read more ]
Emergence, the latest album by the Texas-based Alex Coke and Carl Michel Sextet, is by and large chamber jazz, veering often into the realms of avant-garde and free improvisation. The standard of musicianship is high, the urge to listen a second time rather less so--an opinion which must be qualified by the admission that it expresses a neophyte's point of view... [ read more ]
The poet Jayne Cortez once wrote "I'm taking the blues back to where / the blues stealers won't go / I'm talking the blues back home." For Roots Magic, back home isn't the crossroads where Robert Johnson made that infamous deal with the devil, but the peninsula in Southern Europe we call Italy... [ read more ]
After so many years crossing paths in the realm of experimental-industrial-groove-jazz-rock weirdness, it would have been more surprising if these three did not all join forces at some point. Pat Mastelotto and Trey Gunn build on a decades-long history in multiple King Crimson rhythm sections as well as their own duo called TU... [ read more ]
Cuban born and raised, pianist and composer Manuel Valera moved to the US in 1994, attending high school in Florida before moving to New York City in 2000 to study at the New School. His classmates included Robert Glasper, Mike Moreno, Michael Rodriguez, Marcus Strickland and E.J... [ read more ]
Boston-based pianist Tim Ray and his rhythm mates, bassist John Lockwood and drummer Mark Walker, have been performing together since 2013, and Fire and Rain is their second recording as a trio... [ read more ]
If Andrew Cyrille were a painter, he'd be Georges Seurat. If he were a poet, E. E. Cummings; a Tour de France Champion, Jacque Anqutiel; or a writer, Ian McEwan. The above masters are mentioned because Cyrille shares a command of colors, efficiency, grace, and language with his instrument equal to doyens in other disciplines... [ read more ]
Jack DeJohnette gets around. The Chicago born drummer was drawn to RandB and bebop in the late 1950s and eventually toyed with a more avant-garde jazz sound when he spent some time with the esoteric Sun Ra... [ read more ]
Trumpeter Chad McCullough encountered classical composer Olivier Messiaen's "Quator pour la fin du temps" back in the early days of his jazz career. That music was written in 1940 by Messiaen to be played by a chamber ensemble consisting of the composer's fellow inmates in a German prison camp. McCullough's The Charm Of Impossibilities takes its inspiration from this classical work... [ read more ]
On Chatterbox, young Ohio-born, New York-based composer/arranger Zach Green has written most of the music, arranged all of it, and chosen a well-modulated sextet to bring it to life. The term "young" certainly applies to Green, a graduate of Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music who also sings and plays guitar and percussion (but not here) and is yet several years shy of his thirtieth birthday--which hasn't stopped him from forming an eleven-piece ensemble, Zach Green's Elevention, or co-founding the vocal jazz group The New Standard... [ read more ]
"Islands" from Dan Bonsanti is a tour de force consisting of eleven unique selections, colorful textured arrangements, and outstanding ensemble and solo playing. The fare includes straight-ahead bop, to calypso, film and fusion, all presented by a highly-energized ensemble of Miami-affiliated greats and guest greats... [ read more ]
On this album, trumpeter Dan Rosenboom and his quartet engage in a free-wheeling session which comes off as a modern update of Wayne Shorter releases such as The All-Seeing Eye (Blue Note, 1966)... [ read more ]
London-based multi-reedist Shabaka Hutchings' interest in South and East Asian music, which recently manifested itself with his embarkation on an in-depth study of Japanese shakuhachi flutes, continues to spread its wings. Hutchings does not play on singer and composer Ganavya's meditative single "Forgive Me My," but he produced the track and it is released on his Native Rebel Recordings label... [ read more ]
Pianist Charu Suri was raised in Chennai, India, a place that influenced her artistry. New Orleans, another of her influences, lies a hemisphere away. A transplant from India to the United States, Suri brought the musical roots of Hindustani (North Indian) music to her new home. When she found her way to the Big Easy, she took in the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and the marriage between the New Orlean sound and Indian raga began... [ read more ]
A stick? Most definitely. A clown? Most definitely not. Seth Kibel is far more virtuoso than court jester, especially on his main axe, the clarinet (sometimes referred to as a liquorice stick), as he proves time and again on this inclusive and thoroughly delightful album... [ read more ]
With a running time of just over two hours, Morton Feldman's 1985 composition "Violin and String Quartet" is one of his longer ones, even though it falls far short of such pieces as 1984's "For Philip Guston" at four hours or 1983's "String Quartet (II)" at over six hours without a break. Their durations have made it difficult to neatly fit such compositions onto CDs; the Ives Ensemble's 4-CD recording of String Quartet (II) (hat[now] ART, 2003) bore the message, "The track points are provided for convenience only and are not indications of divisions in the work." The Another Timbre (AT) approach is different, "The break between the two discs of this double CD is made at a short pause at the end of page 24... [ read more ]
Tenor saxophonist Stephen Gauci provokes blistering unfettered performances from the starry cast on another installment of Live At Scholes Street Studio. Gauci embodies a fierce DIY ethos which manifests in producing multiple concert series in NYC as well as releasing consequent material on his own label and posting video documentation on his website... [ read more ]
At first glance, it looks like an album they were always destined to make. Natural flow has been one central characteristic of Slowly Rolling Camera since the start. From their beginnings in quasi-trip-hop/jazztronica fusion, through a shift into a picturesque instrumental outfit, they have always been effortlessly fluid and comfortable with a good slow burn... [ read more ]
Once upon a time it was hard to walk into an arthouse cinema without bumping into a jazz soundtrack. Miles Davis' for Louis Malle's Ascenseur Pour L'échafaud (1958), Charles Mingus' for John Cassavetes' Shadows (1959), Krzysztof Komeda's for Roman Polanski's Knife In The Water (1962) were among a legion of similarly inclined endeavours... [ read more ]
Even though Canada's admirable Schwager/Oliver Quintet carefully dots every "I" and crosses every "T" on Senza Resa, something else seems to be missing, and that something could be a clear sense of purpose. This is an album on which everyone plays well, the songs are by and large respectable, and yet the whole somehow adds up to less than the sum of its parts... [ read more ]
Since his arrival as a member of Anthony Braxton's mid-1980s quartet, Mark Dresser has been expanding the sonic palette of the upright bass. Like Barre Phillips, Barry Guy, and Joëlle Léandre before him, Dresser drew from both the classical avant-garde of players such as Bertram Turetzky and Fernando Grillo and the more intuitive improvisational approaches of Henry Grimes, Alan Silva, William Parker, and others... [ read more ]
As they say, better than mountains is only the mountain that you have not climbed yet. Amaury Faye, a promising pianist from France, reaches new heights in his 2023 album Arise. It is an instrumental suite inspired by mountains. Arise has a vast range to offer to its listeners, from quiet valleys to extreme peaks... [ read more ]
Forty years after the renowned Standards Trio comprised of Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette released its debut album, Standards, Vol... [ read more ]
Collectors of Brazilian popular music from the mid and late twentieth century, who do not have the time or resources to visit the country for a spell of crate digging, can turn to European and Japanese DJs who do the digging for them, releasing their finds on compilation albums. In 2023, most of those crates have been picked clean, largely by Japanese obsessives, but some bin-ends remain to be discovered... [ read more ]
Just over a year ago, in July 2022, the internet was abuzz with the news that Joni Mitchell had performed at the Newport Folk Festival. After regular gatherings at Mitchell's home by various artists of a younger generation, who saw her as a major influence on their music, they decided to put their so-called "Joni Jam" live on stage... [ read more ]
Some people are just naturally creative, and many of these artists express themselves through one particular medium. However, there are others whose talents cannot be confined to just one art form. James Robert Murphy is such a case. His knowledge and creative drive cross many different genres... [ read more ]
Anyone who uses YouTube to search for contemporary jazz must surely be familiar with Germany's blue-ribbon WDR Big Band, as it is abundantly represented at the site. Bearing that in mind, it may come as no surprise to those seekers (and others) that the WDR's latest recording, on which it is paired with the esteemed Florida-based composer and arranger Chuck Owen, offers another master class in big-band artistry, or how to make even the most arduous charts seem deceptively simple... [ read more ]
A working twosome since 2006, vocalist Diana Torti and guitarist Sabino de Bari reveal the many benefits of a long-standing musical partnership. While they have collaborated on many projects over the years, It's All We Have represents just their second duo album--and it is a fine one, with the creative melding of both artists' visions into a winsome and accessible package... [ read more ]
Tenor saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart has lived in jny: Paris, Senegal, and Switzerland as well as his native island of Guadeloupe, but his 18 years in jny: Harlem were crucial to his life and career... [ read more ]
Coast to Coast is the third East West Trumpet Summit recorded by Ray Vega and Thomas Marriott in a musical partnership that has spanned nearly three decades. The years have been kind, and when it comes to playing persuasive jazz, neither Vega nor Marriott appears to have lost a step... [ read more ]
Although it was recorded in 2015, at Studioboerne45 Berlin, it took several years for Strange Songs to see the light of day. The album sleeve dates its release as 2022, but its arrival on vinyl and its launch event did not happen until July 2023, marked by two well-attended Ute Wassermann performances at Café Oto in London... [ read more ]
Cuban singer-songwriter Estrella Acosta invites us into her journey this way: "The smell of mangos and guavas brings back memories of my childhood and reminds me of the sound of Cuban country music playing on the radio. When it was time to leave my motherland, I took with me stories, poems, photos, and all the beautiful memories and love that I could pack in my heart... [ read more ]
Legacy Band? At age ninety-eight, vibraphonist Terry Gibbs--the last remaining member of a legendary group of jazz musicians who defined the big-band era in America and helped expand and sharpen the music's vocabulary--hasn't finished shaping his own legacy, which is why this album is subtitled "The Terry Gibbs Songbook." Although best known as a player, Gibbs, as it turns out, is a splendid composer as well, and wrote every one of the album's fifteen songs, adding lyrics to a couple, with verses elsewhere courtesy of Michael Dees, Arthur Hamilton, Bobby Troup, Steve Allen and Jerry Gladstone... [ read more ]
Angie Wells grew up in Philadelphia, surrounded by music. Her mother sang and played gospel piano, while her father was a devoted jazz and blues fan. The music of Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Jack McDuff and B.B... [ read more ]
For a couple of years the Covid virus did its damnedest to shut the music down, especially the experience of live shows. During that downtime, pianist, composer and bandleader Gordon Lee put his idled hands to work practicing and composing new music. At his wife's urging, he also began a series of front porch concerts, casual shows for his neighbors and anybody else who happened to wander by... [ read more ]
If you live in Canada and are not familiar with the name Phil Nimmons, you probably have not been paying close enough attention. Nimmons, who surpassed the century mark in June 2023, is often referred to as the "Dean of Canadian Jazz," and listing his many accomplishments and awards would require far more space than is ordinarily set aside for a complete review... [ read more ]
Long associated with Carlos Santana, with whom he had a 16-year stint, trumpeter Bill Ortiz steps into the spotlight here with an auspicious and highly entertaining session. Ten selections showcase Ortiz who is supported by some of the Bay area's best... [ read more ]
More than merely a study in contrasts, these recordings by Matt Choboter and Tania Giannouli are mirror images of each other. Both artists take markedly different approaches to illustrate the versatility of the three-hundred plus year old percussion instrument that is the piano... [ read more ]
Like many before him, Sicilian pianist Luciano Troja discovered the music of Earl Zindars (1927-2005) through pianist Bill Evans, who probably recorded more tunes by Zindars--nine in total--than he did by any other composer... [ read more ]
Imagine a superstar musician, someone along the lines of Ed Sheeran perhaps. Then imagine him giving up his lifestyle and commercial success just to re-awaken his love for the jazz musicians of his youth. You may think that was a difficult story to believe, but with J-Pop superstar, Senri Oe, that is exactly what happened... [ read more ]
Late Night Basie: great idea. Three tracks by the Basie Orchestra and four by other assorted groups: not-so-great idea. Enlisting Jazzmeia Horn to scat on the Basie classic "One O'Clock Jump": rather pointless. Compressing seven numbers (eight, actually) into a meager twenty-four--or perhaps more like twenty-eight--minutes (including a "bonus" track): head-scratching... [ read more ]
The Brazilian-born, New York City-based singer and composer Nanny Assis is a big talent with a low profile. His elegant blend of jazz and Brazilian music puts one in mind of another similarly inclined and relatively little known stylist, the Berlin-based composer and producer Meeco, well loved in this parish... [ read more ]
Pixel, Tokyo-born, Ohio-bred pianist Keigo Hirakawa's third album as leader or co-leader of his own ensemble, has the sleek, laid-back feel of a well-engineered jam session as Hirakawa leads the way through seven of his generally engaging compositions (and one by guitarist Brandon Scott Coleman) with reliable backing from his supporting cast... [ read more ]
Swingin' with Legends 2 from Angela DeNiro with the Ron Aprea Big Band, is a follow-up to their first Legends effort in 1988. The album, as was its Grammy-nominated predecessor, is a quintessentially classic big band recording featuring a fine female vocalist... [ read more ]
Apparently, the median age of a jazz listener is in his or her mid to late 40s. So, perhaps, the representative listener was born in the mid-1970s. Sonny Rollins first recorded in 1949. The recordings reviewed here were made in the late 1950s, well before many contemporary listeners were born... [ read more ]
Shoulders I Stand On is a duo album, but not a typical one. It is a recording which combines piano with tap dance, the interplay creating a soundscape that is both original and fascinating. Meg Morley, an Australian musician based in London, is an experienced and skilled accompanist who has played for silent movies and for dance ensembles including Ballet Rambert... [ read more ]
In spite of being active on the NYC scene since the mid-'70s, alto saxophonist and composer patrick brennan (he prefers his name spelled entirely in lowercase letters) has a relatively sparse discography, to which tilting curvaceous constitutes a splendid addition. It constitutes the seventh release by his S0nic 0penings band since Introducing S0UP (Deep Dish, 1981), but the first since 2007's Muhheankuntuk (Clean Feed)... [ read more ]
San Diego's David Borgo, a top-tier jazz saxophonist and an ethnomusicologist with a professorship day job at the University of California at San Diego, says, "Ethnomusicology is like the anthropology of music." He puts this concept into practice with his teaching for the "Semester At Sea." This educational cruise program takes students to various ports worldwide to expose them to perspective-broadening travel and first-hand experience with different cultures... [ read more ]
Nigerian-born Douye grew up in Lagos as part of a music-loving family. She joined the church choir where her grandmother was musical director and quickly became aware of her love and affinity for singing. It was her father though who passed on his love of jazz to her. He traveled often and brought home the latest records and news of the jazz world... [ read more ]
Listening to Henry Threadgill's music, the bobbing and weaving doesn't maintain a continuity but can jump from one strand to another, one scene to another, as in a dream. It is tonal and not, just as dreams are, perhaps, rhapsodic or unkempt, the story or plot being as tangible, fungible as a summer breeze... [ read more ]
Raymond Scott Reimagined is an engaging collaborative project with Quartet San Francisco, Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band and the Grammy winning acapella group Take 6 on two tracks... [ read more ]
It was just a matter of time until Norwegian bassist Per Mathisen brought this series to its logical conclusion. Where the first Sounds of 3 (Losen, 2016) pounded the floor with hard-rocking grooves, and its follow-up Sounds of 3 Edition 2 (Losen, 2019) went a bit subtler and jazzier, Sounds of 3 Edition 3 drops the fusion blueprint entirely... [ read more ]
Chris Biscoe can trade choruses with the best and melt the heart with the tenderest of ballads. But that is not what makes him special. Live and on record there is always a sense of quiet anticipation as he starts a solo. One knows one is about to hear something new, something different... [ read more ]
A sense of discovery, exhilaration, and depth are not qualities often induced by recent jazz recordings that showcase some of the once innovative, now commonplace styles from the mid-to-late twentieth century. There is no shortage of less-than-stellar releases that land squarely inside the bop/hard bop continuum... [ read more ]
Donny McCaslin's album, I Want More, is a captivating and boundary-breaking release which highlights the saxophonist composer's innovative musical approach. Building on his previous collaborations and experiences, McCaslin ventures into uncharted territory by seamlessly fusing elements of electronica, post-rock, jazz, and improv... [ read more ]
A religious man at heart, composer/band leader and producer Brian Eisenberg leads an 18-piece big band (The Brian Eisenberg Jazz Orchestra) on a personal musical exploration on the meaning of love through the perspective of what may be beautiful, and what may seem hurtful on the very introspective and challenging Pain and Beauty... [ read more ]
Having first come to international prominence in Paris at the end of the '60s, it seems fitting for the Rogue Art imprint to celebrate the Art Ensemble Of Chicago's progression into their sixth decade in the same city. This double CD documents the performance of an extended AEC at the Sons d'hiver Festival in February 2019... [ read more ]
In the mid-1970s, when singer Tony Bennett got together with pianist Bill Evans to record The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album (Concord, 1975) and Together Again (Concord, 1976), Bennett was considered terminally uncool by most jazz fans under 30, and rock fans of any age... [ read more ]
Taking their inspiration from whirlpools and countercurrents, the three Belgians who comprise Ocean Eddie allow their individual voices to merge and diverge in pursuit of a deeper level of communication. Accordionist Stan Maris, pianist Andreas Bral and saxophonist Viktor Perdieus create a compelling chamber aesthetic which exudes fragility and vulnerability, with more than a little beauty along the way... [ read more ]
Allan Harris has had a varied musical journey. Brooklyn-born, he grew up surrounded by the sounds of jazz, blues, and RandB. His mother often played records by artists like Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan... [ read more ]
Veteran educator and jazz pianist Tim Ray pays homage to some of his musical heroes with a piano trio album simply entitled Fire and Rain. It features various well-known standards from those who have been a major influence in his career, along with three original tunes added to the mix. Joining the pianist on this new adventure are familiar band mates, bassist John Lockwood and drummer Mark Walker, originally together for a Greg Abate concert and then for the Abate album Motif (Whaling City Sound, 2014)... [ read more ]
Leo Genovese's piano can sound like an orchestra. It does as much amidst his voluminous solo work on bassist Demian Cabaud's "Arbol Negro," his thick chords, the density of his playing full and ripe... [ read more ]
While he has appeared on seemingly countless releases as a sideman, trumpeter Russ Johnson remains chronically under-recorded as a leader. It thus comes as a cause for rejoicing whenever one sees his name at the top of a release. Thankfully, Calligram Records has helped redress that problem with Reveal, Johnson's latest offering featuring a quartet with violinist Mark Feldman, bassist Ethan Philion and drummer Timothy Daisy... [ read more ]
Italian pianist Alessandro Sgobbio strikes a pensive pose on the cover of his solo album Piano 2, presenting an introductory visual of his art. The pianist's photo portrait on his previous 2022 AMP Music and Recording release Piano (review here) did the same--a serious expression conveying an inward mood, indicating a measured and reflective approach to the instrument... [ read more ]
Greg Satterthwaite was born in Jamaica and moved with his family to the US when he was five. After earning a Bachelor of Music from the University of Miami, followed by a Master of Arts in Commercial Music from Florida Atlantic University and finally his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Texas in Jazz Piano Performance, he is currently an Assistant Professor of Jazz Piano and African American Studies at the University of Georgia... [ read more ]
Michael Davis is an accomplished trombonist who has had a long career of live and studio work accompanying a varied roster of big-name jazz and rock talents such as The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bob Mintzer, Buddy Rich, Paul Simon, and Sarah Vaughan... [ read more ]
Canada became the first country beyond the USA to have developed its own vibrant jazz scene. What do major jazz artists like Oscar Peterson, Maynard Ferguson, Gil Evans, Rob McConnell and Diana Krall have in common? They're all Canadians, like the players of The Schwagger/Oliver Quintet presenting their debut on Senza Resa, an Italian phrase meaning "No Surrender," which conveys the approach to the music from five of Canada's most exciting award-winning jazz musicians... [ read more ]
On her captivating second release, Taking Shape, Finnish bassist Kaisa Mäensivu demonstrates her singular talents as a composer and a bandleader. She is again at the helm of her cohesive group, Kaisa's Machine. It has been six years since her debut, years during which she established herself in her new hometown of New York... [ read more ]
Imagine the joy of discovering a new album from Jon Cleary recorded in 2020, featuring Johnny Vidacovich and James Singleton together and occasionally accompanied by James Rivers on sax... [ read more ]
Canadian jazz artist Francois Bourassa, a seasoned musician boasting eleven albums of his original music under his name, went into Studio Piccolo, Montreal in July of 2022 to record Swirl. He employs a quartet to realize his artistic vision here, a classic line-up of piano, bass, drums and a saxophonist who doubles on flute... [ read more ]
In a 2009 All About Jazz interview, drummer Eddie Prévost said this about his weekly Friday evening Improvisation workshop which was then close to its tenth anniversary: "I suppose in the early days, it was: 'Not another bloody electric guitarist,' serried ranks of electric guitarists... [ read more ]
Synergy might be the best way to describe the result of this assemblage of musicians. Cornetist Kirk Knuffke and saxophonist Joe McPhee combine their various ensembles to create an effect much greater than the sum of their separate parts... [ read more ]
A rising star in the jazz landscape of Australia, Richard Pavlidis is a Melbourne-based saxophonist who leads a veteran sextet performing a collection of tunes revealing a combination of blues, swing and modern funk on his latest effort entitled Iconography. Influenced by two late great saxophonists, Michael Brecker and Bob Berg, the album, is in a sense, a reflection of the modern energetic sounds of that era from which Pavlidis draws inspiration for this recording... [ read more ]
The release of this magnificent album, recorded live at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1966, is headline news for fans of Nina Simone. None of the material, all of it high grade, has been made available before. Newport promoter George Wein donated the tapes of Simone's performance to the US Library of Congress, where they lay forgotten until, following Wein's passing in 2021, Simone historian Nadine Cohodas unearthed them... [ read more ]
Kurt Rosenwinkel records in a variety of situations, either from inclination or to keep himself and his audience fresh or both. In 2022 alone, he released three unusually diverse albums: Plays Piano, a solo outing on which he plays piano only; The Chopin Project, a co-led disc with pianist Jean-Paul Brodbeck exploring the work of Frederic Chopin; and Berlin Baritone, another solo album, this time playing a baritone guitar... [ read more ]
In a very unscientific survey, 9 out of 10 jazz connoisseurs listed Waltz For Debby by the Bill Evans Trio as one of their desert island picks. For more than sixty years it has been a best seller and this reissue, like its companion release Sunday At The Village Vanguard (Craft Recordings, 2023), is part of a newly relaunched Original Jazz Classic series... [ read more ]
At age 92 years old, vibraphonist Terry Gibbs was still a musical force when he recorded 92 Years Young Jammin' at the Gibbs House (Whaling City Sound, 2017). His son, drummer Gerry Gibbs, paid homage to him with Songs from My Father (Whaling City Sound, 2021) with the Thrasher Dream Trio band. As for this recording for his father, Gerry Gibbs says, "Recording this record with my Pops will always be so memorable because it will be his last work." Accordingly, at the ripe age of 98 years old, Terry Gibbs has released the last album of his storied career and life with The Terry Gibbs Songbook, recorded and performed by the Terry Gibbs Legacy Band featuring Gerry and an all-star cast of players including saxophonists Scott Hamilton and Harry Allen = 3361}... [ read more ]
London DJ Ash Walker came to attention in 2019 with Aquamarine (Night Time Stories), a butterlicious mix of jazz, blues, soul, funk and dub reggae that was beyond categorisation. Astronaught is the follow-up, cut from the same cloth. Like its predecessor, it is by no stretch of the imagination a "jazz" album, however catholic one's understanding of the word... [ read more ]
John Zorn and Bill Laswell, two towering figures of the New York Downtown scene, have once again joined forces to deliver a captivating musical experience, entitled Memoria. Following the success of their previous collaboration, The Cleansing, (Tzadik, 2021) this new release pays tribute to three artistic visionaries whose legacies continue to inspire and shape the realms of creativity and artistic integrity... [ read more ]
The jazz tradition is often one featuring drummers leading bands. Gene Krupa headlined a group known by his name as have jazz greats Art Blakey, Buddy Rich, Elvin Jones and the list goes on... [ read more ]
Russian-born composer and drummer Ilya Dynov, a New York-based internationally recognized jazz musician, presents his debut recording on Bridges, a nine-piece repertoire of all original material capturing a neo-bop style of blistering up-tempo jazz with an adventurous slant. After immigrating to Belgium and obtaining his citizenship, where he pursued an advanced musical education, Dynov moved to New York City in 2018, quickly becoming emersed in the city's vibrant jazz scene... [ read more ]
Rhiannon Giddens has a voracious musical appetite and a big talent that uses everything to fuel her many creative activities. With a MacArthur, a Pulitzer, and multiple Grammys on her shelf, this has not gone unnoticed. In a body of work that includes musicological projects along with different types of art, You're The One focuses on Giddens as a songwriter, in a variety of idioms... [ read more ]
With a background in both jazz and classical music, Giuseppe Magagnino brings us his second album, After The Rain. This follows on from My Inner Child (2021, GleAM Records) and showcases the Italian pianist's artistic evolution in solo, trio and orchestral formats... [ read more ]
In the world of the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, it is impossible to separate community and music. The band is all from the South Central LA community, and they are playing for the community. They are composing songs about family, about people they see, about overcoming immense adversity... [ read more ]
No doubt it has been some time since a listener of a pop-fado recording has been treated to a rendition of Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria" complete with lyrics based on the prayer. The singer is Ramana Vieira, a product of San Leandro, CA, of a family of Portuguese origins... [ read more ]
As much or more so than any previously released new release or archive package, the cover art of Grateful Dead's RFK Stadium, Washington, D.C. 6/10/73 accurately (and vividly) reflects the nuances of the music behind the enticing graphics. In a pastel green and pink/orange color scheme of both matt and glossy finish, Masaki Koike's intricate designs hint at the dense subtleties the iconic band infuses into its chosen range of material during this approximately four-hour cull from the larger seventeen-CD box set Here Comes Sunshine (Rhino, 2023)... [ read more ]
Hot Tuna's Live at Sweetwater/Live at Sweetwater 2/Live in Japan (Mercury Studios, 2004) reaffirms the fluidity of personnel that's marked the veteran ensemble throughout its over fifty-year career. Comprised of titles originally issued on the Relix Records label in the mid-to-late Nineties, then re-released in modified form in 2004, this Mercury Studios compendium may represent the definitive versions of those titles (though the lack of notes providing historical perspective, as appeared on previous editions, leaves that a moot point)... [ read more ]
Though the title of this third album from multihyphenate Benny Benack III might imply misfires with his first two go-rounds, the truth really runs contrary to that line of reasoning. One of a Kind (BB3, 2017), while flying under the radar, introduced some listeners to a talent far too large to be contained; and A Lot of Livin' To Do (La Reserve, 2020) proved to be a strong follow-up statement, earning greater attention and acclaim for a dashing leading man with the world on a string... [ read more ]
In the world of jazz, the age at which an artist releases their debut album holds little significance. What truly matters is their ability to demonstrate compositional and playing prowess whenever the opportunity to record arises. Trombonist Sashko Nikolovski exemplifies this notion, with a wealth of experience and diversity which sets him apart... [ read more ]
Luciana Souza and Trio Corrente, all Grammy-winning performer-composers, inhabit the intersections of Brazilian and jazz practices. (Souza's double-take Yemanjá-Lady Liberty garb on the album cover suggests these lie somewhere in the Atlantic.) It seems inevitable that they would eventually collaborate... [ read more ]
All music is, as are all our greater gestures and pursuits--poetry, painting, literature, sculpture, dance--spiritual by nature. An outreach by the artist and thus, by extension, us, beyond the daily argot of the ordinary. But sometimes those instances are so far and in-between, so masked by the lawlessness of the present moment, that our higher selves are forgotten, or worse, denied... [ read more ]
Having first made contact in 2008, after discovering each other's music, English-speaking Charlie Beresford and French-speaking Christian Vasseur, both guitarists, communicated with one another for several years, each keeping in touch with what the other was working on. During this period, Beresford was a member of the quartet Fourth Page and was also developing his links with Canadian cellist Sonia Hammond... [ read more ]
Born in 1970, in Philadelphia, Kurt Rosenwinkel began playing guitar at a young age and quickly demonstrated a remarkable talent and an innovative playing style. Later, he studied music at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. It was during this time that he began to attract attention within the jazz community for his unique approach to improvisation and his advanced harmonic concepts... [ read more ]
A co-founder of London's pioneering Spontaneous Music Ensemble with drummer John Stevens in the mid 1960s, saxophonist Trevor Watts has straddled an unusually wide spectrum of genres... [ read more ]
Pianist Tania Giannouli's album Solo represents a captivating and introspective musical journey which showcases her exceptional talent as a pianist and composer. With a program of 24 tracks, spanning 72 minutes , the album presents a voluminous collection of highly personal and original compositions... [ read more ]
It seems to be increasingly common for drummers and bassists to take eminence in piano trios. Swedish drummer Emil Brandqvist is the creative lead of the Emil Brandqvist Trio. His elegiac, cinematic and atmospheric compositions are showcased on Layers of Life... [ read more ]
In recent years, Gordon Grdina has proved himself to be as passionate as he is prolific, not to mention versatile. Further affirmation aplenty of all those virtues, the forty-five minutes of Live At The Armoury stand as a showcase not only for the Canadian's adept management of shared moments of spontaneity, but also for that of his collaborators... [ read more ]
In the late 1970s, American composer Morton Feldman began writing exceptionally lengthy compositions. Not only did these works push the boundaries of traditional concert duration, but more importantly, they explored how the composer could tackle the subject of sheer scale itself... [ read more ]
Trombonist and composer Yossi Itskovich is a relatively new arrival on the jazz scene, having only discovered the music in his mid-thirties and having up until then been part of the classical music world. Times is his debut album. Like most debuts, the all-originals, seven-track album is a tad self-conscious and tries a bit too hard for its own good, but two tracks are real gems, demonstrating a real flair for arranging, and one is a perfect little treasure... [ read more ]
Now that Henry Threadgill has begun receiving the accolades he has long deserved--the Pulitzer Prize he won in 2016 for In for a Penny, In for a Pound (Pi Recordings, 2015) being just the most prominent example--it is impressive to find him still relentlessly stretching himself as a performer and composer... [ read more ]
A couple quotes from the 1980s' film The Blues Brothers starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd seem appropriate for Harvesters, the double album by The Rempis Percussion Quartet. Elwood Blues: "It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses." Jake Blues: "Hit It...we're on a mission from God..... [ read more ]
Imagine if Sidney Bechet, Charlie Christian and Jimmy Smith were barely remembered and recordings of their music were long unavailable and known only on the geekiest corners of Discogs... [ read more ]
Alan Skidmore is one of the finest saxophonists to come out of the United Kingdom, Europe or indeed anywhere. In fact, it was hearing Skidmore's tenor solo on "Have You Heard?" from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton (Decca, 1966) that encouraged a young Michael Brecker to take up the instrument... [ read more ]
Hot on the heels of the reissue of Louis Stewart's seminal 1977 album Out On His Own (Liva Records, 2023)--one of the great solo jazz guitar albums--the revitalized label inspired by the Dublin guitarist launches another gem from its treasure trove of archival recordings... [ read more ]
On their third album the Swiss-French pairing of saxophonist Bertrand Denzler and drummer Antonin Gerbal dishes up a double helping of fiery free jazz. While Denzler revels in the exquisitely sparse detail of outfits such as the electro-acoustic Trio Sowari, he also has a track record in weightier realms--witness his contributions to Neuköllner Modelle with veteran drummer Sven-Åke Johansson and bassist Joel Grip-- which serves him well here... [ read more ]
The outlandish persona Sun Ra created and maintained for himself over the years may sometimes distract from the adventurous intent of the music he made. Yet it is testament to his vigorous loyalty to both the music as means of communicating his cosmic ideology and the basic tenets of his unconventional means of creativity that neither theme intruded dangerously upon the other during the course of his sixty-some year career... [ read more ]
Joe Farnsworth grew up in a musical family and began playing drums at a young age. He later attended and graduated from William Patterson College in New Jersey, where the staff included Harold Mabern and Cedar Walton, who would prove instrumental in kick-starting his career... [ read more ]
Compared to the number of albums which many jazz or improvising musicians release, it can often be an eye-opener to glance at the discography of musicians from other genres. For example, although composer Laurence Crane was born in Oxford in 1961, is Professor of Composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and his music is frequently performed, recorded and broadcast in the UK and elsewhere, Natural World is only the seventh album to feature his music since his first outing was released in 2008... [ read more ]
André Previn was always something of a mystery to jazz critics and listeners. By common consent, he had astonishing instrumental technique. On the other hand, a lot of listeners were sure they could hear everyone but Previn in his playing... [ read more ]
Occasionally one comes across a singer-songwriter-musician and wonders just how he or she has managed to evade detection. In this case, the sense of living under a rock is only somewhat assuaged by consulting the artist's website (www.marcjordan.com) only to land on a page entitled "Marc Who?" The text describes Marc Jordan as a singer, songwriter, composer and artist whose songs have been on 35 million CDs... [ read more ]
The first six tracks on this album, which were recorded at New York City's Town Hall on June 22, 1945, are amongst the most exciting in the jazz compendium. Not only because of their intrinsic artistic merit but also because they mark one of the first, if not the first, occasion the vanguard of the bop revolution emerged from the basements of 52nd Street, equipped with a fully formed manifestation of the new music, on to a stage bigger than a postage stamp and in front of an audience which included, along with hardcore devotees, a sprinkling of adventurous listeners from the world of establishment-approved jazz... [ read more ]
This iteration of the Oscar Peterson Trio, with guitarist Herb Ellis and bassist Ray Brown, had been together for five years at the time of this recording, but it was reaching its expiration date... [ read more ]
It is important to emphasise, at the outset of this review, that Evenings At The Village Gate is a John Coltrane album of headline significance. Recorded during a four-week run at the New York City club in August and September 1961, the disc is a snapshot of Coltrane partway through the most momentous year of his development... [ read more ]
It is remarkable that young Canadian drummer Sebastien Parent was able to record a big-band album during the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic, even more so given that each of the musicians recorded his or her part separately, at home while in isolation... [ read more ]
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines fellowship as "community of interest, activity, feeling, or experience," which seems to state well what Brian Blade and The Fellowship Band have been doing, cultivating a certain sound for over 25 years. The community is drummer Brian Blade, pianist Jon Cowherd, saxophonist Melvin Butler, saxophonist and clarinetist Myron Walden, bassist and synthesizer player Christopher Thomas and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel... [ read more ]
The Shakti of This Moment is essentially the Shakti of all its moments--a natural fusion bridging jazzy interplay with the forms and rhythms of Hindustani carnatic music, even if the sound is leagues away from the all-acoustic wildfire that singed countless ears with the live Shakti with John McLaughlin (Columbia, 1976)... [ read more ]
Chances are good that the name of bassist Leroy Vinnegar does not ring much of a bell among contemporary audiences. He does not have the cachet of a Ray Brown or an Oscar Pettiford, two names that a lot of professional bassists will instantly recognize, along with Scott LaFaro, with whom Vinnegar all too briefly overlapped... [ read more ]
Bassist/composer Roberto Bonat is one of the most imaginative and creative composers working in 2023. His recordings evidence a fondness for literary and philosophical themes, grand conceits that his compositional skills are more than able to match. Here, Bonati surveys the mystery of time or rather how we measure, perceive and understand its mysteries... [ read more ]
What would be a recipe for presenting a standards project? Pianist Keith Jarrett could surely tell us. He breathed new life into the form that seemed to be fading out of fashion with his Standards, Vol. 1 (ECM Records, 1983). Then he went on to make a good chunk of his career with those familiar tunes, working with his Standards Trio that included bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette... [ read more ]
Dolphin is billed as a collaboration between a jazz musician, British keyboard player Greg Foat, and an ambientist-electronicist, Italian synthesizer player Gigi Masin. Depending on taste, you may find the album mellifluous and relaxing, or vacuous and inconsequential... [ read more ]
Thanks to pianist and director Oliver Schwerdt, the Euphorium_freakestra is and always has been a glorious experiment in organized disorganization. The double CD Free Acoustic Supergroup is the ensemble's seventh release. Schwerdt's experiments began with the single disc Ðal Ngai (Euphorium Records, 2004) and eventually the group's 3-CD Grande Casino (Euphorium Records, 2018)... [ read more ]
Harry Allen is a tenor saxophonist's tenor saxophonist with an elegant tone and swinging style in the manner of Scott Hamilton, Lester Young or Ben Webster... [ read more ]
If you have shown your virtuosity on the piano in a variety of live and studio recordings, been recognized as one of the leading lights in contemporary British jazz and won multiple awards, what do you do next? In Zoe Rahman's case, more of the same but expanded and magnified... [ read more ]
Swedish-born bassist and composer Bruno Raberg has been active as a leader and a sideman for the guts of fifty years, moving seamlessly between the worlds of jazz, improvisation and, on albums such as Triloka: Music For Strings And Soloists (Orbis Music, 2017), contemporary string music... [ read more ]
"Who the fuck are you?" said Tubby Hayes, encountering Ron Mathewson on the bandstand of London's Hopbine club an hour or so before the start of the gig which this album chronicles. "I'm the bassist," said just turned twenty-one year old Mathewson, who had been booked to deputise for the Hopbine's regular bassist that night... [ read more ]
Someone once described Leonard Cohen's music as "uplifting in a peculiarly depressing way." The music of singer Elina Duni and guitarist Rob Luft is not depressing, though it certainly is uplifting... [ read more ]
There seems to be a strong desire to place music into a defined category: swamp blues, emo rap, indie-folk etc. Sometimes this can be useful, but occasionally an artist comes along who can blur those boundaries and be successful in many areas. One example would be Ludovico Einaudi, who has opened up classical music to many, but struggles to find total acceptance within the classical music world, despite, at the time of writing, having over a million downloads a day... [ read more ]
Bassist Vicente Archer may be a Grammy winner with a long grand vintage (Nicholas Payton, John Scofield, Kenny Garrett, Norah Jones) but he has not revealed his own particular harvest as he does on the amicable and resilient Short Stories... [ read more ]
Saxophonist Tim Lin, still fresh enough on the scene to be described as a "young lion," tips his horn to a number of his mentors on Empathy, his second album as a leader, following 2021's Romance on Formosa. As on that earlier album, Lin, a first generation Taiwanese-American (from Fremont, CA), has chosen a charming blend of standards and jazz staples to complement a lone original composition, "Fourth Right," by the superb pianist Andy LaVerne... [ read more ]
Tyshawn Sorey listeners who were weaned on his Pi Recordings, The Inner Spectrum of Variables (2016), Verisimilitude (2017), and Pillars (2018), were probably unprepared for the swinging trio outing Mesmerism (Pi, 2022). With the multi-instrumentalist Sorey on drums, Aaron Diehl on piano and Matt Brewer on bass, the group delivered one of the best piano trio albums of the year... [ read more ]
Rob McConnell was a valve trombonist, arranger, composer and leader of the big band called the Boss Brass, which set a new standard for jazz writing through the use of complex passages and close section harmony, and in 1983 won a Grammy. In this digital-only release by Cornerstone Records, McConnell leads a sextet comprised of Guido Basso on trumpet/flugelhorn, Rick Wilkins on tenor sax, Ed Bickert on guitar, Steve Wallace on bass and Terry Clarke on drums in a session that was originally recorded and released on vinyl in 1984 and has long been out of print... [ read more ]
Like a seance, the French improvising trio of pianist Christine Ott, keyboardist Mathieu Gabry and drummer/percussionist Pierre-Loïc Le Bliguet, collectively calling themselves The Cry, manage to seep into one's crowded consciousness with an ethereal language spoken before, but just not quite like they speak it on their eponymous debut outing... [ read more ]
In August 1974, Clifford Jordan entered the studio for what was to be the follow-up to his acclaimed 2-LP set, Glass Bead Games (1973) for his third album on the Strata-East label. Sadly, the label folded in 1975, and the album was never released... [ read more ]
Chicago pianist Matt Peterson is a versatile artist who defies genres. He is both an accomplished, bop-based improviser as well as a sensitive interpreter of the Western classical tradition. Both elements of his style come together on the exuberant and captivating Better Worlds, a collection of 10 of his originals as well as a unique arrangement of The Beatles' "Blackbird." One of the highlights of the uniformly superb album is "Petrichor," which opens with Peterson's smoldering chords that bassist Kitt Lyles echoes... [ read more ]
Guitarist and songwriter Vlatko Stefanovski has led a life of constant artistic evolution. Not standing still has served him well and given us a corpus of works in which no two are the same. The material on this Greatest Hits record encompasses the period between 1994 and 2021, when he launched his solo career following the quiet demise of the mighty Leb i Sol band... [ read more ]
Anyone who listened to Canadian radio after the adoption of the so-called Canadian Content requirement in the '70s probably heard a lot of Phil Nimmons' music. To be sure, the clarinetist, composer and arranger had achieved some recognition south of the 49th parallel through his RCA recordings of the '50s but, by choosing to base his career in jny: Toronto, he became a living symbol of Canadian jazz... [ read more ]
Trumpeter Nadje Noordhuis and percussionist/synthesist James Shipp have proven to be a most compelling pair. Their Indigo (Little Mystery, 2017)--a duo album built on a shared outlook and fellow feeling--was a faithful introduction to the sound of simpatico souls in musical motion... [ read more ]
South London group The Remote Viewers first came together as a three-sax unit in 1997 when it comprised Adrian Northover, David Petts and Louisa Petts, who all played saxophones, with both Petts playing synths, and Louisa singing... [ read more ]
One of eleven children, Mary Stallings was born in San Francisco in 1939. In her teens, she began singing in San Francisco night clubs and performed with Ben Webster, Earl Hines, Red Mitchell, Teddy Edwards, and Wes Montgomery... [ read more ]
In many ways, In Good Standing is a jazz aficionado's dream. Trombonist, composer, and arranger Altin Sencalar's inaugural disc as a leader for Posi-Tone encourages granular, analytical consideration. It is worthwhile to pause and think about the details of inspired performances, ponder the efficacy of Sencalar's original compositions and interpretations of gems penned by jazz giants, and contemplate the numerous examples of his band's esprit de corps... [ read more ]
Peter Lewis' songs are among the most distinctive entries in the body of work by that great but woefully unsung San Francisco band of the '60s, Moby Grape. "Sittin' By The Window" and "Changes, Circles Spinning" illustrate his unique fingerpicking guitar style, the circular nature of which sounds as effortless as the slightly breathy phrasing of his singing... [ read more ]
Since the early 2000s, guitarist Charlie Apicella's Iron City trio has devoted itself to maintaining the tradition of soulful, organ-based jazz. The aptly-titled Groove Machine (OA2 Records, 2019) preceded Destiny Calling, the group's 2023 album... [ read more ]
The first of these duo recordings is from two musicians meeting for the first time. The second comes from long-time acquaintances. The compatibility of the playing on both is so high you would be hard-pressed to tell which was which. Pierrick Pedron and Gonzalo Rubalcaba Pedron Rubalcaba Gazebo 2023 French saxophonist Pierrick Pedron and Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba had never met before entering a New York studio in June 2022 to record this album... [ read more ]
On King Comfy, Tim Carman Trio plays with such irrepressible glee that it is difficult, if not impossible, to resist the vivacious charm of their musicianship. Over the course of the album's forty-minutes, its tongue-in-cheek title becomes as much (or more) of a direct reflection of the band's natural fluidity as its ingratiating cover photo... [ read more ]
Finding one's own voice as a musician is never an easy process; extending that to taking the spotlight and leading your own band is another step up. For some, it can take years. Kevin O'Connell is an example of exactly that. He has been a jazz pianist since the 1980s, working with the Clifford Jordan Quartet for six years, Vernel Fournier's trio for eight years and as a sideman in countless other projects... [ read more ]
In 1963, a seventeen-year-old Antonio Adolfo was already gigging professionally on the exploding bossa nova scene in Rio de Janeiro, his hometown. His career has continued unabated. For decades, he has been putting out a steady stream of admirable albums, earning critical praise and multiple Grammy nominations... [ read more ]
In 2007, All About Jazz reviewer Michael Caratti wrote: "This debut outing from Roberta Gambarini sees the Italian-born jazz vocalist pair up with two star-studded rhythm sections and legendary tenor saxophonist James Moody, to present what has to be one of the best vocal jazz albums of the decade... [ read more ]
Denny Zeitlin's jazz career began when he sat in as the featured pianist on flutist Jeremy Steig's Flute Fever (Columbia Records, 1964). He followed this up with his debut as a leader on Columbia Records' 1964 album Cathexis. While maintaining another successful career as a psychiatrist and college professor, he released more than a dozen albums over the next quarter century, most of them acoustic piano sets, plus a few experimental electronic outings, along with a groundbreaking electro/orchestral soundtrack to the 1978 remake of the science fiction film Invasion of the Body Snatchers... [ read more ]
For the Octet Sessions, Vol. 3, in Brussels-based Jazz Master Tracks' series of accessible apps, the renowned Belgian trumpeter/composer Bert Joris was tasked with rearranging eight of his splendid compositions written for big bands, symphonic orchestras and other large ensembles for an octet comprised of some of western Europe's leading jazz musicians... [ read more ]
This record is not a typical jazz record. The first impression it makes is of something fresh and unique. It invites one to listen to combinations of rhythms, textures and sounds and instrumentation not typically used together. The title track starts the record with a pulsing bass line plus floating synthesizer; the vocal starts softly, like a modern Gilberto Gil, in a language you may or may not understand--but that does not matter, it is the overall feel that is important... [ read more ]
Yosi Levy was born in Israel and began playing guitar at the age of 12. After a mandatory stint in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), he began working professionally in clubs around Israel. In the early 1980s, he decided to move to New York City and study classical guitar at the prestigious Mannes College of Music in New York... [ read more ]
Pianist Russ Lossing is not one to let imposed downtime go to waste. The imposition comes from New York City's regulations concerning alternate side parking which requires, only one day per week, that cars park on one side of the street, for street cleaning purposes. The evening car-moving causes jostling... [ read more ]
The Alex Coke and Carl Michel Sextet expand their sound on this album, the follow-up to their debut, The Emissary, (Play On, 2022). Their unique instrumental blend of reeds, guitar, pedal steel, vibes, harp, and bass retains its ethereal charm while also pushing forward into fresh musical territory... [ read more ]
Long after his death at the age of 52 in December 1993, Frank Zappa remains one of the most fascinating musicians and composers of his generation. Zappa was a rare individual who was equally skilled playing and writing in a number of different genres and styles, Funky Nothingness represents the brief era of a band which deserved to last longer than it did... [ read more ]
Snarky Puppy leader Michael League does not like the band being called a jazz ensemble. He describes it as a "a pop band that improvises a lot, without vocals." But anyone listening to jazz through the aural equivalent of a wide-angle lens would likely keep Snarky Puppy in the picture... [ read more ]
West Coast jazz from the mid-twentieth century makes a comeback on this earnest album by the Pacific Jazz Group, whose music owes its genesis to the Pacific Jazz label, which recorded many of the Coast's best and brightest stars during that historic and bounteous era. The idea was set in motion by pianist Dred Scott, one of the music's and the label's ardent fans, who assembled a group built to some extent along the lines of the legendary Gerry Mulligan/Chet Baker piano-less quartet, this one with a piano (Scott himself) subbing for Baker's trumpet and tenor saxophonist Eric Crystal supplanting Mulligan's baritone... [ read more ]
If ever oh ever there was a more ornery conversation between four highly-charged, time-defiant individuals, Volume2 sets the mark. Arguing, as great men do, about all things seen and unseen, secular and sublime, consummate free jazzers saxophonist John Dikeman, pianist Pat Thomas, bassist John Edwards and drummer Steve Noble circle the wagons once again at London's Cafe Otto and chase the demons and angels that co-inhabit each and every one of us... [ read more ]
Big Band Italia's "Blue Sun" is intriguing listening. Saxophonist/co-leader Gianni Bardaro's tune could best be described as a modernised Oliver Nelson track exploding on steroids... [ read more ]
Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad's Jazz Is Dead continues its mission "to exalt the legacies of iconic musicians who have shaped the fabric of jazz across generations, genres and continents." The label's summer 2023 album features the late great Tony Allen... [ read more ]
If you are fond of happy music from south of the equator, longtime producer/arranger Israel Tanenbaum had you in mind when mapping out Impressions, his first recording as leader after years of helping others achieve their musical dreams... [ read more ]
Craft Recordings have been on a roll of late, following 2021's excellently presented Ornette Coleman boxset, Genesis of Genius, with 2023's Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds series and imminent Sonny Rollins set Go West!: The Contemporary Records Albums... [ read more ]
"Let Go" from trumpeter/composer Keith Fiala is a track that is a near-perfect blend of groove, effects, orchestration, and solos. After a brief textural intro of cascading trumpet and a segue into a smooth jazz vibe, the tune offers an infectious easy-to-hum-along melody laid down by a doubling of horn and keys... [ read more ]
Chet Remembered is the second disc the pianist Enrico Pieranunzi has recorded with a big band in as many years. Both are what used to be called "concept albums." 2022's offering, Blues and Bach (Challenge), was made with the Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana, and celebrated the compositions of John Lewis, mainly those Lewis recorded with the Modern Jazz Quartet... [ read more ]
On his second recording, Travels, Scottish drummer Richard Glassby makes a giant leap forward from his debut Eclipse (self-produced, 2020), catapulting his take on the post-bop idiom to a whole new level, with a little help from pianist Pete Johnstone, tenor saxophonist Matthew Kilner and bassist Ewan Hastie... [ read more ]
A standard is defined as a musical composition that has become a part of the standard repetoire. The conventional wisdom suggests that this definition applies to popular songs of the twentieth century based on the premise that their popularity has lasted beyond the period of their initial publication... [ read more ]
Composer, arranger and pianist Antonio Adolfo has a discography which extends to the very early days of the Bossa Nova craze that swept through Brazil and into North America. With his deep roots in the Bossa tradition, Adolfo is an internationally recognized Brazilian jazz personage... [ read more ]
Guitarist Pat Metheny pushes the boundaries of musical exploration once again with Dream Box, Featuring nine "found tracks" for the quiet electric guitar, this collection showcases Metheny's spontaneous creativity and unique musical vision. During a deep dive into his own musical archives, Metheny unearthed a folder on his laptop's hard drive containing forgotten recordings that surprised even him... [ read more ]
Pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist Kevin Ray, and drummer Gerald Cleaver return for No Subject, the sophomore release from the quartet East Axis... [ read more ]
The Jamaican trombonist Don Drummond (1934-1969), the inspiration for Routes, was in certain respects a mid-twentieth Jamaican parallel of the New Orleans cornetist Buddy Bolden (1877-1931)... [ read more ]
Marjorie Barnes, a native New Yorker who has been living in Europe for almost fifty years including several decades in the Netherlands, summons her many years of experience to brighten and embroider Both Sides Now, her impressive debut recording with the world-class Millennium Jazz Orchestra (MJO)... [ read more ]
This carefully curated disc is subtitled Modern Jazz Classics 1950-1970 and is a collection of tracks recorded by Dutch musicians and released in the Netherlands mostly in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Few of the musicians other than a sprinkling of American guest artists such as Herbie Mann and Art Farmer will be known to most listeners in 2023, including, one suspects, many in the Netherlands itself... [ read more ]
Science and jazz do not come up too often in the same conversation. Even more unlikely is that spatio-spectral colour filter array design will feature. Unless you happen to be talking with the Ivy League-educated researcher and professor at the University of Dayton, Ohio, Keigo Hirakawa... [ read more ]
Wayne Escoffery was born in London and raised in New Haven, Connecticut. He began playing the saxophone at the age of 11, later studying at the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. In the late 1990s, Escoffery started gaining recognition on the jazz scene with his tenure in the Eric Reed Septet and later joining the Mingus Big Band... [ read more ]
Drummers do not always get the respect they deserve and yet, in a jazz context, their contributions are an integral part in the overall success of the music. Aside from genre leaders such as Tony Williams, Elvin Jones, and Art Blakey, relatively few drummer-led sessions have entered into the upper echelon of recorded jazz history... [ read more ]
Raised on a small peninsula in Iceland and later educated in New York City, Sunna Gunnlaugs, could easily have followed a different musical path if it hadn't been for the gift of a Bill Evans record in her teens... [ read more ]
The close connection between pianist Laszlo Gardony, bassist John Lockwood and drummer Yoron Israel is clear and present in the music they produce together... [ read more ]
Swiss pianist Jacques Demierre has a relatively small recording history considering that it dates back to June 1984. Along the way, it includes collaborations with such luminaries as Cyril Bondi, Sylvie Corvoisier, d'incise, Barry Guy, Insub Meta Orchestra, Hans Koch, Urs Leimgruber, Lucas Niggli, and Barre Phillips, in such fine recordings as Brainforest (Intakt, 2006) by the Demierre-Guy-Niggli trio... [ read more ]
As on the first recording of this two-volume series, acclaimed tenor saxophonist Don Braden pays tribute to a couple of his coming-of-age idols, singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder and the genre-defying group Earth, Wind and Fire... [ read more ]
Korean-born, New York-based pianist and composer Eunmi Lee opens her debut record, Introspection with her original composition, "Gimmick." And, if there is a gimmick, it sounds as if it might be her strong compositional voice and her way with an arrangement. The tune features Alan Ferber on trombone, saxophonist John Ellis, a guitar, bass and drums rhythm section, and Lee in the piano chair... [ read more ]
The Pineys. The Jersey Devil. The flyover country between Southeastern Pennsylvania and the Jersey Shore. None of these are entirely flattering descriptions or features of the great wooded expanse that extends over much of South Jersey, but, as they say, it is what it is. Of course, the residents of the big cities that surround the Jersey Pines also know there are plenty of good musicians and places to play as well... [ read more ]
John Zorn's album Gnosis: The Inner Light serves as a poignant memorial and homage to the creative genius of one of modern music's most visionary composers, Ennio Morricone, who played a vital role in shaping Zorn's musical path. Decades ago, Zorn captivated audiences with The Big Gundown (Nonesuch, 1986), a groundbreaking release that boldly reimagined Morricone's compositions... [ read more ]
This is saxophonist Michael Blake's new group, Chroma Nova, which contains guitar, violin, cello, bass and two Brazilian percussionists. They play a set of compositions, inspired by Blake's late mother, dancer Merle Blake, which rely on fluid rhythms and textures taken in many different directions... [ read more ]
Drummer Dhauvut Jani's Sum//Parts can be described as a world stew of sounds, a colorful gumbo stirred up from Indian classical influences, jazz and rock. An immigrant to Canada from his native Ahmedabad, India, Jani draws his "beyond-music" influences from things which have happened in his everyday life--his migration from East to West, growing up in Canada, and the common and inevitable trials and tribulations which he has faced on his journey... [ read more ]
Guitarist Charlie Apicella and his organ trio Iron City are solidly based in the hard-bop mainstream. However, some of their releases are flavored with other motifs, partially by virtue of the guest artists. For instance, the tribute to legendary guitarist B.B... [ read more ]
There is no time like the present to fulfill your dreams. The hands we are dealt often have a way of making that clear, as vocalist, composer and educator Ellie Martin knows all too well. After receiving a cancer diagnosis, beating the disease, starting a family and finding joy in watching her children bask in the beauty of their present, she realized that practicing carpe diem was the only proper way to carry on... [ read more ]
When Poco formalized the marriage of country music with rock and roll via Pickin' Up The Pieces (Epic, 1969)--after the first convergence of the genres on the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo (Columbia, 1968), the quintet emphasized improvisation in a way that's been lost during the evolution of contemporary country (although it's now the foundation of progressive bluegrass like that of Greensky Bluegrass, Railroad Earth and Billy Strings)... [ read more ]
Why Do You Mourn is the third release by the Swedish/Norwegian group The End. Ethiopian-born Swedish vocalist Sofia Jernberg is backed by the double reedists Mats Gustafsson (The Thing, Fire! and Fire! Orchestra) and Kjetil Møster (Gard Nilssen's Supersonic Orchestra, Møster!, and Zanussi Five), plus guitarist Anders Hana (Circulasione Totale Orchestra) and drummer Børge Fjordheim... [ read more ]
With their debut album The One (Floatmusic, 2018), Mengamo Trio firmly established their foothold in the modern jazz landscape. With their offering Chat Bizarre, they are pushing beyond the known frontiers. Chat Bizarre marks a turn into the realm of pure originals--a bold step affirming the trio's maturing artistic identity... [ read more ]
For some people, the whole notion of an east-west summit of anything in jazz brings up the perceived differences over time between American west coast jazz and its east coast counterpart. The basic premise is that jazz on the American west coast is a cousin to the cool jazz movement, a calmer, less soulful part of the tradition that relies more on composition and arrangement than the playing of individual improvisers... [ read more ]
Christine Jensen has been described by jazz writer Mark Miller of The Globe and Mail as "one of the most important Canadian composers of her generation." Jensen grew up in Nanaimo, British Columbia with the likes of tenor saxophonist Phil Dwyer and pianist and vocalist Diana Krall but is now based in Montreal, Quebec... [ read more ]
Tenor saxophonist George Coleman, one week past his eighty-seventh birthday when Live at Smalls Jazz Club was recorded in March 2022, has not yielded an inch to Father Time, skating up and down his horn with the awareness and agility of someone many years his junior... [ read more ]
Câmaranóva is a chamber orchestra dedicated to performing music of living Brazilian composers, with a focus on instrumental music "in its most diverse aspects" (including jazz, folkloric, and popular idioms). Felipe Senna, himself a composer and improviser, is the ensemble's musical director, arranger, and pianist... [ read more ]
Can we finally retire the assertion that we are living in a Golden Age of the jazz piano trio? It seems like every month brings trio dates of such imagination and accomplishment as to render superlatives beside the point. These three recordings released in an eight-week period in Spring 2023 are a reminder that one of the most venerable formations in jazz continues to be a laboratory for innovation... [ read more ]
There are times when a little extra effort goes a long way. To record the Denver Sessions, guitarist Dave Askren and saxophonist Jeff Benedict flew from the Los Angeles area, vibraphonist Ted Piltzecker from New York City to team with the Mile High city's Patrick McDevitt (bass) and Paul Romaine (drums) for Askren and Benedict's twelfth album together and fourth as co-leaders... [ read more ]
Delirium Atom Paths sounds exactly as one might hope, expect, or suspect the willing abandon of UK master innovator, keyboardist Pat Thomas, guitarist Chris Sharkey, and drummer Luke Reddin-Williams to sound like: a fearless dialogue of ideas without dogma, ambitions without greed, creation without regret... [ read more ]
Keith Jarrett's affinity for the classics is well known. His solo piano and keyboard recordings in the genre include the music of Mozart, Shostakovich, Barber, Gurdjieff, Handel, Bartók, and others. The music of Johann Sebastian Bach is Jarrett's sweet spot with eight recordings--mostly two-disc sets--dominating his classical portfolio... [ read more ]
As Shakespeare said, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Kurt Elling and Charlie Hunter follow up their Grammy-nominated 2021 album, SuperBlue (Edition), with another sublime blend of jazz and groove... [ read more ]
Tinariwen sounds just like the deserts they are named for, hard-baked and rough as sand-scoured stone. It's the natural product of decades of life for this amorphous collective of Touareg nomads--living in and out of exile, surviving (and sometimes fighting in) people's revolutions, and finding time in between to put their tribes' lives and experiences into songs... [ read more ]
The last Adrián Demoč album release was Hlaholika (Another Timbre, 2021), featuring the title composition, which was one of Another Timbre's four "quarantine commissions" from different composers, commissioned at the beginning of the Covid 19 lockdown... [ read more ]
Although composed during the Covid pandemic, the ten tracks on Artie Roth's Resonants give no ground to despair or gloom. Rather, the Toronto- based bassist aims for a more hopeful register here and, with the help of the sympathetic members of his fine quartet, he delivers. A strong lyrical sensibility and an ability to find a winning groove are also in evidence, resulting in a well-constructed album which holds up well over multiple encounters... [ read more ]
A jazz quintet performing eight classically-inspired Preludes and Duke Ellington's wistful "Prelude to a Kiss"? How could that possibly work? In the capable hands of pianist Jeb Patton (who wrote the Preludes) and his quintet, quite well, actually... [ read more ]
A most generous craftsman, composer and bandleader, pianist Orrin Evans never fails to bring out the best of whoever he chooses to create with. The Red Door is gratefully, and gracefully, no exception to that rule. Whatever musical setting Evans chooses to practice his sinewy, r'n'b inflected post-bop in--sideman, big band, trio, quartet, duo, whatever--a sweet animation propels his music and buoys the players gathered around him... [ read more ]
John McLaughlin was known for his work with Miles Davis on Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1970) and with Tony Williams' Lifetime before forming his groundbreaking fusion band Mahavishnu Orchestra... [ read more ]
Is this album fundamentally unreviewable? Are there jazz fans who do not immediately know if they need an 11-hour collection of 103 improvised duets between Ivo Perelman and a dozen saxophonists and clarinetists? It is at least describable... [ read more ]
A decade or more younger than the composer / musicians in the first wave of bossa nova artists, Antonio Adolfo began recording under his own name towards the end of the 1960s. Better known as a pianist and arranger than as a composer, though he has written some notable tunes, in recent years Adolfo has carved out a niche celebrating the work of belle epoque bossa songwriters... [ read more ]
It has been a while alright. 46 years have slipped by since Shakti's last studio album, but the band founded by John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain in late '73, is back to celebrate its 50th anniversary... [ read more ]
Movies run through our heads all the time and Prophecy, the latest excursion into the unruly unknown by tenor saxophonist and tireless creator Ivo Perelman and his two latest partners-in-crime, pianist Aruan Ortiz and cellist Lester St... [ read more ]
As with so many prolific drummers, this guy is lean, energized, crisp and knows when to add the snap. Drummer/percussionist Steve Smith's early professional musical explorations were often in the world of jazz as he teamed up with fusion violinist Jean Luc Ponty and the progressive jazz/rock Dutch band Focus for about a year in the late 1970s... [ read more ]
It would be an error to characterize pianist Dave Burrell as a witness to history. Avant-garde jazz history that is. The octogenarian was heard in the 1960s groups of Marion Brown, Pharoah Sanders, Noah Howard, Archie Shepp, Sonny Sharrock, Sunny Murray, and Grachan Moncur III, while also exchanging ideas in New York with Albert Ayler, Sam Rivers, and Tony Williams... [ read more ]
The fascination with Hammond B3 organ trios, which were so prevalent in the '50s and '60s, remains undiminished. And rightly so as there were some stellar organists who were plying their trade in that period, including Jimmy Smith, Milt Buckner and Wild Bill Davis... [ read more ]
Orrin Evans released his debut album for quintet, "Justin Time," in 1996, at the age of 21. Over the next 25 years, Evans released over 20 albums in all shapes and sizes. From trio to standard ensembles to large bands and big bands, Evans' history included a ten-year stint as a member of the Mingus Big Band, leading to his formation of the Grammy-nominated Captain Black Big Band in 2009... [ read more ]
A longtime member of the Criss Cross family, pianist David Hazeltine began recording for the label in the mid 1990s. Since then he has released around 30 Criss Cross albums, including eight as leader. During this time, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Joe Farnsworth, who complete the trio on Blues For Gerry, have been frequent comrades in arms... [ read more ]
The search for identity is a sine qua non of any artist's experience and development. But for a musician like Nicky Schrire, it goes much deeper than most. Born in London, raised in South Africa, studying and entering the professional ranks in New York and working back through her initial points of origin before relocating to Toronto in 2020, this noted vocalist-composer has established herself as a globetrotter of the first order... [ read more ]
Folk/blues practitioner Taj Mahal's Savoy is to be savored. As one of the custodians of the blues, Mahal has long been a legend in his own time. This collection traverses a cultural-musical continuum in an indispensable residency in the annals of Black American music. The namesake of this album--the Savoy on Lenox Avenue in Harlem--was known as The World's Finest Ballroom and Home Of Happy Feet... [ read more ]
ECM's audiophile vinyl reissue series Luminessence has a simple mission statement: it is to showcase albums that have "changed perceptions of creative music making." The series kicked off in April 2023 with Kenny Wheeler's Gnu High (1976) and Nana Vasconelos' Saudade (1979)... [ read more ]
In 1983, Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette released the first of their album of standards, Standards Vol... [ read more ]
A Little Optimism, trombonist Brendan Lanighan believes, can often go a long way. That is the essential message of the Lanighan Octet's debut recording, a pleasurable pastiche of original compositions by the Buffalo, NY-born trombonist plus a pair of enduring standards that share a springtime theme and the name Richard Rodgers as composer... [ read more ]
In a world where some argue that mankind has totally abandoned tradition while others profess that tradition is what is holding us back, Neil Luck and Mimi Doulton demonstrate that it is possible to create an exciting and relevant blend of the past with the present by paying homage to the English folk heritage, while radically reinventing it at the same time... [ read more ]
The first sound that greets the listener to this new improvisational trio is the familiar strangled whammy bar manipulations of guitarist David Torn, joined by textural sounds by fellow guitarist Tim Motzer... [ read more ]
Duncan Eagles, perhaps best known as the tenor saxophonist in Partikel, is also in high demand as a sideman to high fliers including Zara McFarlane, Shabaka Hutchings, Janek Gwizdala, Gary Husband and Ola Onabule... [ read more ]
The leader of any group whose credo is To Swing Is the Thing had best enlist some hired hands whose propensity to swing is sure and steady, regardless of mood or tempo. Veteran drummer Mike Melito's talented quintet runs that course without breaking sweat, lending Melito all the help he needs to keep his eighth album as leader bright and swinging from start to finish... [ read more ]
New Orleans is considered the birthplace of jazz. In the late 1800s, the city was a melting pot of different cultures, including African, European, and Caribbean. This cultural diversity had a profound impact on the music of the city. The new sounds of Dixieland and ragtime became the foundation in the evolution of jazz... [ read more ]
Saxophonist Ben Wendel came up with a unique approach for this album of duets. He plays with a different musician on each of these six tracks, but while his guests stick to their primary instruments, Wendel fills in the space around them with multiple saxophone and bassoon parts, electronic effects, and percussion... [ read more ]
The follow-up to trumpeter Linley Hamilton's For The Record (Teddy D Records, 2020) has taken over three years to materialize, but when you consider what transpired globally in that time, just the act of picking up where he left off is something of a victory in itself... [ read more ]
Nicola Conte continues on his journey from acid-jazz bohemian to spiritual-jazz sophisticate with this immaculately hip album, fronted on half of its tracks by London-based soul-jazz divas Zara McFarlane and Bridgette Amofah... [ read more ]
Do not expect The Criterion Collection to reissue the 1974 film Space Is The Place anytime soon. It is though, a cult classic in the truest sense of the word. Sun Ra and his Arkestra had been at the forefront of avant-garde music, developing and refining his vision since the 1950s... [ read more ]
The first thing that needs to be said is: this is not a jazz album. Jazz is only one of many musical traditions, most of them South African, that coalesce to form IzangoMa's debut. The percussion-rich, horn-embellished, multi-layered blend weaves together kwaito, mbaqanga, township jazz, marabi, pantsula, mbube, Jamaican nyabhingi drumming, electronica and a whole lot more... [ read more ]
This is where music for mass consumption--recorded music--started, in Richmond, Indiana, in the 1920s, in a piano factory by the railroad tracks in a glacier-carved gorge. Established in 1887, in the beginning Starr Pianos' bread and butter was pianos, but they branched out to selling other instruments and eventually photographs and records--their own records, recorded in the piano factory, taking breaks in the process when a train came by... [ read more ]
Since around 2001, noted trumpeter Mike Vax has periodically assembled an extraordinarily talented group of former members of the Stan Kenton's, Maynard Ferguson's and other elite bands and led that crew on short performance tours (and clinics) around various sections of the United States... [ read more ]
Beyond its initiates, the so-called New Thing which emerged in mainly, but not exclusively, Black US jazz in the 1960s/70s, was perceived so amorphously that prairie-wide distinctions between its practitioners went unregarded. Among the general jazz audience, the musicians were lumped together as a horde of crazed zombies who lacked all technique, and who had replaced creativity with noise and anger, and beauty with ugliness... [ read more ]
Anyone can be excused for making the early assumption that the vibrant elegance of Stormy Beauty is the effort of a well-travelled, veteran bassist and his trio. It is not. But it sounds as if it is. Strikingly concise, persuasive and effective, the young German bassist and composer Nils Kugelmann's debut is an eye-opening and ear- pleasing listen from beginning to end, and then from the beginning to end again... [ read more ]
Saxophonist Noah Howard is a musician deserving wider recognition. Born in New Orleans in 1943, like many black musicians he began playing music in the church. After a stint in the army, he settled on the West Coast where the avant-garde was progressing outside the purview of New York, which at the time was considered the center of all things jazz... [ read more ]
Saxophonist Brian McCarthy, not one to shy away from a big theme, draws inspiration from the creation of the universe to craft After|Life Science says we are all stardust, compiled ultimately in all its complexities via gravity. Given that, he opens this expansive octet offering with "Nebula," referring to cosmic gasses consisting of hydrogen and deep space dust that--given gravity's propensities--coalesce into stars and solar systems consisting of planets with water, landforms and eventually us... [ read more ]
Rochester NY native Mike Melito is an fine drummer who has been active on the jazz scene for many years. His whose drumming style was inspired by Roy McCurdy, who was an integral part of the jazz groups fronted by both Nat Adderley and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley... [ read more ]
The monk and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh had a saying, "I have arrived, I am home." Hanh's writing was an influence on this third album from husband-and-wife pairing The Saxophones, namely Alexi Erenkov and Alison Alderdice... [ read more ]
Following Once More Into The Bliss (Dig Music, 2008) and Around Some Corner (Self-Produced, 2017) with It's Time For Tea, Boris Garcia now fully transcends any glib labeling such as "progressive bluegrass, "Americana" or "jamband." And that is notwithstanding the production on all three studio projects by a kindred spirit in the person of Railroad Earth's Tim Carbone (who, tellingly, has also played with them live and on record)... [ read more ]
There is technical excellence, there is pretty, there is a well-honed trio, there is an in-sync guest saxophonist, and yet, and yet.... Open House is London-based guitarist Tom Ollendorff's follow-up to A Song For You (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2021), his debut, which also featured bassist Conor Chaplin and drummer Marc Michel... [ read more ]
This album is the tenth on Another Timbre (AT) featuring Magnus Granberg's music, making him the composer who has appeared most often on the label, his first release having been Ist gefallen in den Schnee in 2012. Ironically, Evening Star, Vesper Bell also marks the first time Granberg has recorded with Apartment House, who have practically become the AT house band, this being their twenty-eighth appearance on the label... [ read more ]
Los Angeles-based guitarist Dave Askren and saxophonist Jeff Benedict collaborate on their fourth album as co-leaders on the Denver Sessions, an exquisite ten-piece set of primarily original music recorded in Denver, Colorado... [ read more ]
Live at the Bottom Line represents a significant turning point in the history of guitarist, composer and vocalist Jorma Kaukonen. Occurring roughly a year after the release of his solo album, Blue Country Heart (Columbia Records, 2002), the concerts marked the advent of a new career phase for the co-founder of Hot Tuna, including regular touring with the latter (in both electric and acoustic formats) plus roadwork as a solo act... [ read more ]
When saxophonist David Borgo is not attending to his teaching duties at UC San Diego (Integrated Studies and Jazz Music of the African Diaspora Programs) he immerses himself in the art of jazz, recording and performing. He has released twelve CDs and he performs regularly in his adopted hometown, San Diego... [ read more ]
Walter Smith III released his debut album, Casually Introducing (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2006), to enthusiastic reviews. On it, he covered Sam Rivers, Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman and wrote the other six tracks, showcasing a mature and varied sense of composition... [ read more ]
Drummer Abbey Rader is a restless improviser and a master of Eastern spirituality. His artistry and devotional practice are inextricable from one another. This union of meditative philosophy and spontaneous creativity gives Rader's style its uniqueness and his recordings their absorbing quality... [ read more ]
The 2 x LP 60 Years celebrates the history of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (PAPA), which was founded by the pianist, composer and community activist Horace Tapscott in South Central Los Angeles in 1961, and directed by him until he passed in 1999... [ read more ]
The New Day Bends Light, the debut recording by the twelve-year-old Erica Seguine/Shon Baker Orchestra, is interesting on a number of levels, not the least of which is emotional. The leaders and their twenty-one piece ensemble are clearly committed to the music and do their best to breathe life into each of the album's seven numbers, three of which were written by Seguine, three by Baker and the other ("Ose Shalom") by Nurit Hirsh... [ read more ]
Nomadic, Tomas Janzon's sixth album as leader, is a pleasant, easy-going session which benefits greatly from the presence, on half a dozen tracks, of the superb vibraphonist Steve Nelson who adds substance and color to what is essentially a quartet or trio session wherein Janzon's mellow guitar carries much of the weight... [ read more ]
If you are an aficionado of tenor saxophonists with a big, bold, biting tone who can run changes in the blink of an eye, then George Coleman is your man. Now in his 88th year, over the course of his long career, he has had a gamut of experiences including B.B... [ read more ]
When it comes to live recordings of Charlie Parker, Jazz At Massey Hall, from a concert in Toronto in May 1953, has been widely considered the slam-dunk number one ever since Charles Mingus released it on his Debut label in 1956. Forensicists might favour the 7-CD The Complete Dean Benedetti Recordings Of Charlie Parker (Mosaic, 1990), but for most people, Massey Hall takes pole position... [ read more ]
Anyone familiar with the work of bassist Mark Dresser knows that he is an uncompromising innovator, always dedicated to pushing his music into new territory; and if that requires novel technical modifications to his instrument itself, then so be it. He has partnered with fellow bassist Kent McLagan as far back as 2001 to create adapted basses using additional pickups, which allow Dresser to create multiple pitches for each string of his bass... [ read more ]
Tenor saxophonist Alex Weitz's third album, Rule of Thirds, is a quartet date with guests--on seven of its nine tracks. In addition to playing tenor, Weitz wrote all but one of those numbers, Cole Porter's seductive "Love for Sale." Like many saxophonists these days, Weitz has excellent technique, which means he plays a lot of notes, and does that quite well... [ read more ]
Innovative saxophonists Jon Raskin and Phillip Greenlief use graphic scores for a series of recordings, each with a similar pair of instruments. These collaborations are called 2 + 2... [ read more ]
Bokani Dyer has already established himself as one of the leading musical voices of his generation in South Africa. But with Radio Sechaba--the heralded multi-hyphenate's first release on aural arbiter Gilles Peterson's Brownswood imprint--he expands his voice, reach and notability... [ read more ]
Swinging Sunset, New Jersey-based tenor saxophonist Anthony E. Nelson Jr.'s fifth album on his Musicstand label, is an unpretentious, undemanding and utterly enjoyable celebration of the organ trios of the 1950s and 1960s. From the first bars of the opener, Eddie Heywood's "Canadian Sunset," it feels like we are in for a good time and, over the next hour and a bit, that expectation is a hundred percent delivered... [ read more ]
At first one might wonder how long good fortune can last so that previously unheard and unreleased Bill Evans sets such as Treasures: Solo, Trio and Orchestra Recordings from Denmark (1965-1969) seemingly fall from the heavens on a regular basis... [ read more ]
This is happy music with a Latin flair, splendidly conceived and superbly performed by guitarist Ben Sher's New York-based quartet--a flavorful treat for those who relish music from south of the border. Before appraising the themes, it is perhaps best to begin by answering the question on most listeners' minds: who is (or was) Tarsila? As it turns out, Brazilian-born Tarsila de Aguiar do Amaral (1886-1973) was a modernist painter who is considered by many to be one of the leading Latin American artists of the twentieth century... [ read more ]
The secret behind Life and Umbrella is that Chicago-based, Mexican-born pianist/composer Javier Red is a studied composer who puts a great deal of thought into the music he presents, both to his peers and to the world. But that music never feels calculated like an equation with an obvious answer... [ read more ]
For drummer Allison Miller, a key feature of In Real Time is that this second Blue Note release captures the unique ensemble sound of Artemis. She stresses a palpable sonic integrity that she attributes to trust and chemistry... [ read more ]
Jay Rattman may not exactly be a household name to some jazz listeners and saxophone hounds. Perhaps he should be. Busy, literate, and creative, Rattman is that rare player who makes one think. In a juxtaposition of styles, genres, and horns, New York-based Rattman, could be accused of what was termed "formalism" in the good old days of Josef Stalin and the USSR... [ read more ]
The laws of probability dictate that if three musicians spend enough time together a trio recording will eventually arise. Pianist Alexander Hawkins, bassist Neil Charles and drummer Stephen Davis have clocked up many a road mile since forming in 2012... [ read more ]
Recorded on the first night of a Pat Thomas residency at north London's Cafe Oto, On A Clear Day Like This by the collective Scatter demonstrates the breadth of the pianist's artistry, following as it did an opening set of Duke Ellington tunes... [ read more ]
Two Hours After Midnight is the first duo release from Scottish jazz vocalist, Louise Dodds, and Azerbaijani pianist, Elchin Shirinov. The album title is inspired by the last letter Mary Queen of Scots wrote just hours before her execution in 1587... [ read more ]
With a voice as sweet and cool as a spring breeze, Gretchen Parlato would sound at home in any cozy jazz club from jny: Paris to jny: Sao Paulo... [ read more ]
A tribute to a pop artist by jazz musicians--as with the new David Bowie album by Chicago's Metropolitan Jazz Octet--has to tread a careful line. It obviously won't--can't--be a rote reproduction of the originals, a flaw that sinks many pop-to-pop tributes. Yet it needs to translate the songs into jazz--its harmonic sophistication, especially--in a way that retains the essence of the artist being celebrated... [ read more ]
Brooklyn-based pianist and composer Danny Fox has an eye-catching background. He has studied with John Kamitsuka, Fred Hersch, Ethan Iverson and Garry Dial, and performed with artists as varied as Bruce Springsteen, Cassandra Wilson and Emmylou Harris... [ read more ]
Karl Berger, one of the more unsung and underrated jazz musicians of our time, passed away on April 9, 2023. He had just turned 88 years old. Berger released several dozen albums as a leader and scores more as a sideman. His discography reads like a Who's Who of modern jazz... [ read more ]
With only seven releases over its 30 plus year history, the Swiss band Day and Taxi, led by saxophonist and composer Christoph Gallio, is not exactly over documented. That is a shame as it has been a consistently stimulating outfit which takes an expansive view of the free jazz tradition... [ read more ]
Pianist Keith Jarrett has enjoyed a long and productive career which eventually became dominated by his monumental improvised solo performances and his work with his Standards Trio, with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette... [ read more ]
The Elusion Quartet has become one of bassist Michael Formanek's more formidable ensembles, even if it is a more recent project than his long- standing work with Tomas Fujiwara and Mary Halvorson in Thumbscrew, or the many recordings he has made with prominent saxophonists ranging from Tim Berne to Marty Ehrlich and Ellery Eskelin... [ read more ]
Saxophonist and composer Bo van de Graaf is not well known outside Western Europe despite being one of the most interesting and creative figures in music. His Dutch ensemble, I Compani, has been active for almost thirty years. Van De Graaf composes original scores based on classic films of Fellini, Bertolucci, Greta Garbo, and others... [ read more ]
Matt Barber is a pretty good singer: pleasant voice, decent range, fair sense of swing, healthy respect for a lyric. On his seventh album, The Song Is You, Barber has chosen to revisit a number of evergreens from the Great American Songbook and placed himself in a variety of musical settings designed to enhance the experience... [ read more ]
With all due respect to Lettuce's A Tribute to Miles Davis--Witches Stew (Self Produced, 2017) and the all-star ensemble dubbed Bitches Brew Revisited, M.E.B. (formerly known as Miles Electric Band) is an inordinately creative homage to Miles Davis... [ read more ]
What is new to say through Charlie Parker's music? On Flight Alex Sadnik looks for answers with two different bands. On the first side of the LP, his alto fronts a quintet with violin, pedal steel guitar, bass,and drums, but this is not a Bob Wills or Bill Frisell pastiche... [ read more ]
Seishin-Seido represents another heads up on the depth of the Japanese free jazz community from the Lithuanian NoBusiness imprint as part of its partnership with Chap Chap Records. They raid the archives for a live date from 1995 in the southern city of Hofu, which actually unites two Korean musicians, trumpeter Choi Sun Bae and percussionist Kim Dae Hwan with a Japanese tenor saxophonist of Korean descent, Mototeru Takagi... [ read more ]
This stellar sixth album from Jochen Rueckert extends on some musical friendships while offering a fresh format and new palette. Having previously delivered his notable Introduction (Lipstick-Jazzline, 1998) some 25 years ago, greased the grooves on an appealing organ trio session with guests, and drawn notice with guitar-driven gusto on several quartet dates, this German-born, New York-based drummer-of-note now shifts focus and finds success with a chordless quintet... [ read more ]
Australian saxophonist Jeremy Rose's admiration for minimalist trio The Necks is of great depth, to the extent that he published an essay on the group, entitled "Memory and Mindfulness in the Musical Rituals of the Necks," examining musical ritualistic practices "beyond the African American realm capable of scaffolding transcendent experience." And he is not the only Vampire to have previously collaborated with a Neck... [ read more ]
Though best known as an experimental guitarist in the likes of Tortoise, Isotope 217 and the Chicago Underground Trio, on Eastside Romp Jeff Parker hews closer to his jazz roots in a co-operative trio completed by bassist Eric Revis and drummer Nasheet Waits... [ read more ]
When one listens to the work of Tony Adamo, there needs to be a self-understanding that Adamo's approach to jazz completely abolishes any pre-conceptions of what "singing," "vocalese," and "storytelling" are. His efforts are a highly-stylized ultra-hip gumbo of these things, usually overlaid over a swinging, driving rhythmic platform... [ read more ]
Home is the debut album from Eddie Gripper, an English pianist, composer and educator from Oxfordshire. He's now based in Cardiff, where he studied jazz at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with Huw Warren... [ read more ]
An author and educator besides a musician, Boston-based Tim Carman might well qualify as a renaissance man. Based on two closely coincidental releases on which he appears, not to mention an increasingly lengthy discography including prior titles with these very same ensembles, he's certainly an artist to be reckoned with... [ read more ]
One function of recordings is to document a performer's development. Damon Smith's Bass Duos 2000-2007 not only captures his artistic and technical evolution, his choice of duet partners represents the expanded options for the bass in creative music since the 1960s... [ read more ]
The opening track on Vox Humana could easily have been the encore of this live performance recorded at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola, part of Jazz At Lincoln Center in New York City. It is a rousing version of the Duke Ellington crowd pleaser "Caravan" and a boisterous Latin tinged big band version it is, with Matthew Gonzalez's barril de bomba and requinto pandereta, bandleader and drummer Sanabria and others on congas, bongos and bells prominently leading the percussionists and portending the unfettered upbeat joy to come.It might help with the lyrics, but you don't have to speak Spanish to understand this music because melody, rhythm and music are universally understood forms of communication and the top notch performances by vocalists and instrumental soloists express it so wonderfully in these songs... [ read more ]
Formed in 2015 in Naples, though its individual members have long since gone outernational, piano trio Kósmos debuted with Back Home (Jazzit) in 2019. The album was composed of reworkings of five tunes by Lennie Tristano plus one original each by pianist Stefano Falcone, bassist Ilaria Capalbo and drummer Giuseppe D'Alessandro... [ read more ]
Marco Antonio Santos grew up in Betim, an industrial city in southeastern Brazil. His father, an automotive tooling designer, listened to North American Top-40 radio (Bee Gees, John Denver)... [ read more ]
Tenor saxophonist Stephen Gauci certainly knows how to pick a band. On another of his regular bulletins which go under the title Live At Scholes Street Studio, he has assembled a line-up to die for, notable for the appearance of Tyshawn Sorey on drums and William Parker on bass... [ read more ]
A hefty eight years separate Scott Flanigan's debut, Point of Departure (Self Produced, 2015), and Clouded Lines (SF Sounds, 2023). Not that Flanigan has been idle. In the intervening years the Belfast pianist has completed a Ph.D in jazz performance, recorded a duo album with French vocalist Fabrice Mourlon, co-founded a thriving Friday-night jazz club and, in his day to day life, juggles gigging and teaching schedules in Belfast, Dublin and Cork... [ read more ]
Italian pianist Margherita Fava comes across as a mature composer and a sensitive performer on her captivating debut Tatatu. Based in Knoxville Tennessee, USA, Fava is a consummate musician and educator whose unique set of talents is on full display here as she leads a quartet on two covers and six of her poetic originals... [ read more ]
Do not be misled by the title: no bots or algorithms were involved in creating this album. While there have been fascinating experiments in improvisation with interactive software by George Lewis, Richard Teitelbaum and others, Artificial Intelligence is just under an hour of spontaneous human interaction by two of the most prolific and uncategorizable improvisers in New York... [ read more ]
Someone famously called jazz the sound of surprise, but all too often, what is on offer is the dull hum of routine. Or something like that. This historic reissue is, however, anything but routine. This is not the first time that Teddy Reig's Savoy sides have been reissued (was he also the mysterious Buck Ram listed as producing one track?), but Craft Recordings took a lot of trouble to produce this very fine selection... [ read more ]
This album is really special. It doesn't sound like anything else and every song is engaging and interesting. The titles of the songs are also fascinating. Even the collage cover is great and seems to reflect the music. Tenor saxophonist Alex Weiss started writing Most Don't Have Enough during the pandemic and went deep into writing and practicing... [ read more ]
Savoy, from Taj Mahal, is the latest entrant in the crowded field of pop music artists trying their hand at the fertile songbook of old big-band, swing-era standards. Unlike most, Mahal's roots show he's well suited to the task. He was born in Harlem in 1942... [ read more ]
With a growing fascination bordering on mild hysteria over the disruptive intrusion of AI into our daily life, there is no better time for an album like this to be released to the general public. Meet Zubin Kanga, a UK-based pianist, composer and technologist, who attempts to fuse futurism into new music in his Machine Dreams by commissioning ten different composers to explore free-association inquiries into the topics of sci-fi, technology and AI... [ read more ]
When one thinks of countries with strong jazz connections, the chances are that Slovenia isn't the first place that comes to mind. So, it could be surprising to learn that Slovenia has a jazz history going back to the 1920s and is home to one of the oldest continuously running jazz festivals in Europe... [ read more ]
We're still wandering all over the place here; from abstract to groovy and back again, or sometimes some of both at once. Little North Wide Open Self Produced2023 This Scandinavian outfit figuratively wanders farther into the wilds every time around, it seems--their style doesn't have many traces of traditional jazzy forms at all, but they trade it for a sort of evocative impressionism... [ read more ]
It would cost top dollar to see and hear jazz musicians as busy and talented as pianist Lafayette Harris Jr., bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash up-close and personal... [ read more ]
Born in Tokyo, Japan, in 1993, pianist Fumi Endo has been performing since 2017, mainly playing jazz and improv. Although she played piano on three albums released in 2022--Musical Procedure (Ftarr Classical, 2022) with Takumi Ikeda on electric percussion and Kokichi Yanagisawa on electric guitar, Toy-Piano Sokubaikai (Zappak, 2022) a duo with Suzueri on toy piano, and Masahide Tokunaga (Hitorri, 2022) with Tokumaga on alto sax and Tomoki Tai on viola de gamba--Cold Light In Warm Blue is the first album to feature her alone and the first to bear her name... [ read more ]
Two daring jazz improvisers take on a cherished hundred-year-old classical ballet masterpiece with radical roots on The Rite of Spring: Spectre d'un songe. Igor Stravinsky was fresh off the success of his 1911 "Petrushka," which radiated with the artistic atmosphere of his Russia, when in 1913 he premiered "The Rite of Spring" at the opening of the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées... [ read more ]
For its third installment, pianist Dave Bass' regular working group has produced another worthwhile document drawing on Bass' many influences, and showing that he also has plenty of his own creativity to offer. Once again accompanied by bassist Kerry Kashiwagi and drummer Scott Gordon, and a few cameos from guitarist Barry Finnerty, the pianist proves his mettle as an agile and thoughtful interpreter of the jazz repertoire... [ read more ]
If you're a tenor saxophonist leading a piano-less trio, much of the group's melodic and harmonic components rest squarely on your shoulders. In spite of that--or perhaps because of it--Canadian tenor Mike Allen says he prefers working within that framework, as he has been doing for many years... [ read more ]
Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt's album, The Art of Intimacy, Vol. 2, is a hybrid: nearly one-half jazz quartet (quintet on one track), more than the other half quartet with strings. Strangely enough, the strings are nowhere listed on the album jacket, nor are Pelt's colleagues in his quartet... [ read more ]
Saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock always seems to search out new instrumental configurations for her music. This time out, she and her musical and life partner, drummer Tom Rainey, collaborate with a quartet of accomplished string players, guitarist Brandon Seabrook, violinist Mazz Swift, cellist Tomeka Reid, and bassist Michael Formanek... [ read more ]
Saxophonist Ivo Perelman has mastered the art of duets. In addition to multiple collaborations with pianist Matthew Shipp, in the third decade of the 21st century he released two box-sets of one-on-one recordings, the first with pianists and the second with other woodwind players... [ read more ]
If a title such as Essays on Jazz might suggest something dry or academic (or, god forbid, pretentious), perish the thought. For one thing, Maria Baptist has spent decades as a professor of music and knows her stuff enough to live up to the name... [ read more ]
There aren't many albums a listener might care to revisit again immediately after an initial spin. This is one of them. The Las Vegas Boneheads, a trombone-and-rhythm nonet formed by Abe Nole in 1962, marked their sixtieth(!) anniversary by recording Sixty and Still Cookin', an album that more than lives up to its name while presenting a master class in how contemporary jazz trombone should be played, individually and collectively... [ read more ]
If listeners only had the one recording, Swimming In A Galaxy Of Goodwill And Sorrow (Rogueart, 2007) from Steve Swell's Fire Into Music, and did not have the pleasure of hearing the quartet live in person, there certainly would be a large blank spot in their metaphorical dance card... [ read more ]
Given the length and breadth of Stephen Stills' discography--as a solo artist, leader of the Manassas band, and in various collaborations--it's altogether surprising he hasn't done more archival work. But Live At Berkeley 1971 rectifies the neglect, at least to some degree, and might augur well for future releases... [ read more ]
Montreal-based multi-reedist Melissa Pipe's artistic vision is fully formed. Her debut recording, Of What Remains, features a sextet which explores darkness with deep tones--Pipe plays baritone sax and bassoon here--by delving into temporality, the shifting of time and being, via chamber music reveries and jazz grooves... [ read more ]
A decade on from the release of their first album, Exit (Rune Grammofon, 2013), Fire! Orchestra releases their first post-Covid album, Echoes, their seventh altogether. This double-CD or triple-LP album runs for just over an hour and fifty minutes. It was studio-recorded at the Atlantis studio in Stockholm, in March 2022... [ read more ]
At first glance, Mammal Hands may seem a traditional jazz trio, but their perspectives on the jazz landscape offer enticing and engrossing new directions. Gift from the Trees is their fifth album and shows a new maturity in sound and feel. It draws on influences from folk, electronica, modern classical and ambient to produce a fresh and enveloping sound... [ read more ]
The title of this release might rightfully be applied at various junctures of Blood Sweat and Tears' career, but for the purposes of this project, it's particularly apropos to the group's State Department-sponsored tour of 1970 behind the Iron Curtain... [ read more ]
Larry McKenna is not really a celebrity. He probably never will be. He plays tenor sax in and around jny: Philadelphia. He apparently does not say a lot--although he clearly has a puckish sense of humor... [ read more ]
The title "world's best jazz bassoonist" is akin to "world's best tap dancer on hot coals," meaning there simply is not much competition for the honor. Even if there were, however, Michael Rabinowitz would no doubt outdistance any challengers and handily earn the blue ribbon for bassoon excellence... [ read more ]
For Konrad Agnas it is all about the pulse, and you may be thinking it is because his day job description is drummer. We have heard him at the drum set in Alberto Pinton's trios, quartet, and sextet, Johan Lindström's Septett, a large version of the Angles, and various other assemblages... [ read more ]
Less than ten seconds into "Grit," the opening track of Josh Lawrence's latest chapter as a leader for Posi-Tone Records, the trumpeter uncorks a jaw-dropping solo. Set in a brisk, no-nonsense tempo, it does not so much eclipse the music that follows as it sets the tone for the record by declaring that And That Too is playful and deadly serious... [ read more ]
On his 11th release, the aptly titled Story At Eleven, saxophonist and composer Shawn Maxwell leads his quartet through a four-part, cinematic suite. Utilizing electric instrumentation Maxwell endows the ambiance with a noirish undercurrent. The expansive pieces, thanks to Maxwell's writing, demonstrate ensemble cohesiveness without sacrificing the individual voices of the four musicians... [ read more ]
There is a proverb which states "everything old is new again"; it seems perfectly applicable to the latest release by drummer Towner Galaher, Live, on which he gives a tip of the cap to the classic organ trios which were front and center in clubs and on records during the '50s and '60s... [ read more ]
Generations is a wonderful exploration of the bop and post-bop era. Steve Turre both looks back to his roots while encouraging the next generation of musicians to find their voice. It's a position he's eminently qualified for, considering the artists he has played with and his tenure as a long-time jazz educator... [ read more ]
Christmas is coming early for Bill Evans aficionados this April 2023 with the release of two box-sets. Hard on the heels of Elemental's 2-CD / 3-LP Treasures: Solo, Trio and Orchestra Recordings From Denmark 1965-1969 (reviewed here), comes this 5-CD Complete Trio Recordings set... [ read more ]
Ezz-thetics have already released several '60s albums featuring Archie Shepp which were recorded before or after the music on Four For Trane to Live Newport 1965 Revisited. These have included the New York Contemporary Five's Copenhagen 1963 Revisited plus Shepp's Fire Music To Mama Too Tight Revisited, recorded in 1965 and 1966, and Blasé and Yasmina Revisited, recorded in 1969... [ read more ]
The third album by guitarist Dominic Miller echoes the melodic, moody, romantic sounds of a Sting album without lyrics or singing. What we hear is the instrumental interplay of Miller with pianist Jacob Karlzon, bassist Nicolas Fiszman and drummer Ziv Ravitz... [ read more ]
Evoking heartfelt memories of love and longing, sunshine, laughter and more, vocalist/guitarist John Pizzarelli's Stage and Screen delivers vibrant interpretations of classic songs from Broadway and Hollywood. The album provides not only nostalgia and hopeful vibes, but what amounts to orchestral artistry by Pizzarelli, pianist Isaiah J... [ read more ]
Musicians spend years practicing to become proficient. Technical ability is an important aspect of playing an instrument, but in order to really communicate a message, a musician needs to love the music as well. Guitarist Eric Zolan is obviously someone who has not only spent a great deal of time practicing but listening to music as well... [ read more ]
There are five songs on Attitude and Gratitude, drummer Henry Godfrey's Boston-based Jazz Orchestra's second album, and each one is a tribute to people, places or circumstances that have helped Godfrey grow as a musician and as a person. In order, they are "For McCoy" (honoring pianist McCoy Tyner and other jazz legends who have passed on); "Mad Max" (for the city [Washington, DC] in which Godfrey grew up); "Forgetting What Will Never Be" (for lost love and the "lessons in heartbreak and grief"); "Hot Water" (for the "kitchen camaraderie" while Godfrey served as chef at a Japanese restaurant), and "We'll Get There" (for strong communities built in the face of adversity that included a pandemic)... [ read more ]
British vibraphonist Martin Pyne's decision to pair with David Beebee's electric piano engenders an unusual combination for the largely freely improvised Ripples. With its fusion associations, the sound of the Fender Rhodes seems slightly retro in this sort of setting... [ read more ]
The Peplowski Project was a labor of love for saxophonist David Larsen, a longtime admirer of fellow reedman Ken Peplowski who performs with Larsen's impressive quartet on each of the album's eleven numbers, playing clarinet on six, tenor sax on five... [ read more ]
On a 2004 remix compilation, What Is Hip? (Warner Brothers), Tsuper Tsunami turned Seals and Crofts' early '70s folk-rock classic "Summer Breeze" into a percolating bit of dance-ready electronica. But it does not seem that either Jimmy Seals nor Dash Crofts were involved in the electronica on the new take of their recording... [ read more ]
Forty-six years is a hefty chunk of time between studio releases. Half a lifetime, in fact. Shakti, however, is no ordinary band. The lengthy hiatuses that have punctuated the pioneering Indo-jazz band's fifty-year journey have not dimmed the collaborative flame of co-founders John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain... [ read more ]
Perseverance, Florida-bred saxophonist Melvin Smith's seventh album as leader of his own group, is a hard-blowing session on which he shows (again) that he is one of the leading bop-based reed masters on today's scene. On soprano or tenor, Smith displays a clarity of purpose and storehouse of astute phrases that serve him well at any pace and in any context... [ read more ]
It seems Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva is riding the crest of a wave, following acclaimed collaborations with the likes of saxophonists Anthony Braxton and Mats Gustafsson and pianist Kaja Draksler... [ read more ]
As of this writing in Spring 2023, pianist Bill Laurance and bass and oud player Michael League have apparently been playing together in Snarky Puppy for almost 20 years... [ read more ]
Trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer Kenny Wheeler's exalted Gnu High, first released in 1976, is one of two albums with which ECM launches its audiophile vinyl reissue series, Luminessence, on April 28, 2023. The Luminessence mission statement is to showcase albums that have "changed perceptions of creative music making." And few would dispute this summation of the first batch of releases (listed below)... [ read more ]
Queen Talk is a fitting title for the current release from the archivist label Reel to Real Records as Hammond B-3 organist Shirley Scott had the soubriquet "Queen of the organ" at the height of her career. This limited-edition hand-numbered 180 gram 2-LP set produced by Zev Feldman and Cory Weeds presents a never-before-released live 1972 recording from the Famous Ballroom in Baltimore... [ read more ]
Recorded in the winter of 2021 during the heart of the COVID pandemic, it is understandable that Pipe Dream, the latest offering from the Lina Allemano Four, has an air of ominous foreboding. Indeed, much of the album is devoted to the "Plague Diaries," a suite inspired by some of the darker themes of that period (with song titles like "Hunger and Murder" and "Doom and Doomer" giving an indication of what is in store)... [ read more ]
In the first few minutes of "Masoandro Mitsoka," a soft wash of white noise becomes differentiated into piano, percussion, electronics and two trumpets as the acoustic instruments move from breath and friction sounds to identifiably instrumental ones. Next the ensemble reduces to the trumpets, and they move from parallel play to a clear conversation... [ read more ]
One of the leading vibraphone specialists of the 21st century, Joe Locke has won multiple awards and performed with artists as diverse as the Beastie Boys and Ron Carter. It's not just his musicianship on the vibraphone that sets him apart... [ read more ]
Spanish jazz guitarist Albert Vila has been around. His biography includes studies in Barcelona, Amsterdam, Manhattan and Brussels. His discography has quintet, quartet, trio and duet dates. So, this solo album represents a significant departure... [ read more ]
The trio of saxophonist Michel Doneda, double bassist Alexander Frangenheim and drummer Roger Turner has been together for about three years, long enough for the cosmopolitan threesome (French, German, British, respectively) to decide upon a suitably short, snappy name instead of the roll call of their surnames... [ read more ]
In November of 1978, Horace Tapscott had some advantages that any other iconoclastic, idealistic, idiosyncratic jazz bandleader would greatly desire. For one, he was approached by a socially minded professional gambler named Tom Albach about starting a label (Nimbus West) devoted to Tapscott's music, allowing complete creative control, never expecting to make a dime of profit, and providing living money to keep the band going... [ read more ]
There is clearly something different about GoGo Penguin on their sixth full-length: where they've previously had a pattern of evocative titles and vaguely futuristic abstract covers, this one (at first glance) looks and reads almost like a greeting card... [ read more ]
In 2020 Another Timbre released Für Biliana, an album of four compositions by the veteran German composer Ernstalbrecht Stiebler, two of which, "Für Biliana" and "Glissando für Solo Violine," he had composed for the Bulgarian-born Berlin-resident, violinist and composer Biliana Vouchkova who performed on all four of the album's tracks... [ read more ]
Saxophonist Ivo Perelman is a restless innovator, and his recorded output is as inventive as it is prolific. On the exhilarating Molten Gold he explores a new sonic texture by playing with the equally idiosyncratic trombonist Ray Anderson. In addition to Anderson, the quartet includes another Chicago native, drummer Reggie Nicholson who developed his unique sound with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM)... [ read more ]
Recently, Los Angeles-based trumpeter Dan Rosenboom has been experimenting with somewhat freer and edgier realms of improvisation, giving doomy metal influences a go on Trio Subliminal 2 (Orenda Records, 2022), and indulging high-energy trio interplay with plenty of delay effects and other sonic manipulation on Refraction (Orenda Records, 2021)... [ read more ]
London-born composer Frank Denyer has a long and varied career dating back to the 1960s. This two-disc album, released in plenty of time for his eightieth birthday on April 4th 2023, is the most recent of a dozen albums which have been released featuring his compositions, the first having beenWheat (Orchid, 1984) released on vinyl... [ read more ]
A Moscow-raised, classically-trained pianist, Yelena Eckemoff made the move to the United States in 1991, after being bitten by the jazz bug via a Dave Brubeck concert she attended in Moscow in 1987. In 2010, after settling with her family in rural North Carolina, she released Cold Sun (L and H Records), a trio outing featuring bassist Mads Vinding and drummer Peter Erskine... [ read more ]
Should you find yourself sitting by the fireside late at night, perhaps swirling something in a glass, and you fancy listening to some elegantly refined jazz, then this album should fit the bill. Jan Harbeck is a Danish saxophonist, bandleader and composer and Balanced is his sixth album with his long-standing quartet... [ read more ]
XYZ could perhaps reference any number of things. Sparing us that rabbit hole, in this case it references boundaries pushed to their fullest extent with some exceptional new music from fusion guitarist Jeff Richman. Richman's previous release, Sizzle (Nefer Records 2017) was/is a record that lives up to its name... [ read more ]
Presenting his third offering from the Cellar Live record label, Harlem-based and Philadelphia native, saxophonist Sam Taylor unleashes an exciting bop-filled package of contemporary jazz covers, making a superb job of interpreting the music of composers such as Benny Golson, Hank Jones, Jule Styne and Jimmy Van Heusen and laying down sturdy new treatments of oft-recorded and ageless classics... [ read more ]
Ask any jazz aficionado for their favourite jazz albums of the '60s and the chances are that, alongside such decade-defining choices as Jimmy Giuffre's Free Fall (Columbia, 1963), John Coltrane's A Love Supreme (Impulse, 1965), Andrew Hill's Point of Departure (Blue Note, 1965) and Albert Ayler's Spiritual Unity (ESP, 1965), they will select Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch (Blue Note, 1964)... [ read more ]
For their third album, British organ trio Hummus Crisis--guitarist Kevin M. Armstrong, organist Martin Pickett and drummer Ben Twyford--reconstruct themselves... [ read more ]
All definitions of gravity lead to Martin Wind. The celebrated bassist embodies an undeniable force, exhibiting a certain pull and a centering importance in any scenario. Those strengths have served him well as a first-call foundation for the jazz elite and as a noted leader (or co-leader) on more than 20 albums, and they're magnified on this aptly titled trio date... [ read more ]
Highly respected Dutch trumpeter Teus Nobel has forged a distinguished, modern jazz-based discography which includes expertise ranging from small bands to orchestras, and mainstream pop to theatrical show tunes. The third project released by Nobel's Liberty Group progresses along traditional quartet-type experimentation which proves to be some of his most extraordinary work yet; it sounds like a thematic sky with no limit in imagination or proficiency... [ read more ]
New York-based Israeli songstress Hadar Orshalimy offers her second album Witchcraft (The Jewish Women of the Great American Songbook), containing nine often-recorded and well-known standards, all written by Jewish women. This project is a follow-up to her critically-acclaimed debut It Never Was You (Self-Produced, 2019) which presented a repertoire of music from famous Jewish composers... [ read more ]
There is a return to old-school fundamentals about the trio recording Gravity from bassist Martin Wind. The German-born, now New Jersey native reconnects with tenor saxophonist Peter Weniger whom he met in the German National Youth Orchestra more than three decades ago... [ read more ]
If you love the sound of the acoustic guitar, do yourself a favour and listen to this recording. Place the record on the turntable, slip the CD in the tray, press play on your streaming service, turn up the volume one notch higher than you might usually and close your eyes. As if by magic, guitarist Ralph Towner is in your home playing the songs from At First Light for you... [ read more ]
Let us bring sexy back to jazz. Not that it has been misplaced but, in a world where a teenager with a horn can flawlessly navigate "Giant Steps," what seems to be the missing is the seductive element of jazz. We are undoubtedly reminded of the sensuous experience of the music which has always been reflected in the music of Chet Baker as evidenced by these newly discovered sessions from Holland in 1979... [ read more ]
Gregg Hill is a jazz composer favored by several jazz musicians who have recorded entire albums of his work, such as guitarist Randy Napoleon and bassist Rodney Whitaker... [ read more ]
Although he played with many of the icons of bebop's formative years from Bird to Miles, as well as those who were starting to reach for something beyond, including Ken McIntyre and Jackie McLean, pianist Walter Bishop Jr. never got his due as a leader, remaining woefully under-recorded until the 1970s... [ read more ]
The four members of Esthesis Quartet, flutist Elsa Nilsson, pianist Dawn Clement, bassist Emma Dayhuff and drummer Tina Raymond, each live in different parts of the United States, but, as this album shows, when they get together their playing has an easy and natural rapport... [ read more ]
A tactile, umbilical cord tension binds you to the slithery movements advanced on Molten Gold, the umpteenth in a slew of hard-core free jazz releases, one of them being the twelve disc set Reed Rapture In Brooklyn (Mahakala, 2022), from the generative mind and horn of saxophonist Ivo Perelman... [ read more ]
A 2-CD collection of four sessions recorded for BBC Radio between 1980 and 1983, For Future Reference is a snapshot, just one of many snapshots that might be taken, of British jazz in the period immediately before the so-called "jazz boom" of the mid to late 1980s. That boom was marked by an acknowledgement of the dancefloor, the greater visibility of musicians with roots in the African diaspora, and a willingness, even eagerness, by those musicians to publicly affirm the non-conformist attitudes which had shaped the socio-political beliefs of many, probably most, jazz musicians since the birth of the music... [ read more ]
Veteran New York-based saxophonist, pianist and composer Alexander McCabe is primarily an industry musician with extensive TV and movie credits as well as several previous recordings of his own. He presents his eight album as leader, the playful Latin-styled Cuba Bella, a vocal Spanish language project with music by McCabe and lyrics from his Cuban-born wife Maritza... [ read more ]
A new Mike Keneally album is always a thing of humming excitement and intrigue. And pending contradictions eloquently resolved. Forever searching along and within nooks and crannies of the soniverse for fresh sounds and patterns, Keneally surveys the majestic reaches and possibilities of music and grins... [ read more ]
On Leaving, recorded in France in 2022, Richie Beirach revisits thirteen evergreen standards, seven of them grouped together in two medleys, and two of his own compositions ("Leaving," "Sunday Song") written in the 1970s. The album is Beirach's first live solo recording since 1981. All of the material is more than familiar to Beirach and will be equally well known to seasoned jazz fans... [ read more ]
Jazz detective Zev Feldman and Elemental Records have notched up more cold-case discoveries with albums by Bill Evans, Chet Baker and Sonny Stitt... [ read more ]
The subtitle of Blues to be There, the Detroit-based Planet D Nonet's latest album (recorded in June and July 2022), is "A Salute to Duke Ellington." As with almost any bow to the Duke, it encompasses a healthy measure of Billy Strayhorn as well... [ read more ]
Pianist and composer Joe LoCascio has released his seventh album, titled Book of Days. The album was recorded in Houston's famed Wire Road Studios and featured his long-time collaborator Woody Witt on saxophone, bassist Richard Mikel and drummer Daniel Dufour... [ read more ]
Lovers of Pharoah Sanders' fundamentally acoustic spiritual-jazz may experience something of a road-to-Damascus moment listening to Hotel San Claudio: the realisation that high-tech, digital-era excursions can, in the right hands, bring more than just novelty to the music... [ read more ]
The "free jazz" movement has come a long way since its introduction mid-20th century by pathfinders like Tadd Dameron, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Eric Dolphy, Archie Shepp, Don Cherry, Ed Blackwell, Muhal Richard Abrams, Andrew Cyrille, Lester Bowie and their kin... [ read more ]
What could possibly be so interesting about a thirty-two-year old session of first takes, recorded live to 2-track DAT by a quartet led by a Seattle- based bassist who is not exactly a household name? A quick answer would include superlatives such as "masterful," or "historic." A brief history of bassist and composer Jeff Johnson creates a better sense of understanding... [ read more ]
Considering the title of the recording, Moonlighting--Astro Jazz Vol. 1, and its futuristic cover art, the Canadian ensemble Astrocolor brings to mind the mid-1950s/early-1960s music that claimed the tag "Space Age Jazz," an offshoot of exotica or lounge music. It was a music considered by some at the time as schlocky, lacking a serious intent... [ read more ]
It is rare that we get a live recording from saxophonist Ivo Perelman and pianist Matthew Shipp. Of their 40-plus discs, the majority have been studio productions. This Live In Carrboro date from November 4, 2022 shares the same line-up as Live In Baltimore (Leo Records, 2017) with the addition of drummer Jeff Cosgrove... [ read more ]
The common thread between the Nightcrawlers and nightcrawler earthworms is that they both come out at night, and while the former is at home in a jazz club before a live audience, the latter is feeding on decaying organic material. Some may say that is a distinction without a difference. Nevertheless the latest nightly ritual for the Nightcrawlers is called Get Ready and it was recorded live at Frankie's Jazz Club in Vancouver B.C... [ read more ]
After releasing several albums with drummer Eliot Zigmund in 2022, pianist and composer Michael Robinson starts off 2023 with a series of collaborations with tabla master Anindo Chatterjee. Similar to his other duo and solo sessions these are long improvisations on popular tunes both from the Great American Songbook as well as some rock and roll standards... [ read more ]
Ever since 1967, when British composer Cornelius Cardew's 193-page graphic score Treatise was published, there has been controversy about the role graphic scores play in improvised music. Having worked on Treatise from 1963 to 1967, once it was published and discussed, Cardew wrote Treatise Handbook, published in 1971, which shed no light on how Treatise's complex graphics should be interpreted... [ read more ]
Some of the press releases coming out of Blue Note's Los Angeles HQ since the pandemic have been ripe for inclusion in British satirical magazine Private Eye's Desperate Marketing column. In this, the Eye prints particularly egregious, or just plain laughable, attempts by publicists to hook-up what they are selling with headline news events, or to make eye-wateringly hyperbolic claims, or to manufacture an intellectual or cultural context for an artefact where none such exists... [ read more ]
Natural World is Laurence Crane's welcome and long-overdue addition to Another Timbre's catalogue of curiously beautiful music. Not only does this album sound fresh, but it also retains that essence of what makes the composer's music sound like it does: always on the edge of elegantly tripping up, but still managing to maintain its balance... [ read more ]
Anyone who was chair of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians for a decade knows a thing or two about keeping a group of independently minded artists focused on a common goal. Drummer and percussionist Kahil El'Zabar continues to demonstrate that with his Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, an acoustic, improvising trio with an African foundation that has been recording since 1981... [ read more ]
This new trio of saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, pedal steel guitarist Heather Leigh, and Fred Lonberg-Holm operating both his cello and electronics, explore the musical equivalent of microgravity... [ read more ]
In 2021 Japanese-born, Berlin-based mallet virtuoso Taiko Saito received a well-deserved profile bump via her teaming with pianist Satoko Fujii in a duo tagged Futari, on Beyond and Underground... [ read more ]
For Torben Westergaard, sooner or later all roads lead back to Brazil. The special flavor of South American jazz shaped his life from an early age, and has stayed a recurring staple in his music from his debut Brazilian Heart (Self Produced, 1996) through the Tangofied (Gateway) series of 2013-17... [ read more ]
In his introduction to The Blue Note Years: The Jazz Photography Of Francis Wolff (Rizzoli, 1995), the late Charlie Lourie reported a remarkable event he had witnessed at the inaugural Mt. Fuji Jazz Festival in 1985. "Where else but in Japan," wrote Lourie, "can one see a field packed with fifteen thousand teens and twentysomethings roar with excited recognition at the first four bars on Sonny Clark's 'Cool Struttin'?." Such was the then globally unique demographic of the jazz audience in Japan, birthed by hard bop and the Blue Note back catalogue... [ read more ]
The re-release albums on Ezz-thetics, by jazz legends from the 1940s, '50s and '60s, have been widely praised, particularly for their sound quality which is invariably much improved compared to the originals or later rereleases. Another impressive aspect of these re-releases is the behind-the-scenes detective work which has tracked down rarities by some iconic musicians... [ read more ]
Saxophonist/flutist Mark Lewis, who has returned to his native Washington state after years of making beautiful music around the world, escorts a quartet of talented West Coast musicians through eleven of his upbeat compositions on Sunlight Shines In, with trumpeter Nolan Shaheed sitting in on two numbers... [ read more ]
As part of Concord Music and Craft Recordings, the Jazz Dispensary line was developed in 2016 to mine some of the funkier and more soul-influenced music housed in the catalogs of Prestige, Milestone, and Fantasy. Their initial offerings were mix tape-style collections frequently tapping into the mystique of the '70s and often appearing on Record Store Day... [ read more ]
Time Zones is the second album by the Esthesis Quartet, comprised of four accomplished women, all whom do indeed reside in different time zones. Flutist Elsa Nilsson, originally from Sweden, lives in Brooklyn, NY; pianist/vocalist Dawn Clement makes her home in Denver, CO; bassist Emma Dayhuff lives in Chicago, drummer Tina Raymond in California, where Time Zones was recorded... [ read more ]
Lovingly described by one critic as "a leather-lunged monster," reviews of saxophonist Ivo Perelman's albums typically attract words such as honking, squawking, squealing and apocalyptic. Perelman is not interested in the current vogue for creating safe spaces... [ read more ]
There are times when the reason for listening is that something is beautiful. What exactly qualifies as beautiful is one of the long-running controversies in Western philosophy, not a matter for amateur debate when the contributors include people such as Hume, Kant, or Hegel. Surely, above the pay grade of the average critic... [ read more ]
Eight-time Grammy-winning composer/arranger Vince Mendoza, born and raised in Norwalk, CT, has enjoyed great success overseas--in Europe, to be more precise--since releasing an album with Germany's WDR Big Band in 1994. The following year, Mendoza began collaborating with the Dutch Metropole Orkest and in 1998 was named its principal guest conductor... [ read more ]
In the pantheon of great jazz record labels, the name Contemporary Records looms large among fans and collectors alike. Akin to their east coast competitor, Blue Note Records, Contemporary was well known for its refined presentations. From the characteristic covers and well-written liner notes to the quality pressings, Lester Koenig's labor of love was home to some of the best musicians on the west coast... [ read more ]
Space may be the final frontier for some, but for pianist Satoko Fujii and guitarist Otomo Yoshihide its inner and outer most reaches, string theories, bosons, black holes and wormholes have provided a veritable playground, an infinite source of daring and inspiration... [ read more ]
One of the drawbacks of being a consummate sideman is that it can be hard to find time for one's own projects as a leader. That is certainly the case for bassist Harvie S who, in a long career, has distinguished himself with superb work in support of Sheila Jordan, Don Friedman, Alan Broadbent, and many others; however, the sheer quantity of those efforts can cause his own releases to fall through the cracks... [ read more ]
In an NPR interview, avant-garde composer Volker Bertelmann--who wrote the soundtrack All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix, 2022)--talked about re-imagining music, saying: "You don't have to paint the river to express something about the river." That attitude applies to George Dumitriu's Monk on Viola, an unusually inventive reading of Thelonious Monk's work... [ read more ]
It is amazing that after 30 years as a bassist for various jazz, blues, and various other combos (most notably the Vasil Hadzimanov band), composer, bassist, and educator Vlada Samardzic has released his debut album under his name rather than using a band title. Catching the Wind showcases the kind of magic that appears when the right people, with the right skills and communication, come together at the right time to play on the right material... [ read more ]
Prime's opening track, "Head Bedlam," opens with a cacophony of horns playing in a style reminiscent of Sun Ra's Arkestra. This transforms into a quiet, cool riff with bass and drums leading the way, shifting the music into a more accessible groove before returning to the aptly titled bedlam in the track's closing seconds... [ read more ]
Dreamlike in construction and execution, Norwegian saxophonist Mette Henriette's second distinctive statement for ECM exudes a warm, innate ability to imbue the everyday and the invisible with a sense of calm that neither sedates nor fatigues... [ read more ]
This landmark reissue contains consummately remastered cuts of the killer (among killers) track from Albert Ayler's relatively unknown My Name Is Albert Ayler (Debut 1964) plus the justly celebrated Spiritual Unity (ESP-Disk, 1965) in its entirety. Summertime To Spiritual Unity Revisited starts with "Summertime" from the 1964 album... [ read more ]
Chicago pianist Javier Red and his quartet, Imagery Converter, follow their stimulating debut Ephemeral Certainties (Delmark, 2019) with the equally superb Life and Umbrella. Red dedicates the current release to spreading love and understanding for individuals with autism. The dozen originals which comprise it do not have traditional starting and ending heads, as concepts flow from one to the other... [ read more ]
"We didn't want just to deconstruct our catalog, we wanted to burn it down." So writes trumpeter Dunbarton Oakes in the liner notes for We Have Become Our Ancestors. His namesake trio (a group as old as the average U.S. Senator) did just that but torched Oakes' home studio in the process, resulting in a four-year delay in the recording session... [ read more ]
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (April 4, 1884-April 18, 1943) is a notorious military figure, as he was the commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet during much of World War II. Yamamoto was responsible for planning and executing the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. But before Japan attacked the United States, Yamamoto spent significant time in North America, between 1921 and 1923 in Boston at Harvard, plus a stint as the Japanese naval attaché in Washington, DC... [ read more ]
Amid the swirling collateral from the societal and musical fever dream of the late 1960's, one could never tell who would show up at your door bearing gifts. Nor would you know for sure exactly how potent those gifts were. Within its thirty-eight minutes of chemically induced melancholia, magic, and spontaneous genius, Rainy Day Chillin' bears testimony to that and so much more... [ read more ]
In a previously undisclosed mega-blockbuster deal that has sent Hollywood into orbit and spinning its wheels, it was announced today that congressional maverick Marjorie Taylor Greene and former president Donald Trump have agreed to co-star in an updated film version of Irving Berlin's beloved Wild West magnum opus Annie Get Your Gun, to be retitled (in honor of Ms Greene) Margie Shoot Your Gun... [ read more ]
If you've ever wondered what planet Thelonious Monk came from, you are not alone. According to Marvin Blague, you're not wrong to wonder either. Like most jazz listeners, he was not sure what to make of Monk's clunky-sounding playing style on first listen... [ read more ]
Werner Klemperer was a veteran actor who escaped Germany with his family prior to the start of World War II. Classically trained as a violinist and the son of noted conductor Otto Klemperer, he played Colonel Klink, the bumbling commandant of Stalag XIII on the 1960s television series "Hogan's Heroes," and was occasionally featured in the program playing violin badly... [ read more ]
While some of its roots lie in jazz practices of the mid-to-late twentieth century, Diego Rivera's Love and Peace brushes aside the expectations and comparisons which often accompany newly-recorded records that bear a resemblance to sounds from the past... [ read more ]
Eighty-one year old trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith comes out flaring like Bitches Brew era Miles Davis, as Fire Illuminations jumps the funk rock from the break of the muscular conflagration "Ntozake." And the grunge jazz clips along as guitarists Nels Cline, Brandon Ross, and Lamar Smith vie, bite, sting, and quarrel over an insistent bass drum power-groove courtesy of bassists Bill Laswell and Melvin Gibbs, percussionist Mauro Refosco, drummer Pheeroan aKlaff, and the deep space electronics of Hardedge... [ read more ]
The story of supersized jazz orchestras is not pretty. The scene was set by the bleaching deracination of Paul Whiteman and the elephantine bombast of Stan Kenton, bandleaders whose craving for approval by the music establishment fatally compromised their art... [ read more ]
Wynton Marsalis was right, Cécile McLorin Salvant is the sort of singer who comes along only "once in a generation or two." A MacArthur Fellow, multiple Grammy winner, and self-described eclectic, Salvant creates projects that encompass an astonishing array of idioms and historical periods, which she interrelates inventively and interweaves with original compositions... [ read more ]
The Brooklyn-based Chicagoan Jonah Parzen-Johnson has created clever, thought-provoking lo-fi music across all six of his previous releases. Each is a solo performance with Parzen-Johnson on baritone saxophone and a customized analog synthesizer. His work is entirely unique, but with a passing nod to the birthright of great Chicago saxophonists... [ read more ]
If you have the belief that your house plants are talking amongst themselves, you may not be crazy. French composer and electronics musician eRikm aka Eric Matt, with the help of the experimental chamber Ensemble Dedalus, transmutes sounds created beyond the frequencies of human hearing into a spectrum accessible to our limited range... [ read more ]
How to present some of these oh-so-familiar songs yet again? With a catalogue as universally known as The Beatles,' the best guideline would seem to be the more reinvention, the better. Everyone involved in these tributes, fortunately, seems to agree. Rubber Soul Quartet Something Losen Records 2023 In the hands of The Beatles fans as dedicated as these four, it's not too surprising to hear everything come out bright and happy... [ read more ]
A 47-foot fall that resulted in multiple injuries influenced the music-making of pianist Andrew Moorhead. So do mathematics and computer science, on his debut recording Interleaved. "An Interleaved digital signal is a single woven from multiple threads." This is what Moorhead tells us in his liner notes... [ read more ]
There is a synergy in simplicity and, with the Luís Vicente 4tet, a simplicity which comes from the synergistic effects of this unpretentious quartet. The four musicians--Portuguese composer, leader and trumpeter Luís Vicente, Dutch drummer Onno Govaert, and the Americans, tenor saxophonist John Dikeman and bassist Luke Stewart--assembled for a series of concerts in Portugal in 2021... [ read more ]
With her self-titled double album debut in 2015, Norwegian saxophonist Mette Henriette arrived on ECM Records, and the international jazz scene, with an impressively assured artistic statement. On it she introduced her versatile technical skills, running the gamut from untamed skronk to near-silent breathing, all presented with her wintry perspective--a perfect fit for the chilly atmospheres that have become a trademark of ECM Records. Beyond the stock-in-trade chill of Nordic jazz, Henriette has a particular interest in the textures of sounds... [ read more ]
The Chicago-based quartet Bonzo Squad describes their music as "comfort in chaos." While this description might give an impression of free-form experimentation, it is not the case. The chaos aspect of their sound comes from a unique mixture of structure and improvisation, and for these guys, the comfort definitely outweighs the chaos... [ read more ]
New York City-based vocalist Molly Ryan makes an auspicious impression from the start of her latest album, leading her splendid back-up quartet through the charming song, "Get Yourself a New Broom (and Sweep the Blues Away)" a light-hearted but little-known treasure written in 1938 by Ted Koehler and Harold Arlen... [ read more ]
Isaiah J. Thompson is one of the leading pianists of his generation. In 2023, 25-year-old has a background that is already hugely impressive. This includes his debut album as a leader, Isaiah J. Thompson Plays the Music of Buddy Montgomery (WJ3), in 2020... [ read more ]
Although the group's name (and album title) sound like something one might associate with a second-rate bar band, there is nothing oafish or pedestrian about drummer Jim Black's latest outfit, a hard-hitting ensemble which channels the distinctive energies of Black and his well-chosen compatriots. With saxophonists Asger Nissen (alto) and Julius Gawlik (tenor) and bassist Felix Henkelhausen alongside him, Black brings his characteristic manic intensity and crafty songwriting to an album filled with interesting and engaging musical interactions... [ read more ]
On March 23, 2023, in the run up to Record Store Day, Elemental Records released on vinyl two Criss Cross albums from 1998 which have previously been available only as CDs. Guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel's 2-LP Intuit and pianist Bill Charlap's All Through The Night come in sturdy gatefold sleeves and are pressed on 180-gram audiophile vinyl... [ read more ]
The Coordinator of Jazz Studies at the University of Louisiana, pianist Dr. Garth Alper presents his fifth album as leader, Spider's Web, offering seven original compositions of straight-ahead material to follow up his well-received Stratus (CD Baby, 2017)... [ read more ]
For years, when someone said "let's go see Danielle Ponder" they may have been talking about going to court, since she was a dedicated Public Defender in Rochester, New York for approximately a decade. As a lawyer, she often found herself championing the indigent, beat down and challenged people of her community... [ read more ]
This is music for the open-minded. On A Thousand Pebbles, his fourth album as leader, New York-based pianist and accordionist Ben Rosenblum's seven-member Nebula Project traverses a number of musical landscapes, from Bulgaria to Brazil, Ireland to Israel, and realms beyond, offering a pleasurable smorgasbord of contemporary jazz which is always engaging and never shopworn... [ read more ]
Drummer Matt Wilson and tenor saxophonist Jeff Lederer have worked on many projects together, over a thirty-year period, covering everything from Christmas songs to the poetry of Carl Sandburg... [ read more ]
The title of drummer Rich Thompson's 2023 release is Who Do You Have To Know?. The answer to that: John Bishop and Matt Jorgensen, the team that runs the Origin and OA2 Records labels that boast prolific and consistently good outputs, featuring an array of well-known and a goodly number of not-so-well-known, but always interesting, often terrific, jazz artists... [ read more ]
From its modest opening in 1955 until its closing in 1960, 15 Barrow Street in Greenwich Village, aka Cafe Bohemia, housed such progressive jazz creators as Oscar Pettiford, Horace Silver and Kenny Dorham... [ read more ]
Uruguayan guitarist Santiago Bogacz is a genre-bending virtuoso with a strong penchant for improvised music. Over the years he has released many solo and duo recordings, some under the stage name Matador. On the stimulating and poignant Retrato Años Despues he joins forces with his compatriot Emiliano Aires for nine spontaneously created pieces... [ read more ]
Although The Way to You is heralded as Grammy-nominated violinist Sara Caswell's first album as a leader in more than seventeen years, it was actually recorded in 2019, roughly four years before its release date. Still, it is Caswell's first new album in quite a long time, and those who relish her tasteful and melodic violin should be grateful for that... [ read more ]
Crustal Movement is the seventh album from the Peter Orins/Satoko Fujii founded quartet-turned-quintet, Kaze. Now billed as Kaze and Ikue Mori, it represents the second consecutive album from the French- Japanese collective where the electronics artist has played a significant role... [ read more ]
The title references an old gospel song, but for Chris Potter the keys in question could be those to the Village Vanguard. This is the saxophonist's third live recording from jazz's most storied club, not counting those with Paul Motian. For musicians and fans alike, this is hallowed turf... [ read more ]
Even though New Orleans' lively and colorful holiday festival is the focal point of trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis' Uptown Jazz Orchestra's latest recording, this is an album that can be heard and appreciated at any time of the year, as there is never a day when pleasure and happiness aren't in style... [ read more ]
In the over two-decade-old "movement" that's come to be known as Swiss Minimalism, guitarist Stephan Thelen has pushed himself to the fore, both with his group SONAR and in solo projects... [ read more ]
The provenance behind this full-bore blow out recorded in 1967 by jny: Philadelphia tenor sax legend D.B.Shrier differs from most myths in the fact that we now have pure, full-blown proof of what a night in his company sounded like: A scorching combustion of energy, virtuosity and audience adulation... [ read more ]
Enjoy your jazz with a jazz-funk groove and perhaps looking for something a little different? Then Blue Moka may have just the thing with their second album and first international release, Enjoy!. This hard-working Italian quartet formed in 2009 blends a variety of influences, both traditional and modern on this album... [ read more ]
Pianist Aruan Ortiz hails from Santiago de Cuba, but he has resided in the United States for two decades. Musically he is a first cousin to pianist Matthew Shipp with his approachable and often intense and avant-garde keyboard style; and he seems a stylistic grandson to Thelonious Monk with his joyful angularities and off-kilter interludes... [ read more ]
The current literature on training to improve one's physical fitness advises an 90/10 approach. Ninety percent of workouts, it is advised, you maintain zone 2 (elevated heart rate but with the ability to carry on a conversation) when say, running or cycling. The remaining ten percent of your workouts, you opt for HIIT (High Intensity Interval training)... [ read more ]
This mind-bending album skewers any notion that modern-day organ trios are all unimaginative bores churning out reheated cliches lifted from Blue Note and Prestige albums of the 1950s and '60s. With that stereotype in mind, one would hesitate to apply the term "organ trio" to the collaborative group on Targeted... [ read more ]
Almost fifty years after the event, Donald Byrd's 1973 performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival finally sees the light of day. Several other artists on Blue Note's roster had performances released--in more timely manner--from the same edition of Claude Nobs festival, including Ronnie Foster, Bobbi Humphrey, Bobby Hutcherson and Marlena Shaw... [ read more ]
If you're going to release an album to celebrate 10 years as a trio, then here is a fun way to do it. Invite your friends and family to the studio, sharing the experience and bringing a celebratory mood to the recording, it's an anniversary party after all. Omer Klein grew up in Israel, moving to the US in his early twenties, and is in 2023 resident in Germany... [ read more ]
When saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock finds herself in her comfort zone, it is typically in small group formations--often just duos or trios--which allow her unparalleled skills as an improviser to shine most brightly. However, listeners are always in for a special treat when she ventures out into less familiar terrain, especially with larger ensembles... [ read more ]
Bobo Stenson first rose to recognition as a sideman and in-house pianist in the late 60s with saxophonist Sonny Rollins, vibraphonist Gary Burton, and saxophonist Charles Lloyd, among many others... [ read more ]
The Italian saxophonist Piero Bittolo Bon is a veritable one-person orchestra. On his 12th release, Spelunker (his fourth solo outing), he augments the sound of his alto saxophone and adds bass flute and electronics to his instrumentation. Thus, over two long improvisations and a shorter excerpt, he creates poignant and cinematic soundscapes that move and stimulate... [ read more ]
On November 28, 2021, at the completion of a two-day recording session for Galician saxophonist Xose Miguélez's Contradictio (Origin, 2022) at CARA-OJM Studios in Matosinhos, Portugal, pianist Jean-Michel Pilc had a little time on his hands... [ read more ]
"They said nobody makes CDs anymore. So I made a DOUBLE CD with stuff I've never recorded. Ever." So says Israeli pianist Anat Fort. To borrow a term from the United States' 2016 presidential, election, Fort "doubled down" on the "nobody makes CDs" thing. Bless her for that. That double CD is The Berlin Sessions, featuring Fort and her longtime trio mates, bassist Gary Wang and drummer Roland Schneider... [ read more ]
We can no longer refer to the music and creative Amsterdam scene with the title coined by author Kevin Whitehead as the New Dutch Swing. His 1998 book of the same name described the origins of the free jazz movement in The Netherlands and its now legendary masters such as Misha Mengelberg, Willem Breuker, Han Bennink, Eric Boeren, Ab Baars, Ig Henneman, Ernst Reijseger and Wilbert De Joode... [ read more ]
The large improvising ensemble King Übü Örchestrü first saw the light of day when they recorded their debut album, Music Is Music Is (Uhlklang, 1985) in Akademie der Künste, Berlin, in December 1984. It was a sign of the times that their trumpeter Mark Charig was prevented from going to Berlin for the recording... [ read more ]
Nova Scotian alto saxophonist Ally Fiola considers the themes of grief, wonder, fear and passion with her octet The Next Quest, on Interblaze. With a lot of low-end brass--baritone saxophone, trombone, sousaphone--the sound has a New Orleans brass band feel. It is also fun, celebratory music. The title tune and opening number sounds like a prance down Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras--beads flying through the air, people in outlandish dress dancing... [ read more ]
The question to be answered during this live performance was, "Will there be enough space for all the musicians' voices to be heard?" Recorded at Firehouse 12, in June 2019, this new ensemble is an adaptation of various duos and familiar trios. Saxophonist Paul Flaherty and drummer Chris Corsano have performed and recorded numerous discs together since the late '90s, releasing high-octane free jazz... [ read more ]
Originally released in 2001 and out-of-print since a 2007 re-release, Leon Russell's Signature Songs is now available again on compact disc and vinyl LP in tandem with a new distribution agreement for late Beatle George Harrison's label imprint, Dark Horse Records... [ read more ]
In early Hasidic writings, magical and supernatural concepts rooted in the mystic were common. Such notions held that human acts, including musical activity, could affect the godhead and thus the whole world. By the late eighteenth century, these Jewish religious teachings saw music as something inward, a form of contemplation with the soul... [ read more ]
Pardon the superlative, but what a terrific album! Extravanga marks the debut of guitarist Doug MacDonald's seventeen-member Jazz Orchestra, and he has guaranteed that it swings with gusto by writing nine perceptive and luminous charts which are sure to bring out the best in any ensemble, especially one as well-equipped as this... [ read more ]
There are many historic albums among the fifty or so titles released by the Strata-East label in the 1970s. But few have acquired the quasi-mythological stature of 1973's politically charged spiritual-jazz masterpiece Message From Mozambique by Bay Area tenor saxophonist Plunk Nkabinde and his band JuJu... [ read more ]
Many years ago Dizzy Gillespie recorded an album called The New Continent (Limelight, 1965). Whether it was commercially successful is hard to say, but it featured an all-star cast of Los Angeles session players. The recording made a deep impression on some listeners because it was creative, dynamic, exotic and simply enjoyable... [ read more ]
A byproduct of waiting as long as Mark Ortwein has to record one's first album as leader can be reaching too far and trying too hard to achieve perfection. That seems to be the case with It Was Time, wherein Ortwein's versatility is never in doubt--he plays nine instruments on the album--but his musical choices are too often below the norm... [ read more ]
The Norwegian Radio Orchestra (aka KORK) performs each year at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert. By contrast, it has also twice provided backing to the Eurovision Song Contest in Norway. Intriguing then to find them linking up with Bugge Wesseltoft, leader of Rymden and a pianist-composer whose work is both learned and accessible... [ read more ]
Levity in these times usually refers to a state of humorousness or lightness of manner. From the liner notes of guitarist Albert Vila's Levity, however, we read that levity was originally thought to be a physical force, like gravity, but pulling in the opposite direction. But consider a word grown from the same root as "levity," the word "levitation," which refers to rising from the Earth under the influence of an unseen power... [ read more ]
Cabin 19 Fever lifts from its lilting opening notes into one of those fun, poppingly good discs aimed to satisfy jazz purists and sceptics alike. Crackling with a jubilant, Euro/Afro/Cuban/Latin flare, London-based guitarist Clement Regert's Wild Card picks up where it left off on 2019's heady and exuberant Beast from the East (Top End Records) Sticking with his winning modus operandi of importing guest musicians into the Wild Card core of drummer Sophie Alloway and Australian organist Andrew Noble, Cabin 19 Fever catapults from "Olympus" into a tune and album that bares all genres but is hardly derivative by any stretch of the imagination... [ read more ]
One can't help but learn about the meaning of style and sophistication from the 3D Jazz Trio. Since the release of its debut--3Divas (Self-Produced, 2017)--pianist Jackie Warren, bassist Amy Shook and drummer Sherrie Maricle have proven to be a collective paragon of taste... [ read more ]
It is rare for a debut album by a young musician to merit four stars, but Faithful One, by the 22 year old London pianist and composer Sultan Stevenson, deserves every shining one of them. An alumnus of the community programme Tomorrow's Warriors, in his liner note he singles out the Warriors' founders, Gary Crosby and Janine Irons, and one of its tutors, tenor saxophonist Binker Golding, for special thanks... [ read more ]
On his second release as a leader, the captivating Animus, saxophonist Michael Hudson-Casanova leads his trio on a cohesive set of eight of his originals. The contemplative, moving music is complex and nuanced, inventive and accessible. Hudson-Casanova, who has already demonstrated his superb compositional skills on his debut, goes further on the current album, creating a unique blend of a haunting ambience and provocative substance... [ read more ]
Bassist Zack Lober has been part of the worlds of jazz and musical improvisation for some time but this is his debut as a leader, heading a frisky trio which also includes trumpet and drums. This album was recorded in the Netherlands and has Lober playing with trumpeter Suzan Veneman and drummer Sun-Mi Hong... [ read more ]
New releases from London doff the hat to two 20th century American masterpieces. Both of the new albums feature tenor saxophonists Nubya Garcia and Shabaka Hutchings, playing alongside each other and kicking up a storm alongside other luminaries of the London scene... [ read more ]
Such are the glories of his band's recorded legacy from the 1930s through the 1950s, that the mere mention of Count Basie's name will trigger a Pavlovian response from his fan base. Like no other, the Count Basie Orchestra epitomised big-band swing at its most sublime; reefer fuelled, riff based, loose and louche Kansas City jazz that is irresistible even in 2023, a life-affirming antidote to the barbarity of DL-only albums, generative music and social media... [ read more ]
Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith fronts lots of different bands and puts out lots of albums. After a busy period when he released five boxed sets, totaling 27 CDs, here he debuts his new all-star ensemble Orange Electric Wave, with the download-only offering, Fire Illuminations. The band name applies as electric it is, featuring three electric guitarists, two electric bassists and an electronicist, joining the leader's horn, percussionist Mauro Refosco and drummer Pheeroan aKLaff... [ read more ]
Mary Foster Conklin is a New York-based singer with an eclectic approach to the choices she makes in deciding upon a repetoire for her fifth release, These Precious Days. Unafraid to step outside the nine dots, she has focussed the project on lesser-known jazz and popular compositions by predominately female songwriters... [ read more ]
On his eighth album as a leader, Growth, it is said that Nashville-based saxophonist Don Aliquo "pushes past his established comfort zone and into more precarious and challenging improvisational territory." While that may well be true, another truism is that the harmonic vocabulary of contemporary jazz has remained essentially unchanged for more than eight decades, and Aliquo does nothing to alter the blueprint... [ read more ]
Berlin-based, Ukrainian guitarist Danil Zverkhanovsky released his second album as a leader, the captivating Work In Progress in piecemeal fashion over three EPs. Thematically, however, the three parts are unified, showcasing Zverkhanvosky's prodigious talent as a composer and performer... [ read more ]
Drummer Kendrick Scott's A Wall Becomes A Bridge (Blue Note, 2019) was everything to everybody and then some. Optimistic yet well aware of the roiling contradictions beneath it all, the formidable Corridors, its revivalist tenor intact, carries on that spirit of interplay and common alliance... [ read more ]
One reason Pharoah Sanders was such a special artist was the prismatic nature of his music. When Sanders lit on to a new avenue of investigation, he did not in the process reject what he had been doing up until that moment. Instead, he wove the new perspective into the existing structure, enriching rather than replacing it... [ read more ]
Finally! After over three decades of friendship and occasional musical collaboration, two of the UK's most respected jazz musicians, pianist Jason Rebello and saxophonist Tim Garland, have finally recorded an album together purely as a duo... [ read more ]
The Covid pandemic has been educational. One of its lessons is (to paraphrase a famous movie): music finds a way. If getting together in the studio is a problem, then grab the technology and go the remote recording route. It worked for guitarist Justin Morell and drummer Mark Ferber on 2022's Exit Music For Intelligent Life On Earth (Sonic Frenzy Records), and it works for pianist David Ecker in 2023, with his sophomore outing, Respite (Despite)... [ read more ]
The vibraphone is not often heard on the jazz scene these days, which makes this new album by the Tarmu Jazz Quartet even more welcome than it might have been at a time when Red Norvo, Lionel Hampton, Terry Gibbs, Milt Jackson, Cal Tjader, Gary Burton, Bobby Hutcherson, Gary McFarland and their ilk were riding high... [ read more ]
While most people have been excited or enraptured by the scores accompanying Hollywood's most beloved films, few know (or perhaps even care) who wrote them. That's a shame, as these composers (and their contemporaries) were musical trailblazers whose names should be enshrined forever in the annals of artistic brilliance... [ read more ]
Through the release of Eh' Neeky! (Self Produced, 2016), a modern-leaning, multinational Latin jazz collective made its debut. And with this sophomore release from the Cologne-based quintet comes a more formalized identity, a collection of finely-sculpted compositions, and tuneful and percussive improvisations... [ read more ]
Something exciting seems to be happening with Scottish jazz musicians--artists such as Fergus McCreadie, Matt Carmichael and Georgia Cecile are gaining awards and international acclaim... [ read more ]
The title of drummer David Lyttle and guitarist Phil Robson's debut duo album is as direct and uncluttered as the music contained herein. Equally divided between time-honored standards and stylistically sympathetic originals--three by the Lyttle and one by Robson--the duo's straight-ahead, tradition-grounded language is perhaps a departure from their more genre-fluid work, particularly Lyttle's hip-hop filtered, MOBO-nominated Faces (Lyte Records, 2015), and Robson's wildly eclectic EP Portrait in Extremes (Lyte Records, 2022), which careened entertainingly from ambient soundscapes and straight-ahead elegance to, well, anywhere from Wayne Krantz-esque excursions to Black Sabbath-inspired doom-rock... [ read more ]
In 1969, when the composer and bassist Graham Collier took his sextet to Stockholm Jazz Days to give a live performance of their album Down Another Road (Fontana, 1969), the presence of a British band onstage at a European jazz festival was exceptional... [ read more ]
It is always great to see well-established record labels boldly promoting new names for listeners to enjoy, as was the case when the UK-based Another Timbre released Marco Baldini's debut CD Vesperi in February 2023 (reviewed previously)... [ read more ]
Typuhthâng is a luminous, exquisitely crafted suite of music and an album on a mission. The mission is twofold: to mark International Women's Day with a recording performed and engineered by women, for everyone, and to provide financial support to The Femmes de Virunga, a cacao farming collective of 1,500 women in Virunga State Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)... [ read more ]
The music on Australian pianist Tim Bruer's Love Letters: Compositions For Solo Piano have simple beginnings. For example, a chord that Bruer loved--one which came about via his "messing around" with a keyboard sound that caught his ear--then developed quickly, with little tweaking, into its completed form; a composition was born Bruer loves sounds and, in the build-up to Love Letters, he decided to go with a spontaneous approach to composition, a "letting it happen" way of molding those sounds which have prodded him into shaping them into full-blown tunes... [ read more ]
The gritty, jammy sonics of the leadoff title track quickly convince the listener that avant guitarists Joel Harrison and Anthony Pirog are hellbent on getting it all out of their systems on The Great Mirage... [ read more ]
There is a through line working within Palm Sweat -Marc Ducret Plays the Music of Tim Berne. The guitarist covers compositions passed to him by composer and saxophonist Tim Berne as he was leaving Brooklyn for his home in France just as the Covid19 lockdowns were beginning... [ read more ]
"Head Bedlam," crashes from the gate with a gale force which instantly gives away the plot of Prime. Put simply, the sophomore release from maverick bassist Christian McBride's New Jawn (Philadelphia slang for something not yet named or created) is a free-form steeplechase... [ read more ]
The similarities between Rob Mazurek's Exploding Star Orchestra and Sun Ra's Arkestra are numerous. Both leaders travel the spaceways via the technologies available in their time, applied through dynamic rhythm and pulse... [ read more ]
There are many reasons for recording a jazz album, from "let's get together and create something fresh and exciting" to "well, it's about time we recorded another album." With all due respect, alto saxophonist Jim Snidero's latest recording, Far Far Away, seems to lean more towards the latter... [ read more ]
Poetry and Jazz has a checkered history. When combined, the two art forms are not so much a marriage made in heaven as an obstacle course. The biggest danger is that one of them is verbal and the other is non-verbal and at its best transcends words. The second danger is that the better the poetry and/or the jazz in question, the more intrusive may be their competing demands for the listener's attention... [ read more ]
This duo has been a long time in the making. Two giants of the Japanese music scene finally perform together, and it only took thirty years to happen. Each musician has a decorated career in solo performance, Satoko Fujii at the piano and Otomo Yoshihide with either guitar, turntables, or electronics... [ read more ]
This adventurous album takes spiritual jazz's premier vocalist out of his comfort zone and into the deep blue yonder. It is a work of extremes, beginning with a storm of avant-rock, funk and electronics and ending by spinning off into abstract space accompanied by a virtual headful of Stanley Owsley's finest... [ read more ]
What should music sound like as the world emerges from the musical Ice Age of the pandemic years? An elegiac tone is an inevitable and perhaps necessary acknowledgment of the desolation of those years. Equally valid is an expression of joy and gratitude for the transformative power of music to heal and uplift... [ read more ]
If guitarist Skip Grasso's name was not so prominently displayed on the album cover, a listener would be hard-pressed to ascertain that Becoming was his gig. Yes, Grasso does bring a lot to the table, but no more than pianist Anthony Pocetti, bassist Harvie S or drummer Billy Drummond who together round out Grasso's impressive quartet... [ read more ]
Would a big band by any other name swing as hard? That's really hard to say (pardon the pun) but is certainly true on Red Beats, an implacably swinging album deftly performed by drummer Steve Fidyk's fashionably named Live Wire Broad Band. Fidyk, who spent more than two decades keeping flawless time for the U.S... [ read more ]
The inimitable pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn seemingly knows no bounds when it comes to the range of textures, tones and timbres she can coax out of her instrument. She is also a consummate improvisational partner, whether working in free or composed contexts... [ read more ]
As multi-reedist Scott Robinson, (Maria Schneider, Roscoe Mitchell) takes the horn chair from Allen Lowe, all is delivered and then some on No Subject, the second, reason-defying release from chameleonic improvisers pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist Kevin Ray, and drummer Gerald Cleaver... [ read more ]
The previous album by saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, Pursuance: The Coltranes, (Ropeadope, 2020) was a multifaceted tribute to the music of both John Coltrane and Alice Coltrane... [ read more ]
In his lifetime, Irish guitarist Louis Stewart was probably more celebrated abroad than at home, winning the Best Soloist prize at Montreux Jazz Festival in 1968, playing in the house band at Ronnie Scott's and touring with Benny Goodman, J.J... [ read more ]
The three pieces here, each with a duration between twelve and thirteen minutes, are compositions by Swedish bass clarinetist Erik Blennow Calälv who is a member of the quartet The Schematics. No other members of that group join him here, but Swedish guitarist Finn Loxbo, who recorded Snow Country (Creative Sources, 2017) in a duo with Calälv, is part of the unnamed quartet... [ read more ]
Every so often an album emerges out of--well, not nowhere exactly, but in this case Loveland, Ohio, which could be considered, in the nicest possible way, to be getting pretty close--that is as delightful as it is unexpected. Magnolia is a pensive, late night, piano-trio musing on melancholy, loss and empty, moonlit city streets... [ read more ]
Notwithstanding the almost clockwork regularity of archival releases (with and without bonus material), upon quick reflection, the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead would not appear to have much in common... [ read more ]
Marc Free produced the second edition of Something Blue to encourage "a wider audience of new listeners" to jazz by presenting "a focused program of concise performances to provide maximum enjoyment." These goals are congruent with Free's trust in his artists. The eleven tracks of Personal Preference do not smack of compromise or a nebulous artistic focus... [ read more ]
Guitarist Avi Granite--in the company of his brash band Avi Granite 6--opens his Operator with "Crushing Beans," displaying a big bad attitude. The drums are explosive, the horns belt it out, the bass shakes the walls and Granite slashes and burns. The first impression is: "This must be a great live band." And indeed, the studio appointment to record Operator came when the group was fresh from a tour... [ read more ]
At the root of successful enduring partnerships lies trust. Without it you need detailed instructions to make things work. Cornetist Kirk Knuffke and bassist Michael Bisio enjoy trust in spades... [ read more ]
February is appropriately recognized in the United States as Black History Month. The Cellar Music Group has been in the forefront of acknowledging the importance of Black musicians to jazz in America. With the release of Are We There Yet? by guitarist Ed Cherry, Cellar Music Group presents another release that is led by a Black artist... [ read more ]
Is there anyone else who doubles on clarinet and electric guitar? Multi-instrumentalist Eliot Sharp perhaps, but it is an otherwise fairly exclusive arena, one which Alex Ward has occupied since 1989 when he was already performing with Derek Bailey's Company at age 15... [ read more ]
Australian vocalist Jo Lawry has covered a lot of ground in a musical career that goes back to her well-received debut in 2008, I Want to Be Happy (Fleurieu). Her formidable jazz chops were readily apparent on that release, but she then turned to other genres, including folk and pop on albums like Taking Pictures (ABC Music, 2015) and The Bathtub and the Sea (Fleurieu, 2018), not to mention a few guest spots with Sting, as on Symphonicities (Deutsche Grammophon, 2010)... [ read more ]
Space Bugs is essentially multi-layered yet readily accessible chamber jazz admirably performed by saxophonist/composer Wil Swindler's Colorado-based Eleventetand#151;a finely woven banquet for the ears that was handsomely recorded in May 2022 before an appreciative audience at Denver's Mighty Fine Productions... [ read more ]
Marco Baldini is the Florence-based composer whose name you might have not come across yet. He will certainly become more well-known thanks to Another Timbre's February 2023 batch of releases, which includes the composer's debut album Vesperi... [ read more ]
After working and recording for decades with some of the jazz world's best and brightest talents, trumpeter John Bailey released his first album as leader of his own group in 2018, the second in 2020 and, in 2023, his third, Time Bandits, which shares a name but nothing more with Terry Gilliam's 1981 film fantasy... [ read more ]
Latin music has always been a significant component of jazz. Practically any jazz musician needs to play some form of Latin music, and Branko Arnsek is no exception. Born in Slovenia and raised in Germany, he has made a name as a bassist, composer and educator... [ read more ]
Guitarist Dave Stryker, a ubiquitous presence on the New York scene (and elsewhere) for more than three decades as a leader or sideman, is also a prolific recording artist with more than 35 albums under his belt (and many more than that as member of various ensembles) in formats ranging from big band to trio... [ read more ]
A solo concert by the double bassist Joëlle Léandre is a happening, an event of the highest order. She is very much like a writer or poet who starts with a blank sheet of paper, bringing to life characters and places seemingly drawn from thin air... [ read more ]
In keeping with this Savoy Brown album title, Blues All Around, Juan Junco's front cover photo looks like one of those rare painting that captures the essence of its subject. It is a ghostly apparition of an image, with the late guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Kim Simmonds shown wringing notes from a Gibson Flying-V, immersed in the emotion(s) of the moment... [ read more ]
Duo recordings, no matter what the particular instrumentation, are able to showcase musical mind-melds. Two artists conversing, trading and extrapolating on each other's ideas. Pianist Alister Spence and drummer Tony Buck try the format on for size with Mythographer... [ read more ]
Legend has it that if Blue Note founder Alfred Lion was seen dancing in the engineer's booth during a recording session, the forthcoming release would be a hit. Listening to The Less You Sleep by the trio Dry Thrust makes one wonder what kind of dance label boss Konstantin Drobil was performing while the tracks for this disc were being laid down... [ read more ]
The music of Club d'Elf's debut album, As Above, speaks volumes in terms of the group's mystical and stylistic roots. In fact, it is perfectly reflective of the actual ancient quote from which the title is taken; 'As above, so below...' suggests how the rhythm motifs are as fully and completely developed as the melodic themes... [ read more ]
Lumor's vocalist, Mirjam Hassig, describes the trio as a "Swiss jazz and ambient band," which goes some way, but not all the way, to summing up the group and the music to be heard on its debut album, Flock of Birds. Yes, it is a jazz trio, the line-up completed by leader and composer Manuel Sidler on guitar and Flo Hufschmid on drums... [ read more ]
The Jeopardy answer is "three to the power of 2." If you buzzed in fast enough with "what is the album Duals"? You would be correct. The three musicians, trombonist Jeb Bishop, bassist Damon Smith, and pianist Pandelis Karayorgis recorded these 33 duos in Boston between the fall of 2021 and the summer of 2022... [ read more ]
UK-born pianist Dan Costa plays and composes in the impressionistic tradition of Bill Evans, acoustic Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea or Marcin Wasilewski... [ read more ]
Homing in on the electric, ancestral vibe of Rudy Van Gelder's house of musical myth and magic in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, the Heavy Hitters, spearheaded by journeyman pianist Mike LeDonne and well-traveled saxophonist, Eric Alexander, approach this eponymous debut with a ballsy, brassy, big sounding blueprint which carries through the entire recording... [ read more ]
1949 was a year of massive change for Miles Davis, and not in a good way. It began, in January, with him fronting the first of the recording sessions, made with a nonet, that became generically known as The Birth Of The Cool and which, if he had achieved nothing else of note, would have secured him a lasting place in jazz history... [ read more ]
There is something undeniably hip about the four discs which make up Cookin' With Jaws And The Queen, the music by tenor saxophonist Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Hammond B3 organist Shirley Scott... [ read more ]
At its best, the pairing of piano and voice can create special chemistry, as in the cases of Ran Blake and Dominique Eade or Bill Evans and Tony Bennett... [ read more ]
Portuguese Blue is a record that joins the talents of three jazz guitarists, Mickylee, John Stowell, and Ulf Bandgren. It is one of those "guitar summit" recordings which combines the talents of exceptional guitarists and, as such, is an inviting document. Groups consisting of three guitarists are not unheard of in jazz music but they are not very common... [ read more ]
There was a period back in the middle years of the 20th Century and beyond when All-Star Groups were quite common, including the Buck Clayton All-Stars, Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars, and Gene Harris and the Phillip Morris Superband among several other similar aggregations... [ read more ]
Although combining poetry and jazz can sometimes be as thankless as mixing oil and water, ALATI has come up with a near perfect formulation. On Ascending The Morning, the three piece band, led by Norwich-based trumpeter Chris Dowding and completed by vocalist Brigitte Beraha and pianist Dave O'Brien, sets to music eight nature-inspired poems by Oxford Professor of Poetry Alice Oswald... [ read more ]
Stan Kenton, one of the most renowned and influential bandleaders of the twentieth century, died on August 25, 1979. Fortunatelyand#151;for the sake of history in general and creative music in particularand#151;Kenton's remarkable legacy lives on, and in a perceptive and open-minded world would endure forever... [ read more ]
To mark the hundredth anniversary of the great Wes Montgomery's birth in March 1923, guitarist Mimi Fox has recorded One for Wes, an earnest tribute that consists of eight Montgomery-inspired tunes adeptly performed by Fox's San Francisco Bay-area organ trio with Brian Ho on Hammond B3 and Lorca Hart on drums... [ read more ]
The mid-1990s saw the first recorded and officially preserved union of four up-and-coming jazz newcomers--Joshua Redman (saxophone,) Christian McBride (bass,) Brad Mehldau (piano) and Brian Blade (drums.) All four were dedicated followers of classic jazz and came together, but soon scattered and began charting their own individual courses... [ read more ]
Khamira was born when Welsh jazz-folk band Burum--trumpeter Tomos Williams, bassist Aidan Thorne and drummer Mark O'Connor--toured India in 2015. There they collaborated with guitarist Aditya Balani, sarangi player and vocalist Suhail Yusuf Khan and tablaist and vocalist Vishal Nagar... [ read more ]
Whether it was an unintentional or deliberate act, Alvaro Rojas' Music for 22 creates a perfect movie soundtrack. It is just that the film has yet to be made. His approach is to blend a string quartet both with his electric and resonator guitars, varying the scenarios and emotions as if he were scoring a film... [ read more ]
February is surely a bit early in the year to be talking about the best live recording released in 2023. Still, when you have your socks blown off, time of year is of little concern. Drumming icon Joe La Barbera is back, and in a big way. The pendulum has swung and La Barbera's Quintet was swinging like some hep cats in a small club back in the '50s... [ read more ]
Sun Ra's Journey from the Tyler Mitchell Octet signals listeners to begin their own happy joy dance. Recorded live at Smalls Jazz Club in August 2021, the music is an animating run through six familiar Sun Ra compositions, plus plenty of surprises... [ read more ]
One of the joys attached to reviewing music is the exposure to artists who otherwise might not show up on the radar. For every Pat Metheny there are a hundred highly-creative, lower-profile, hugely-talented guitarists plucking the strings; for every Brad Mehldau plying the trade ten dozen marvelous, relatively unknown pianists show up in the mailbox or the downloads... [ read more ]
American jazz vibraphonist and composer Jay Hoggard is raising the spiritual consciousness with songs such as "Holy Spirit Consciousness," "Peace To You My Children," "Worship God in Spirit" and "Truth and Love" on Raise Your Spirit Consciousness Raise Your Spirit Consciousness has eight original compositions from Hoggard as well as recreations of original classics by Wayne Shorter, Duke Ellington, Stevie Wonder, and Thad Jones... [ read more ]
Born into a musical family in Bern, Switzerland, in 1977, Samuel Rohrer began playing piano at age seven and drums at fourteen. After studying arts and music in Bern and Boston, he moved to Berlin in 2003 and was soon issuing recordings. Since then, he has worked with an impressive array of talented musicians, including Eivind Aarset, Oren Ambarchi, Laurie Anderson, Jan Bang, Sidsel Endresen and Nils Petter Molvaer... [ read more ]
Bassist William Parker has originated a personal philosophy which he calls Universal Tonality. He expresses his idea thus: "all sounds, like human beings, come from the same place. They have different bodies and faces, but the soul of each sound comes from the same perfect 'creation.'" The near two-hour double album which bears the same name (also aptly chosen for the title of Cisco Bradley's 2021 Parker biography) represents one of the first occasions on which Parker put his theory to the test... [ read more ]
The Heavy Hitters. Hyperbole? A matter of fact? Or simply the name given by co-leaders Mike LeDonne and Eric Alexander to their newly minted sextet? The third statement is trueand#151;but so is the second... [ read more ]
The title says it all, Stranger Becoming. Not "becoming stranger," but Stranger Becoming as in unusual yet attractive or tasteful. That certainly is a perfect descriptor for the music generated by the trio of Hans Koch(clarinet), Frantz Loriot (viola), and Jonas Kocher (accordion)... [ read more ]
The tried and true quintet formation, set in stone by alto saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie in the late 1940s, is back in 2022 with the Reno, Nevada-based Manzanita Quintet... [ read more ]
Two soprano saxophones loosely harmonize. They finish each other's lines, languidly intertwine, pause for air at the same moment. And simultaneously end on a dime. Musical twins. In the wrong hands such empathy might become soporific; but with two of the planet's foremost improvisers on hand in the persons of Evan Parker and Joe McPhee, instead they unlock deep wells of emotionally charged feeling... [ read more ]
No matter where in the world one looks, there is musical history worth exploring and celebrating--which is what the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra sets out to affirm on its sixth album, Voices: A Musical Heritage. Winnipeg is the capital of Canada's Manitoba Province, and Voices pays tribute to the area's rich and expansive musical fabric via a series of eight compositions designed to exemplify some of Manitoba's far-flung heritage: First Nations, Metis, Ukrainian, Jewish, Chilean, Brazilian, Nigerian and Icelandic... [ read more ]
Recorded live in Paris in February 2020, The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris. presents Art Ensemble Of Chicagoand#151;as defiantly daring avant-garde as that first night in Paris, 1969 and#151;giving no quarter whatsoever in their lifelong, diasporic pursuit of creation unbound... [ read more ]
Born in Trinidad and in 2023 based in London, steel-pan virtuoso Leon Foster Thomas surprised and delighted many in the jazz world with Metamorphosis (Ropeadope, 2016). It was his third album but the first to receive widespread distribution in the US and Europe. The disc proved the steel pan to be serious and sophisticated, sitting comfortably in a lineup of otherwise standard instrumentation, and an instrument that in the right hands can be as expressive as the vibraphone, its nearest chromatic 'tuned percussion' relative... [ read more ]
Pianist Seppe Gebruers with his Playing With Standards follows in the footsteps of visual artists who work in xerography, a type of Situationists' détournement that construct art via a photocopier. While the 42 tracks presented over three discs reproduce jazz and pop standards, Gebruers' 'copies' are not reproductions as much as they are the products of multiple passes through his mental photocopier... [ read more ]
It says a lot for the current state of the music that some of the most interesting music hitting the market is being made by lesser-known artists who might never get a look from major labels. Here are four that have their own particularand#151;and very differentand#151;charms. All are worth a spin for the sheer joy of discovery... [ read more ]
The self-titled debut from the Heavy Hitters, pianist Mike LeDonne's latest sextet, has the feel of a tribute album. However, unlike most recordings of that nature, there is no classic repertoire present, as all nine tracks are penned either by LeDonne or his colleague, tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander... [ read more ]
Miami is a melting pot where people and musics of all stripes share space and influence, cross-pollinating to create a sound and culture like no other. That fact provides the foundation for this upbeat collection. Blending elements sourced from numerous musical styles and languages including salsa, pop, samba, jazz and RandB, among others, multi-instrumentalist Camilo Valencia and drummer Richard Bravo create unique and flavorful dishes served hot by a rotating cast... [ read more ]
Yes, Peter Tchaikovsky's timeless Nutcracker Suite is basically holiday music; and, yes, the 2022 holiday season is squarely in everyone's rear-view mirror. Even so, there is always room for a fresh approach to the annual festive staple, which is what drummer Joe McCarthy's New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band brings to The Pan American Nutcracker Suite... [ read more ]
Any music lover impressed with the prolific output of multi-instrumentalist Gordon Grdina over the last few years would no doubt describe his work with The Twain as a wondrous discovery. Three hour- long sets were recorded at Tokyo's GOK Studio in 2019, then edited down to a final approximately seventy minutes for a late 2022 release... [ read more ]
Following the intimate Solo In Bonn (Opto Music, 2019) and Coalescence (Opto Music, 2020)--a duo album with electronics producer Ivan Shopov--pianist Dimitar Bodurov returns to the bread and butter of his trio with Senkya Padna. Flanked by long-standing collaborators Jens Dueppe on drums and Mihail Ivanov on bass, Bodurov once more draws on Bulgarian folk music as the launching pad for his own brand of contemporary jazz, one which relegates swing and the blues in favor of more personal rhythms and emotional frames... [ read more ]
The three protagonists gaze out from the cover, variously smiling, appearing wryly amused, and looking stern. The image suggests a will to tackle things head on, without artifice or adornment. To tell it like it is. And that is the result: a thrilling no-nonsense representation of the combined artistry of drummer Francisco Mela, pianist Cooper-Moore and bassist William Parker... [ read more ]
Dylanologists of every stripe and level of Dylanalia had it partly right when Bob Dylan released Time Out Of Mind (Columbia) in mid-September 1997. "Great album!" They/we/us all screamed. "Great songs!" "Dylan's best since the totemic Blood On the Tracks!" (Columbia, 1975) "Mid-career masterwork!" "The Bard's New Relevance!" If you weren't there the first time it really was a Category 5 idiot wind of biblical proportion... [ read more ]
Keyboardist and electronics innovator Michael Robinson is a prolific and imaginative musician. In 2018 he started re-exploring the acoustic piano and, during the solitary times of the COVID-19 pandemic, his solo piano recordings increased dramatically... [ read more ]
In a sign that the art of the box set continues to evolve, and that history never runs in a straight line, a lavishly produced box set of tenor giant Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and organist Shirley Scott is being released not only on CD but on high grade vinyl LPs and downloads as well... [ read more ]
British modern jazz was gaining new confidence in itself in 1965, when Warm Up, subtitled The Complete Live At The Highwayman 1965, was recorded. It needed to be. As Simon Spillett writes in his liner notes, at the time "British jazzmen bravely fought a battle on two fronts, one against the stranglehold of American influence, the other against the Beatles." British jazzwomen, of course, were fighting on three fronts; but we can discuss that another time... [ read more ]
For some people, the Dave Brubeck Quartet's catalogue starts with 1959's Time Out (Columbia) and ends with Time Further Out (Columbia) two years later. Verily, they know not what they are missing. The band was burning from 1951, when Brubeck and alto saxophonist Paul Desmond founded it, until 1967 and the breakup of the "classic" lineup... [ read more ]
A brief, charged commencement by Dave Liebman and trumpeter Peter Evans (Mostly Other People Do the Killing, Mary Halvorson) launches Dave Liebman: Live at Smalls and from there the nocturne reaches out like a rhizomeand#151;laterally, vertically, horizontallyand#151;thriving into your consciousness, taking root, expanding ... [ read more ]
The six-plus decade resume of Okay Temiz is a landscape snapshot of someone who made the most of their professional opportunities from different angles. A sliver of the performance side has brought him partnerships with American jazz giants Don Cherry, Dexter Gordon, Art Taylor and Clark Terry, along with an array of established European and South African peers... [ read more ]
What do we listen for in a solo piano project? Technical proficiency. Heart. Body. Soul. A vulnerability versus strength dynamic. The ability to surrender to the sounds, to take them where they want to go. In other words, we look for how well the artist articulates their humanity. Simona Premazzi displays all these attributes on her first solo piano outing Wave In Gravity... [ read more ]
Adam Berenson's Songs from the Garret is a two-CD solo collection but the essence of other composers prowl in the shadows. The lofty album title pays tribute to particular compositions from Steve Swallow, Carla Bley, Michael Gibbs, Chick Corea and a host of others... [ read more ]
Alto saxophone master Sonny Stitt always chafed when he was called "little Bird," a reference to the greatest alto of them all, Charlie Parker. "I'm not a little Bird," he would say, "I'm me; Sonny Stitt." In similar fashion, Jesse Davis would probably shrug off any comparison to another of the instrument's esteemed patriarchs, the late Julian "Cannonball" Adderley... [ read more ]
Although Jo Harrop had previously released albums such as Songs for the Late Hours (Lateralize, 2019) and Weathering the Storm (Lateralize, 2020), the release of The Heart Waits (Lateralize, 2021) was a quantum leap forward for the Durham-born vocalist, not least because the album included fewer covers and far more original material than before... [ read more ]
The startling molten sounds which open pianist Cory Smythe's Smoke Gets In Your Eyes signal that this will be no ordinary journey. On the first four cuts he draws on a stellar 11-strong squad which matches leading cutting edge figures such as saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, trumpeter Peter Evans and cellist Tomeka Reid, with colleagues from the International Contemporary Ensemble, hailed as America's foremost new-music group by The New Yorker, such as violinist Josh Modney and sadly deceased saxophonist Ryan Muncy, as well as others who share his desire to discard the tyranny of conventional tonality, such as trombonist Zekkereya El-Magharbel and drummer Jesse Cox... [ read more ]
A big man with a big plan and a boisterous sextet at his back, trumpeter Derrick Gardner and his razor-fine Jazz Prophets unapologetically and unflinchingly blow the walls down with Pan Africa. Hyperbole? Not really. Just let Gardner and company free on Jackie McLean's hopscotching "Appointment In Ghana" (from Jackie's Bag, his first for Blue Note in 1960)... [ read more ]
Can an album's contents be any less summed up by its title? While Antonyms suggests opposition, the collaboration between bassist Dominic Lash and clarinetist and guitarist Alex Ward evidences rather more empathy than contradiction... [ read more ]
He may admit to jitters whenever he first sits down at his chosen instrument to record or perform, but elder statesman and NEA Master Kenny Barron never fails to elicit a warm, enveloping sense of elegy, wit and emotional balance to whatever setting the music finds him... [ read more ]
San Diego's Gilbert Castellanos has been an important and consequential force on the West Coast jazz scene for years. He has appeared on dozens of recordings and often shares the stage with Charles McPherson, Willie Jones III, Gerald Clayton and the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra... [ read more ]
Befitting its heady milestone date, the title of Bob Weir's initial solo album, Ace, carries multiple meanings. First of all, it was the Grateful Dead guitarist, vocalist and songwriter's nickname at the time of its gestation and completion (his bawdy persona as such mirrored in the ultra-suave pose on the inside photo as well as the risque cover art)... [ read more ]
Two masters of experimental music, Wade Matthews, the French-born, Madrid-based, electro-acoustic improviser, and Abdul Moimême, the Portuguese experimental guitarist and composer, have been frequent collaborators for a decade... [ read more ]
New world modernization meets old world ideals at Sam First jazz club in Los Angeles. In just a few short years Sam First has built a solid reputation with both jazz artists and aficionados. Among its many qualities are the acoustics. In 2019, Peter Erskine, George Garzone, Alan Pasqua, and Darek Oles recorded their brilliant 3 Nights in L.A... [ read more ]
In the press release and liner notes, Brad Mehldau, a spiritual man who delves deeply into subjects that matter to him, talks a lot about the Fab Four's continued universality and to the strangeness of their originality and our assimilation of it... [ read more ]
During its heyday, The Drum Room in The Hotel President was one of Kansas City's most popular jazz venues. Performers such as Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, and Benny Goodman all played there... [ read more ]
There is a lot of heavy ordnance going off during this album. Indeed, the incoming only lets up once, and then briefly, during a performance of Billy Strayhorn's "Blood Count" at the halfway point. For the rest of the sixty-one minutes playing time, the watchword is eruptive... [ read more ]
Is it possible that we underestimate Esperanza Spalding? That would be quite a trick for an artist who has hardly been out of the spotlight since leapfrogging a couple of nobodies named Drake and Justin Bieber to take the Grammy award for Best New Artist in 2011... [ read more ]
Take two of contemporary music's most versatile improvising musicians, give them free reign to play and something of real worth is likely to arise. That is the philosophy of Fairpoint Recordings, an Irish label founded by Anthony Kelly and David Stalling in 2004. Their trust in pianist Izumi Kimura and violinist/viola player Cora Venus Lunny is well founded... [ read more ]
As mentioned in a review of Jurg Frey's 2022 album Borderland Melodies, that was the two-hundredth release on Another Timbre, the Sheffield-based label set up by Simon Reynell in 2007. The label had released its hundredth album in 2016, so the second hundred were released over six years compared to the first one's nine years... [ read more ]
Oasis is the third time around for bassist Rodney Whitaker and music written by fellow Michigander Gregg Hill, following Common Ground (Origin 82780) and Outrospection (Origin 82819)... [ read more ]
If variety is on your wish list, you will find a lot to like on Standard-ized!, New York-based trombonist Eric Goletz's third album in three years. Group size and makeup are seldom the same, Goletz's charts traverse new realms, there are special guests to enhance the proceedings, and Goletz even enlists a six-piece string "orchestra" on several numbers... [ read more ]
At his most experimental, pianist and composer Eli Wallace has sufficient preparations to obscure almost all the natural sounds of the piano. That has often been the case across a portfolio of half-a-dozen leader or co-leader releases, but Wallace's solo album Pieces and Interludes is a singular enigma... [ read more ]
Alto saxophonist Jim Snidero had quite a year in 2021, with the re-release of his masterpiece, Strings (Savant), originally released in 2001, and the release of another masterful set, Live At Deer Head Inn (Savant). In 2022 he decided to keep a good thing going, inviting his Deer Head rhythm section--pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Peter Washington, with Joe Farnsworth back in the drummer's seat-- into the studio, along with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, for an inspired set of bop and post-bop tunes, mostly from Snidero's pen, plus a couple of time-tested standards in the mix... [ read more ]
New Zealand's flagship jazz ensemble, the Rodger Fox Big Band, marks its fiftieth anniversary with an impressive homage to "the people's poet," Hone Tuwhare (1922-2008), on the centenary of his birth. As is pointed out in the album's liner notes, Tuwhare "was loved and cherished by New Zealanders from all walks of life... [ read more ]
The idiosyncratic nature of Jason Kao Hwang's work lends itself to a broad range of collaborative possibilities. Uncharted Faith, a duo recording with electronics artist J.A. Deane, is unique because of both its experimental essence and its personal backstory... [ read more ]
Consisting of two formidable contributors to the expansive oeuvre of the Grateful Dead, keyboardist/multi-instrumentalists Tom Constanten and Bob Bralove, Dose Hermanos explore areas of ambiance hardly unfamiliar to the iconic San Francisco band... [ read more ]
"I love the illusive, enigmatic nature of this material. Being in that space can perhaps leave the listener with the only obvious choice of just listening to what is rather than understanding any of it." Tomo Jacobson Polish-born, Copenhagen-based bassist Tomo Jacobson embraces a minimalist mode on his Spirit Spirit... [ read more ]
With mallets at the fore, a solid set of originals on the program and a strong cast in the mix, vibraphonist Steve Shapiro's musical voice and vision is clear-- and really something to hear--across this seven-song set. Working under the banner of a perfectly paradoxical title, he makes his mark from a number of angles--those of soloist, harmonist, composer and bandleader--and gives his bandmates their due... [ read more ]
Drummer, composer and sometime vibraphonist Joe Chambers secured his place in jazz history going on six decades ago, though you might not guess it from listening to this album. In the mid-1960s, he was the drummer on a string of historic Blue Note albums recorded by Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter and Bobby Hutcherson, among others, and also on a series of important albums Archie Shepp made for Impulse!, including the landmark Fire Music (1965)... [ read more ]
It is a great pleasure to welcome this Potlatch album which was released at the tail end of 2022. From 1998 until 2017 the independent French label released a steady stream of albums, averaging between two and three a year. Then, nothing was released in 2018, one album in 2019, nothing in 2020, two in 2021 and, now, one in 2022... [ read more ]
When the founder of the Netherlands-based Criss Cross Jazz label, Gerry Teekens, passed away in 2019, there was an odds-on chance that Criss Cross would leave town with him. That is often the fate, in such circumstances, of organisations led by a singular visionary and defined by their personal aesthetic... [ read more ]
Eventually the steam roller that is the Miles Davis Bootleg Series was going to trundle into the trumpeter's 1980s comeback era. The preceding six volumes in this series have all been uniformly excellent--essential listening for the Davis completist. Volume 7, however, does not reach those heights. It is an uneven bag, much like Davis's 1980s output you might say... [ read more ]
Don't you love it when a plan comes together? Even if the plan is totally improvised, as is that of Unwalled. The album is the first meeting between Canadian alto saxophonist François Carrier and German-born pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach... [ read more ]
Panama-born bassist Santi Debriano's Arkestra Bembe is a nonet whose centerpiece is the bembe music of west Africa. During the Coronavirus pandemic, Debriano began hosting weekly bembes (musical celebrations) in the basement of his Staten Island, New York home, gradually assembling a group of musicians who would comprise the Arkestra and perform Debriano's compositions and arrangements... [ read more ]
Peggy Lee was a remarkable singer and songwriter, but to some listeners, deeply enigmatic. Her time, often well behind the beat, conveyed a subtle sense of irony. "Are you getting this?" she sometimes seemed to say, "or am I going too fast for you?" She could be exuberant and world weary almost in the same breath... [ read more ]
It's hard to believe that 35 years have flown by between the release of bassist Neil Swainson's debut album, 49th Parallel (Concord Jazz), and his second, Fire in the West, recorded in November 2021 and released nine months later. But Swainson was hardly in hibernation during those years, as he has been one of Canada's busiest and most sought-after sidemen, traveling the world while working with the likes of George Shearing, Woody Shaw, Marian McPartland, Sonny Stitt, Slide Hampton, James Moody, Lee Konitz, Jay McShann, George Coleman, Diana Krall, Joe Henderson, Roberta Gambarini, Joe and Pat LaBarbera, Mel Torme and a host of other notable headliners... [ read more ]
Some releases should come with a warning label. We are not talking about Tipper Gore (remember her?) Parents' Music Resource Center (PMRC) stickers warning of the dangers of ''Raising PG Kids in an X-Rated Society" of the late 1980s. No, the alert that should be attached to S/T by the Wasteland Jazz Ensemble might read something like "secure all sharp objects and nail down anything that could be blown away." Similar to preparing for a category 4 hurricane, there is a bit of preparation required to experience this recording... [ read more ]
The year 2022 produced a bumper crop of worthwhile jazz recordings, so many it was impossible to give all of them their due in a timely fashion. Here are belated appreciations of six titles that deserve praise. Doug Wamble Blues In The Present Tense Halcyonic Records 2022 This is an album of swampy but topical blues and soul that is equal parts Bill Withers, Terry Callier, and James Blood Ulmer... [ read more ]
Bleeding Amazonia, the latest album by The Netherlands' superb Millennium Jazz Orchestra, offers clear proof that "music with a message" need not be barren nor bland. Amazonia is a vibrant and colorful eight-part suite by composer / arranger Joan Reinders, whose disheartening theme is the loss of the Amazon rainforest... [ read more ]
There are a lot of jazz guitarists out there, and competence in the art of the guitar is common. Mature excellence is less so. But we expect that when we spin a CD. Matt Greenwood, born in Zimbabwe and now home-based in Canada, displays that rare-for-a-debut mature excellence on his axe-- and more importantly in his artistic vision--on his debut recording, Atlas... [ read more ]
Tuba maestro Jim Self's My America 2: Destinations is a successor of sorts to the album My America, recorded and released some twenty years before, also on Self's Basset Hound label. While personnel has inevitably changed (only trombonist Bill Booth returns from that earlier album), Self has employed the services of the same arranger, Kim Scharnberg--and thank goodness for that! Although Self and his eleven-member supporting cast acquit themselves well, it is Scharnberg's ingenious charts which make this engine run... [ read more ]
The brass section on The Border's opening track, "At The Coast," tolls like a foghorn through its two-note riff, pauses, then returns, pierced this time by a synthesizer's shimmering. Douwe Eisenga's piano does not make an appearance until the second track, "Encounter." He rolls through an arpeggio, changing just one note every bar to transform the voice of the chord, as the music moves from piano to forte, a bass drum pulses, and the saxophone glides a long, flowing melody across the groove laid down by his piano at the beginning... [ read more ]
Mountain Coast is a Denver-based collective which comes out of a 15-year partnership between guitarist Dave Devine and synthesist Michael Bailey... [ read more ]
Pianist Eri Yamamoto was born and raised in Japan. but she has been a resident of New York City for over twenty years. She was there in March 2020 when COVID-19 shut down the world and then-President Trump began to call the disease a "Chinese flu." One day, while waiting to start an outdoor concert, she was confronted by a stranger who knocked off her hat, stepped on the electric keyboard she was carrying and called her one of the "(bleeping) Chinese" who had "messed up the world." She played her concert that day but became so traumatized by the incident that for two years she only went out once a month... [ read more ]
The short tune "Breathe" opens Choices, sounding like something holy, in a futuristic, science-fiction way. This is how Canadian trombonist William Carn introduces his album. It is a "do it from home," mostly remotely recorded set, reminiscent--to go back over half a century-- of Paul McCartney's first solo album McCartney (Apple Records, 1970)... [ read more ]
2023 kicks off with the bangingest back-in-the-day bang from the Swiss-based ezz-thetics label, whose carefully curated and remastered 1960s sessions from Archie Shepp, Horace Silver, John Coltrane and Albert Ayler lit up the reissue calendar in 2022... [ read more ]
There is much to love about Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad's Jazz Is Dead label and an equal amount to hate. The production duo's declared mission is "to foreground legends from the past" and "to highlight their contributions" to popular music in general and jazz in particular. Admirable. Spread the love... [ read more ]
Guitarist/composer Stephan Thelen presents the third installment of his Fractal Guitar series. Like the previous albums, the emphasis is on multiple guitars, layered in kaleidoscopic arrangements based on his compositions and guitar playing, but significantly colored by the contributions of his collaborators... [ read more ]
Shadows Linger is the seventh album from veteran Irish pianist John Donegan, whose dedication to jazz dates back to the '70s when he played on the scenes of his native Cork and later Dublin, before moving across the pond to England. While in Dublin, Donegan worked with the Irish legends guitarist Louis Stewart and drummer John Wadham as well as tenor saxophonist Dick Buckley, whose saxophone-playing sons Richie Buckley and Michael Buckley feature here in a potent front- line which also boasts trumpeter Linley Hamilton... [ read more ]
Whereas Sketches (Fresh Sounds Records, 2022) could be considered a more traditional big bop trio recording with pianist/vibraphonist Karl Berger and drummer Billy MIntz, Orbit of Sound, NY bassist Max Johnson's second heady release of 2022 finds him in the instigative company of the ever undefinable Anna Webber on tenor saxophone and flute and drummer Michael Sarin... [ read more ]
London-based drummer Sebastian Rochford (aka, Seb) and pianist Kit Downes have a long working history but have recorded only once as a duo on the EP Live @ The Vortex (Loop Collective, 2012)... [ read more ]
Retiro e Ritmo is a love letter to Mata Atlântica, the coastal rain forest of Brazil, and a call to help preserve and protect this beautiful habitat. The music supports that goal not by quoting or referencing Brazilian music directly, but by building a complex musical ecosystem that evokes it, obliquely creating a sense of place... [ read more ]
Going back to the fall of 2016 and Ron Carter's appearance at the Detroit Jazz Festival as artist-in-residence, the buzz was that a biographical film on the man named the most recorded bassist in history was in the pipeline. During that festival, a film crew was seen regularly following Carter around Hart Plaza and the bassist even spent one full day conducting interviews with a plethora of jazz journalists... [ read more ]
Along with elder alum, alto saxophonist Marshall Allen, Sun Ra's Journey Featuring Marshall Allen, the second of bassist Tyler Mitchell's deep dives into Sun Ra's master playbook, breaks glorious from the start... [ read more ]
Pianist Holly Burke put the days of the Covid quarantine to good use by spending a period of quality time with herself and her piano. The result is Dreamtime, twenty improvised vignettes. These snippets are short, heartfelt, sometimes reflective and at other times quite gregarious, and consistently beautiful... [ read more ]
Although the group responsible for Alien Skin might be a one-off, unlikely to meet again in this exact configuration, it contains sufficient prior connections to vouchsafe cohesion, to go with the undoubted quality. Bassist William Parker furnishes the common denominator, having previously recorded with all of the participants, even relative newcomer, reed player Zoh Amba, while pianist Matthew Shipp's releases with saxophonist Ivo Perelman are legendary and abundant... [ read more ]
True to her nature, saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin keeps the flame to the dynamite on her smoking follow-up to the wildfire of Pursuance (Ropeadope, 2020), her still hot-to-the-touch dedication to the music and spirituality of John Coltrane and Alice Coltrane... [ read more ]
For musicians, one consolatory by-product of lockdown was the chance to reappraise the archives, which led to a subsequent bonanza of deserving material reaching the marketplace. Whether that was the genesis of the limited edition LP We're Playing In Here? is a moot point, but this 2007 studio recording by the Gebhard Ullmann / Steve Swell Quartet certainly more than justifies release... [ read more ]
If the work of any jazz composer lends itself to elegant reframing, as opposed to crass sweetening, by a chamber orchestra, it is that of John Lewis, co-founder of the Modern Jazz Quartet... [ read more ]
Detroit-based tenor saxophonist Kenji Lee brings a heady concept to his latest release, Kyūdō. Drawing inspiration from the practice of Japanese archery, Lee sees his music as a pathway to spiritual growth, a process in which technical mastery and an abiding aesthetic sensibility are conjoined. Harnessing the sympathetic partnership of his colleagues, bassist Andy Peck and drummer Jonathan Barahal Taylor, Lee offers fourteen evocative tracks in which skillful musicianship and sublime beauty go hand-in-hand... [ read more ]
Norwegian saxophonist and composer Mette Henriette established herself as a major talent while in her teens, becoming a vital member of the country's creative music community. She was in the Aello trio and the Torg ensemble and worked with a broad array of artists including Sidsel Endresen, Karin Krog and Tim Berne... [ read more ]
Let's entertain the undisputed truth that Ahmad Jamal, all ninety-two years of him, is quite possibly the coolest cat on a warming planet and these companion double sets Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse (1963-1964), and Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse (1965-1966) take on a rather folklorish, must-have status... [ read more ]
Endless Roar is one of the most vivid bands in the recent Latvian improvised music scene. Formed in 2014 the trio, saxophonist Arvydas Kazlauskas, double bassist Stanislav Yudin and drummer Jachin Pousson, ventured through various genres (e.g... [ read more ]
The Muffins were a Washington, D.C. area progressive rock band who were active from 1974-81 and then again (with their best-known line-up still intact) from 1993-2015. It is rare for any group to reform after more than a decade apart, and still rarer for them to resume their creative life rather than indulge in nostalgia... [ read more ]
Long before Bob Dorough sang about it in Schoolhouse Rock, and before the hip hop group De La Soul took up the anthem, three has always been a magic number. To the Buddhists it is the three jewels, for the Christians the Holy Trinity, the three core principles of Islam, and on and on... [ read more ]
The first duo recording from pianist Francesca Han and trumpeter Ralph Alessi has been a while coming, the pair first having met in New York in 2011. Shortly thereafter, Han left the Big Appleand#151;closing the book on an eight-year sojourn--though not before recording the highly impressive Illusion (NatSat Music, 2012), which featured Alessi, Drew Gress, Corcoran Holt and Justin Brown... [ read more ]
Singer Paul Marinaro issued his acclaimed debut album Without A Song (122 Myrtle Records) in 2013. Seven years after the release of his follow-up, "One Night In Chicago" (122 Myrtle Records), and with almost a decade of performing from coast to coast at top-end clubs, including New York's Birdland, he has released Not Quite Yet, which is devoted to exploring timeless themes, such as life, love and the search for lasting connections... [ read more ]
"Nakshatra: A Sanscrit word evocative of constellations, stars and interconnectedness." Meera Dugal Two violinists immersed in the sounds of India -that would be Trina Basu and Arun Ramamurthy... [ read more ]
Borderland Melodies is welcome for several reasons. Firstly, it is numbered "at200," indicating it is the landmark two-hundredth album issued by Another Timbre since its debut in the autumn 2007. As the label's hundredth album was released in 2016, it seems its rate of releasing albums is increasing (maybe a side effect of Covid?) Secondly, like five of the label's previous six albums, Borderland Melodies was performed by Apartment House, who were first credited on an Another Timbre album in 2014 and have effectively become the label's house ensemble, drawing on first-rate players from an impressive pool of talent... [ read more ]
The concept of a jazz group backed by a string ensemble is nothing new. However, this set from the pan-European Gilles Grethen quartet is a particularly lovely example of the combination. Guitarist Grethen, from Luxembourg, leads a group which features trumpet, bass, and drums, and is accompanied on this album by an eleven-piece string ensemble... [ read more ]
Portuguese tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado has steadily become one of the premier players in the European free jazz arena, having banked the experience that comes through working with the likes of multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee, trumpeter Peter Evans and pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, reaping a rich dividend... [ read more ]
Tenor Time unveils the talents of a trio of Chicago-area tenor saxophonists, each of whom--presumablyand#151;solos on each of the album's eight numbers. The qualifier is necessary because the solo order is not given and, skillful as they are, the tenors sound much like triplets at the same workbench... [ read more ]
An exquisitely palatable sense of dance permeates the gregarious music bassist Max Johnson brings to the fore on Sketches, the second of two heady 2022 releases. Whereas the first, Orbit of Sound (Unbroken Sounds), teams him up with the rule-elusive sax and flute of Anna Weber and drummer Michael Sarin, Sketches presents a slightly more straight ahead approach with pianist and vibraphonist Karl Berger and drummer Billy Mintz... [ read more ]
Akin to when people first sat in elegant staterooms listening to Chopin, Mendelssohn, Mahler, or Erik Satie seek the muse, HOME.S stands as the first solo performance by the late Swedish pianist Esbjörn Svensson and will quite possibly be considered the grandest moment of any other forthcoming posthumous releases... [ read more ]
What a treat it must have been in 1973 to attend the Montreux Jazz Festival: the featured artists that year included Dexter Gordon, McCoy Tyner, Chico Hamilton, Sam Rivers, Bobbi Humphrey, Dr John, Marlena Shaw, Bobby Hutcherson..... [ read more ]
This is reportedly the 35th album from Ghanaian singer/rapper/tenor saxophonist Gyedu-Blay Ambolley. But although he has toured Europe and the US extensively, he remains relatively unknown in what we call "the West." It is a situation that ought to change, and if there was any justice in the world, this is the album that would do it... [ read more ]
Dmitry Baevsky is a jazzman in his middle years, a period when many players consolidate youthful influences and put their stamp on the rarefied practices of the mid- to-late 20th century. The alto saxophonist has recorded for several labels, and travels widely as a leader and sideman; to his credit, he continues to give the impression of a work in progress... [ read more ]
The drumming cellist is not as common a species as perhaps it should be, judging by Zabučale Gore (The Mountains Roared), the third full-length album by multi-instrumentalist Kristijan Krajnčan. The Slovenian drummer and cellist spent two years exploring his country's folk music and mythology to better understand the national identity... [ read more ]
In 1982, after his Steely Dan tenure with the late Walter Becker and striking out on his own, pianist/composer Donald Fagen released "Maxine" as a single. It was also included in Fagen's first solo album, The Nightfly (Warner Brothers Records, 1982)... [ read more ]
Every city one walks through is a different dream. Every piece of music that vibrates across time and space is also a dreamand#151;an assertion framed to perfection by the Vito Liturri Trio's Desires And Fears. Italian pianist Liturri takes his inspiration from his countryman Italo Calvino's fantastical 1972 novel, Invisible Cities (Giudio Einaudi), a Nebula Award-nominated book that features Marco Polo's descriptionsand#151;to Emperor Kublai Khanand#151;of 55 cities he (Polo) has experienced... [ read more ]
American smooth jazz saxophonist and flautist Najee here confirms his status as one of the most talented performers of his genre. On Savoir Faire fans can delight in Najee's assured playing and his general savoir faire when it comes to delivering a polished product... [ read more ]
There are several types of triangles. Isosceles triangles have two sides of equal length and scalene triangles have no side or angles that are similar. Triangles are germane to this review because Marco Pacassoni's album with bassist John Patitucci and drummer Antonio Sanchez appears to maintain the status of an equilateral triangle throughout the performance... [ read more ]
The title of Canadian alto saxophone maestro P.J. Perry's album does not mean that Perry wants No Hugs, rather that the Covid pandemic that arrived in 2020 meant there would be "no hugs" between Perry and his beloved grandson, Atticus, in the "big brown chair" that served as their hangout until the quarantine was over... [ read more ]
Infectious is a word much maligned of late. What with a worldwide pandemic, the word has come to stand in for other terms such as contagious and transmittable. The word though has another meaning as demonstrated by saxophonist Muriel Grossmann's Universal Code. Infectious can also mean irresistible or compelling in an infectious way... [ read more ]
The Harry Bartlett Trio's Wildwood twangs like something coming out of West Texas. The instrumentation is guitar, bass and drums, pure and simple. The opener, "Burgess Falls," might suggest a wide open desert landscape in the U.S.A.'s southwest, but the real Burgess Falls is located in Tennessee, where good country music can be found... [ read more ]
On his exciting debut Trial and Error, dynamic drummer Ben Freidkin combines music from three live sets spanning two years. Each recording has a different group of side-musicians. For Freidkin it represents a sort of "coming of age" as it coincides with him completing his graduate degree in music. Despite the variety of personnel and sound, a thematic unity permeates the album, mainly because Friedkin penned all eight originals on it.... [ read more ]
British blues master John Mayall can still turn out a rich collection of originals and covers six decades, and approximately sixty albums, after his first songs were released in the early 1960s. Add the fact that he still has a knack for enlisting top guitarists--this time Mayall spotlights Mississippi born/Chicago bred Melvin Taylor among others--and it is a Brit-led blues bash at its best... [ read more ]
Impresario extraordinaire and multi-talented saxophonist Cory Weeds has picked up the challenge to acknowledge the contribution of black musicians to jazz music in these uncertain times. Working with trumpeter and producer Jeremy Pelt, this album New Beginnings by baritone saxophonist Jason Marshall, would be the fifth release led by a black artist for The Cellar Music Group... [ read more ]
Works by Anthony Braxton appear occasionally in the repertoire of others, but it is exceptional for entire albums to be devoted to them. That is especially true for some of his later works. But Belgian guitarist Kobe Van Cauwenberghe looks to rectify that... [ read more ]
Country music artist Merle Haggard (1937 -2016) released 66 studio albums in his day, along with five instrumental recordings and "several " live and compilation discs. When asked in a late-career interview if his upcoming album was a good one, he answered (paraphrasing). "I don't know. I've made so many I don't know if the next one's any good or not." He was probably pulling the interviewer's leg... [ read more ]
How does one approach a Thelonious Monk tribute recording? Does the pianist sound like Monk? Truthfully, it is rare for a musician to replicate the high priest of bebop's distinctive and eccentric sound. Walter Davis Jr. could, but most other attempts are easily exposed as forgeries... [ read more ]
Recordings by the superb Howard University Jazz Ensemble have been surfacing like clockwork each year since shortly after the orchestra was formed in 1975 by its first (and only) music director, Fred Irby III. Sometimes the albums have overall themes, while others (such as this one) are dedicated to one or more of the university's distinguished alumni... [ read more ]
PJ Perry is a survivor. Now, in 2022, eighty-one years old, he has been playing saxophone since he was fourteen, when he joined his father's dance band as a baritone saxophonist. During the course of his lengthy career, he has lived in Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and a couple of European cities, before settling in Edmonton, Alberta... [ read more ]
Vocalist Christy Bennett has made a specialty of unearthing the work of forgotten songwriters from the past, particularly women. That has led to this album where she presents ten songs written by Irene Higginbotham, a jazz composer active in the '40s... [ read more ]
Thelonious Monk is quoted as saying, "the piano ain't got no wrong notes." He most certainly said this in response to the criticism of his approach to both composing and performance. In what sounds blasphemous today, critics and other musicians in the early days of bebop flat out said he couldn't play... [ read more ]
If the song title "Proto-Cosmos" brings Tony Williams to mind then step to the front of the class. Alan Pasqua' s tune is featured on the drummer's 1975 album, Believe It (Columbia)... [ read more ]
At 33, Ballantine has recorded eight albums and they are all gems. His range is wide and eclectic with tributes to Bob Dylan, Thelonious Monk and Kurt Vonnegut. But his December 2022 release stands out as a masterpiece of artistry, melody, and deep feeling... [ read more ]
Are you familiar with Pablo Picasso's found art sculpture "Bull's Head"? It was created in 1942 from bicycle handlebars and a bike's saddle. Picasso was walking down the street and spotted the discarded items, and in a flash joined the two, creating an obvious depiction of a bull's head. That same spontaneous moment of creation informs the music from Rodrigo Amado's Refraction Solo... [ read more ]
For almost half a century, Arild Andersen has been a pillar of Manfred Eicher's ECM label. His ECM albums have traversed dissimilar territory, from the brooding Shimri (1976), the folk-influenced Sagn (1990), to the orchestral grandeur of Live at Belleville (2008)... [ read more ]
With the release of his chart-topping, funk-fueled Black Byrd in 1973, Donald Byrd found himself in a volatile place in jazz circles. He was being hailed as having finally stepped out of Miles Davis' considerable shadow, while simultaneously many found the album to be Byrd's selling out his bop legacy for chart success... [ read more ]
For the potential listener seeing Dominic Lash's name on a record sleeve, there is the conundrum of which of his guises this might signal. While primarily known as a bassist, he pursues his craft across several areas, from straightforward free improv, as heard on Discernment (Spoonhunt, 2021), to composition based left field jazz, with his Quartet on Limulus (Spoonhunt, 2021), to experimental and contemporary music (with the Set Ensemble)... [ read more ]
Portuguese tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado maintains a busy recording schedule, involving dates with heavy-hitters like Joe McPhee, Alexander von Schlippenbach and Peter Evans, in addition to his own lineups, which do not always generate the same kind of buzz... [ read more ]
He may not have the extra-long, arm's length CV just yet, but at 28, Israeli born, Brooklyn-based drummer Ben Freidkin delivers the goods on this briskly charged, live debut recording. Curated from three individual gigs in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv with a host of different players, Freidkin nimbly, knowingly and kinetically explores the myriad shapes the music takes and it is a true pleasure to experience each moment's unique rush with him... [ read more ]
Pianist Alan Pasqua and drummer Peter Erskine have been playing together for over fifty years now. For over twenty years Darek Oles has completed the trio on double bass... [ read more ]
When preparing a meal, the balance of ingredients matters. A little too much here, not quite enough there, and any recipe can fall short of expectations. On the album People, Hinda Hoffman, one of Chicago's finest jazz singers, is paired with the splendid quartet Soul Message, a blend which one might expect to produce a tasty and tantalizing feast for the ears and heart... [ read more ]
Award winning multi-reed player Ana Nelson is a musical prodigy who, simultaneously, continues to evolve in her own artistry while mentoring others. On her delightful debut, Bridges, Nelson showcases her virtuosity as a performer and her inventiveness as a composer. Nelson blends her western classical education and jazz training in the seven engaging originals which feature a variety of guests, including a string quartet on two... [ read more ]
If you are looking for a novel way of approaching the December 2022 festive season, musically speaking, and are not deterred by a mixture of Nordic languages, then this album may appeal. The songs are sung in Swedish and Finnish, and without any accompanying lyric sheet an English speaker might do well to search for lyrics online... [ read more ]
This is bold music. It bursts with freewheeling, chip-on-the-shoulder modernism. It is Korean-born bassist Jeong Lim Yang's take on pianist-composer Mary Lou Williams' Zodiac Suite (Asch Records, 1945). Yang tags her revisitation of the classic piece Zodiac Suite: Reassured... [ read more ]
When the new owners of a Cape Cod saltbox house went to insulate their attic, they found photos, manuscripts and TEAC tapes left by the previous occupant. His name was Edward Blankman, a retired dentist from Pennsylvania, who moved to Cape Cod after his wife's death. These newly uncovered recordings were sent to Jazz Dad Records who took on the task of restoring them for release... [ read more ]
At last. An enjoyable alternative to the ghastly albums of "jazzed up" hymns and Christmas carols which spew forth every holiday season. There is nothing overtly Christmassy about guitarist Mike Moreno's Standards From Film, but it is appropriate that the album, recorded in New York in December 2021, was released in the UK in early December 2022 and came out in the US a month or so earlier... [ read more ]
Even for a musician who thrives on unsettling expectations, Tyshawn Sorey's Mesmerism (Yeros7 Music, 2022) caught a lot of listeners by surprise. The inimitable drummer's recordings have long occupied that amorphous space between avant-garde jazz and contemporary classical music, and "accessibility" has rarely been the term of choice for his creative output... [ read more ]
"Let's play two," the famous line by the Cubs Hall-of-Fame baseball player Ernie Banks in 1969, uttered when the temperature in Chicago had reached 105 degrees (40.5 celsius) and his teammates were exhausted, might find its analogy with this massive undertaking from saxophonist Ivo Perelman... [ read more ]
Arild Andersen began his association with ECM Records in 1975, with the release of his album Clouds In My Head. He has released over 20 more recordings in a leadership role for the label, and has participated in even more albumsand#151;for ECM and other labelsand#151;in a sideman role, joining artists as diverse as pianists Bobo Stenson, Ketil Bjornstad and Yelena Eckemoff, saxophonists Jan Garbarek and Tommy Smith... [ read more ]
Guitarist Mathieu Soucy, a 2019 graduate of Canada's McGill University, in Montreal, hits the ground running with a splendid debut album, Recollecting, on which he guides a talented quartet of young musicians through seven of his engaging compositions plus {m: Thelonious Monk = 9507}}'s "Reflections" and the well-traveled Rodgers and Hart standard, "Where or When" (sung by Humber College alum Caity Gyorgy)... [ read more ]
Walking Cliche Sextet, led by bassist SeaJun Kwon, is one of those bands that cut a ragged path between several genres of music. Jazz, prog rock, classical, drones, and other elements all get mixed into a spiky, ever-changing musical stew with a raucous edge reminiscent of some of Henry Threadgill's music... [ read more ]
The late tenor saxophonist Fraser MacPherson was well-known in western Canada and elsewhere for his brillianceand#151;but as player, not a writer. In fact, according to MacPherson's son Guy, who wrote the excellent liner notes to From the Pen of..., his father wrote barely a dozen or so original compositions, almost all of which are included on this superlative album with performances by a who's who of well- known jazz artists from Canada and other countries... [ read more ]
Songs of the Doomed is, in essence, the love child of self-stylized journalism and outré composition methodologies. Drawing inspiration from the work of Hunter S. Thompson, vibraphonist Dan McCarthy created the gonzo cypher to help translate some of the maverick's writer's lines into tone rows... [ read more ]
Up-and-coming trumpeter and vocalist Kate Hamann showcases the full breadth of her talents on her full-length debut, the captivating Momentary Beauty. In addition to deftly leading her band, playing her horns, and singing, Hamann penned all the music that comprises the album. The laid back cadence of the rhythm section, Hamann's own incandescent tones, and saxophonist Jason Arkins' occasional lyrical interjections create the cozy ambience of a languid summer evening... [ read more ]
What are the first two names that come to mind on reading the phrase 'Thelonious Monk's saxophonist'? Chances are they will be John Coltrane or Charlie Rouse. The runner-up could be Sonny Rollins and somewhere further down the field might be Johnny Griffin... [ read more ]
Anyone who appreciates the thunderous sound of an assertive baritone sax should love New Beginnings, an emphatic quartet date that shines a light on Jason Marshall's muscular horn and keeps it there from start to finish. While his teammates (Marc Cary, piano; Gerald Cannon, bass; Willie Jones III, drums) converse eloquently on every one of the album's eight numbers, Marshall affixes a decisive exclamation mark on every sentence... [ read more ]
While mostly under the radar, Massimo Colombo is surely one of Europe's finest talents. The Italian pianist and arranger has many works to his credit, including his exceptional tributes to Bud Powell and Weather Report, Powell To The People (Jazzland DZ, 2018) and Acoustic Weather (Self-produced, 2019)... [ read more ]
In its own peculiar way, World Record is as confounding as the previous two albums by Neil Young with Crazy Horse. Yet it's far more compelling, this despite its comparably impromptu, borderline sloppy nature. This title might be heard as a progression from or an extension of Colorado (Reprise, 2019) and/or Barn (Reprise, 2021, except that the occasionally excessive air of spontaneity that permeates the material and the performances begs the question of how Rick Rubin contributed to this recording in the role of co-producer... [ read more ]
Marc Copland is a former saxophonist who found his instrument artistically confining for the purposes of expressing his vision. So he called on his childhood piano training (synaptic memories intact) to make the switch to the keyboard. The results have been magic. His artistry with the 88s is second only to the late Bill Evans, and an argument for his surpassing of Evans could be made... [ read more ]
Pianist Christopher Lucas Wilson demonstrates his sophisticated style and vibrant sense of swing on his third release as a leader, the delightful Solemn Moments. Informed by the turmoil of the pandemic, the intimate set was recorded in Wilson's hometown of Detroit. Evenly split between covers and originals, the album boasts both thematic cohesiveness and engaging variation... [ read more ]
The oft-quoted description of a sitting meditation practice, "It's simple but not easy," might be a fitting characterization of this duo performance by cornetist Kirk Knuffke and bassist Michael Bisio... [ read more ]
Formed in 2015, Bog Bodies is an international trio comprising tenor saxophonist Robert Stillman, guitarist Anders Holst and drummer Sean Carpio... [ read more ]
Tenor saxophonist Sam Taylor is a man with a purpose. He is committed to sharing the joy music brings him with like-minded listeners. For this album, he brought together a number of his heroes including trumpeter Terell Stafford, pianist Jeb Patton, bassist Neal Miner and drummer Willie Jones III at one of jazz's most iconic recording studios, the Van Gelder Studios at Englewood Cliffs NJ, on January 31, 2022, under the guidance of engineer Maureen Sickler... [ read more ]
Avram Fefer comes out swinging on Juba Lee, the second release from his quartet,. It must have certainly been fated, as the opener "Showtime" hits hard with its muscular sound. Fefer's tenor saxophone blows out any existing cobwebs before handing off to guitarist Marc Ribot... [ read more ]
The number Twelve has several explicit meanings on Israeli-born composer/pianist Noam Lemish's eighth album as leader of his own ensemble, which is twelve members strong (well, thirteen on the first two numbers, on which Laura Swankey adds wordless vocals, and twenty-five if one counts the thirteen-member chorus on Track 3)... [ read more ]
Brazilian-born pianist/vocalist and multi-Grammy-winning artist Eliane Elias returns to her musical roots on Quietude, her 31st album as leader and a follow up to her Grammy Award-winning album Mirror, Mirror (Candid Records, 2021), a duet with the late Chick Corea and Chucho Valdes... [ read more ]
If the word accessible is even a thing in the vast musical vernacular of alto saxophonist Tim Berne and the ever willing collaborator pianist Matt Mitchell, they take full advantage of it on One More Please, their fourth duo date... [ read more ]
The Thoughts and Images on bassist Alex Tremblay's album of that name are essentially his own (he composed and arranged every number), so the outcome must be appraised for the most part using those ingredients as a touchstone. Not that the musicianship is unimportant; on the contrary, the way in which Tremblay's quintet assesses and performs his generally agreeable themes is another notable element in the equation... [ read more ]
It's uncanny how More Touch, vibraphonist Patricia Brennan's scarily good follow-up to her head-turning debut Maquishti (Valley of Search, 2021) follows one around all day. Its essence is in the air, in the room, in the conversation. It sneaks around the corner and races down the stairs, out into the street, and breaks into any and all of the machinations that drive the day... [ read more ]
New York pianist and keyboardist Ted Kooshian continues his love affair with classic TV, cartoon themes and the pop scene, on Hubub!, offering a selection of striking originals influenced by his "enthusiastic love for pop culture," which includes tributes to actors Steve McQueen and William Shatner of Star Trek fame... [ read more ]
Chris Biscoe has played in the bands led by the great British composer Mike Westbrook and/or his wife, singer and lyricist Kate Westbrook, every year since 1979 bar one. He is the Westbrooks' first-call saxophonist and clarinetist and the love runs both ways... [ read more ]
Julie London made a name for herself as an actress and a singer during the '50s and '60s. Today, however, her legacy as a singer overshadows her acting career. During her lifetime, she released around thirty albums, and several of the recordings still continue to influence jazz performers... [ read more ]
There have probably not been two more disparate individuals in jazz than the pianists Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk. Ellington was a florid individual in all aspects of his life, with his speaking style, his sartorial choices, and his compositions which were informed by ever-growing inspirational sources... [ read more ]
With Discover, jny: Milwaukee-based trumpeter and jazz educator Eric Jacobson and team take us on an aural time trip back to the days when album covers were iconically black and white or monochrome and the contents within were drenched in blue-hued Hard Bop... [ read more ]
Drummer Jeff Ballard has kept himself busy and productive while his long-time collaborator, pianist/composer Brad Mehldau, has been engaged in projects other than the trio in which they share membership... [ read more ]
In the esteemed lineage of Bill Evans and Eddie Gomez, Hank Jones and Charlie Haden, Kenny Barron and Dave Holland, pianist Alex Sjobeck and bassist David Baker bring to the fore Pictures In Time, a warm, richly defined nine song collection of emotive and meditative vignettes, each one more rewarding than the last... [ read more ]
Universos is a trio album featuring Yotam Silberstein on guitar, accordionist and pianist Vitor Goncalves, with drummer Daniel Dor, plus special guests... [ read more ]
To hear and see Neil Young express such deep-seated personal contentment near the end of his film Harvest Time is to understand more fully why he would go to some lengths to curate a box set of the album upon which the movie is based. While some of the content enclosed on the CDs and DVDs in the 50th Anniversary Edition of the 1972 album has been in unofficial circulation for awhile, immersion in the collection vividly depicts the vagaries of the creative process in general, not just this iconoclastic Canadian's... [ read more ]
Vocalist/musician/songwriter Jimmy Hall has had quite the career for himself. From his days as frontman for Dixie rockers Wet Willie-- remember "Keep On Smilin'"?--to more recently singing with guitar hero Jeff Beck, he's navigated spots on the Allman Family Revival tour as well as commanded the stage on multiple occasions with the latter-day Allman Brothers Band during their final years of annual runs at the Beacon Theater... [ read more ]
Not to mince words, this is a splendid album by New York-based pianist Spike Wilner and his trio, recorded in January 2022 at GP's Juke Joint, which must double as a recording studio, as there is no audience. No matter the venue, it is difficult to wander too far astray when playing the music of Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington, even though the album could have been called Plays Monk and Ellington and Strayhorn as the last two numbers, "U.M.M.G." and "Intimacy of the Blues," were not written by Ellington but by his dependable right hand man, the inimitable Billy Strayhorn... [ read more ]
The death of the Great American Songbook as a vehicle for aspiring singers is sometimes announced. Someone should tell the singers. Because this season alone has seen a crop of good recordings, most of them reviewed in AAJ, and very favorably so in the main. Tracye Eileen, a jny: Chicago vocalist with roots in the jazz community, continues the stream to good effect... [ read more ]
On the surface, The Allman Brother Band's Syria Mosque Pittsburgh, PA January 17, 1971, would appear to be just another in a long line of live releases featuring the original six-man lineup of the archetypal Southern blues-rockers. It is, however, markedly superior on many fronts... [ read more ]
In terms of an honest assessment of an artist's qualities, press releases are rarely worth the paper they are no longer printed on. An exception is the release accompanying Australian-born, New York-based trumpeter and composer Nadje Noordhuis' exquisitely lyrical Full Circle. It is an exception partly because it is written by Elan Mehler, the artistic director of audiophile label Newvelle Records and a pianist who first blew the mind of this reviewer with his quietly sensational sophomore album, The After Suite (Brownswood), back in 2009... [ read more ]
Writing about Norway's Oddgier Berg trio and discussing the group's terrific debut album Before Dawn (Ozella Music, 2018), one reviewer said that Berg and his mates were "A group to keep an eye and both ears on." That writer was spot on. The trio followed up that auspicious first effort with In the End Of The Night (Ozella Music, 2019), maintaining the same atmospheric, often gloomy introspection, bringing the long, cold Scandinavian winter darkness to mind with deliberative compositions featuring subtle dynamic shifts and grayish crepuscular beauty... [ read more ]
By the time Al Di Meola, Jean-Luc Ponty and Stanley Clarke were recorded in 1994 at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festivaland#151;remarkably, in their first time ever playing together in publicand#151;each had established a solid reputation in the jazz-fusion field and beyond... [ read more ]
Pianist and composer Kevin Fort follows his extraordinary debut, Red Gold (CD Baby, 2014), with another tip of the hat to jazz standards and the modern tradition; Perspectives is a musical package nicely filled with new arrangements of six classics and four new originals, performed by a standard piano trio... [ read more ]
Anyone familiar with the Elsewhere label (or Edition Wandelweiser or Another Timbre...) will have frequently encountered Swiss composer and clarinetist Jürg Frey. In addition, those who regularly listen to Elsewhere will have heard much of Dutch pianist Reinier van Houdt... [ read more ]
Scenes'' first album dates back to 2001, but the origins of the band dates back to the early 1990s, when saxophonist Rick Mandyck, bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer John Bishop initiated a trio gig... [ read more ]
Chris Pitsiokos contains multitudes. His sounds do, and from that one can extrapolate, he as an artist also. He can be found in multiple settings from chamber music to rock and noise. His music touches on improvisation, free jazz, and fusion... [ read more ]
Jazz in China may be little known, but jny: Shanghai-based composer and guitarist Jun Xiao is no doubt among the earliest to shape the landscape. His sophomore effort Atypical Airship (Blue Note/Universal Music China, 2022) visualizes the personal astro-Arcadia, blurs genre lines and especially blends jazz dynamics with rock form, breaks limitations of his musical identity, and showcases a well-selected group of China's first-line jazz musicians... [ read more ]
In a Funk is the second recording as leader by Illinois-bred composer / arranger Justin Haynes, the first by his eighteen-member Jazz Collective. As was true of his debut album, Shoeless in Georgetown (2015), the most impressive cards are Haynes' splendid charts, ably performed by an ensemble of accomplished and purposeful musicians from the Chicago area... [ read more ]
Six tunes about food or, more precisely, six tunes in tribute to the eggplant (aka the aubergine or the patlican); that is the tracklist for Aubergine / Patlican, a delightfully fresh and joyous album from Turkish guitarist Önder Focan. An established jazz musician with over a dozen albums to his name, Focan is based in Istanbul where he is artistic director of the Nardis Jazz Club... [ read more ]
Although we mourn the millions (estimated 6.5 million) of lives lost in the the great pandemic of the 21st century, some good things have survived. For our purposes, great expressions in music making. Live In Lisbon is a perfect example. Guitarist Ben Monder assembled a trio with saxophonist Tony Malaby and drummer Tom Rainey at the cusp of the pandemic in March of 2020 to perform at his Tuesday gig in New York... [ read more ]
The "Rudy's" in the title of tenor saxophonist Houston Person's album, Reminiscing at Rudy's, is not a nightclub or other such venue but the New Jersey studio of celebrated recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder who died in 2016. As befits reminiscing, the bulk of the album's numbers are tender ballads, every one of which lands squarely in Person's amorous wheelhouse... [ read more ]
Every language has words that defy translation. Take "saudade" in Portuguese or Galician. Or "fado." Go to a standard dictionary, and "saudade" appears as "nostalgia" or "longing." In reality, a native speaker will tell you "saudade" means a kind of indefinable melancholy for people, places or things that may only exist in the imagination, and "fantasy" will not even come close... [ read more ]
Who knew back in the early days of jazz that the songs written back then would later become standards and inspire people in the "far far away" 2022? Marína Ósk, a promising emerging musician from Reykjavík, Iceland, has found her composer's voice in writing lyrical jazz pieces which sound like some songs of the "Great American Songbook." One can sense that Ósk's album One Evening in July (TengTones, 2022) was deeply influenced by recordings of Ella Fitzgerald and Chet Baker... [ read more ]
2022 marks the ninety-second year of pianist and composer Ahmad Jamal. An NEA Jazz Master and Grammy winner, in 2007 he was designated a Kennedy Center honoree as a Living Jazz Legend. His first release was The Three Strings (Epic, 1951) and, throughout that decade, he recorded a dozen albums, all in a piano trio format... [ read more ]
Although critical consensus would have it that jazz is a unique art form with its roots placed squarely in America, the music has always been open to the influences of other music and cultures. Prime examples would have to include the early strains of French gypsy music that morphed with jazz thanks to the influence of Django Reinhardt in the '40s... [ read more ]
Chuck D of Public Enemy fame once said, "rap music is the CNN of the ghetto." His words, coupled with samples and the scratching of turntables, were revelatory in their day, very much like a five-minute news update. Poet and cultural critic Fred Moten's words are more like a deep dive graduate colloquy... [ read more ]
Plenty of jazz fans loathe "holiday" albums, defined as many of them are by cheap sentimentality and fake bonhomie. If the eggnog does not make you retch, the tackily jazzed-up Christmas carols will. But Louis Armstrong's Louis Wishes You A Cool Yule is an exception. Armstrong himself was exceptional... [ read more ]
In the 1980s, as a co-founder of the band Jazz Warriors and with his debut album Journey To The Urge Within (Island, 1986), reed player Courtney Pine inspired a generation young black British musicians, and not a few white ones, too. On Spirituality, Pine teams up with pianist Zoe Rahman, herself an influential figure, for a reprise of their album Song (The Ballad Book) (Destin-E, 2015)... [ read more ]
Herbie Hancock's Headhunters (Columbia, 1973) remains one of the seminal works of the jazz fusion era. The group's heavy emphasis on rhythm not only separated it from its guitar-oriented peers of the era, the Mahavishnu Orchestra and the middle-period Return to Forever, but also from Weather Report: grooves became increasingly more prominent as that band evolved, but never to the depth of Hancock and company's all-encompassing funk... [ read more ]
Music is sound, but is sound music? For John Cage, sound was indeed music. His avant-garde experiments with silence, environmental sounds, and prepared instruments opened up an entire world for discovery and others' improvisations. Even though he disliked the concept of improvisation, preferring chance to a musician's choices, our modern and post-modern free improvisation world has much for which to thank him... [ read more ]
Trumpeter Thomas Marriott settled into his groove on the Seattle-based Origin Records. He released more than a dozen discs under his own name there, including the gorgeous Romance Language (2020), a striking ballad set, and Trumpet Ship (2018), a high-energy bop workout. And then there was Crazy: The Music of Willie Nelson (Origin Records, 2008), described as having "a distinctly modern and often brash tone." And "Favoring some serious musical adventurousness." With Live From The Heat Dome that modernity, brashness and a sense of adventure are back, as the artist makes a 2022 switch to Inami Records... [ read more ]
"I Hear Music," from Nashville-based vocalist, pianist and arranger Diane Marino, is a twelve-track retrospective of selections--famous and not so--drawn from the Songbook, as well as being associated with such great artists as Dakota Staton, Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O'Day, and others... [ read more ]
Welcome to the jungle. Composer, pianist, and orchestra leader Eve Risser sends us greetings from the wilds. It is this forest she has been exploring with European and West African musicians. Her expedition is a hypnotic journey dense with percussive attacks and mesmeric states... [ read more ]
Having been an active member of Eddie Prévost's Friday night Workshop since the early years of the millennium, experimental guitarist James O'Sullivan has not learned to improvise by receiving lessons per se but, like many other Workshop participants, by playing with like-minded individuals, listening, searching for sounds, experimenting, making mistakes and learning from them... [ read more ]
In unsettled and unsettling times, it is a relief to know that Putt Lake Toodleloo is within easy reach. Its humble stance, breezy accessibility and easy familiarity serve as a respite from the dark anxious winds that gather. Two-time Grammy nominee and NAIRD award winner, guitarist/educator/composer/author Doug Munro, who founded the Purchase College Jazz Studies program and served as its director from 1993--2002, leads his spirited octet, the La Pompe Attack, through a swaying mix of originals and tried and true chestnuts for a mix that neither challenges nor fatigues, but simply lowers the blood pressure, takes a few deep breaths, and pours a glass of wine for the weary... [ read more ]
Pianist, vocalist and composer Blossom Dearie may have been diminutive in stature and voice but certainly never in talent. She began her career in New York in the mid 1940s and then moved to Paris in the early 1950s to form the vocal group The Blue Stars, which eventually morphed into the Swingle Singers... [ read more ]
The 2018 release of this 1966 animated television special soundtrack made the music available for the first time. Pianist/composer Vince Guaraldi led a sextet (rather than his usual trio), resulting in richer-sounding, more complex arrangements... [ read more ]
Multi-instrumentalist Sir Karl William Pamp Jenkins CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) is a successful composer of classical, film and TV music. But before he went over to the Dark Side, the then plain old Karl Jenkins was a member of the Rebel Alliance and a pivotal presence in British jazz rock... [ read more ]
Yosef Gutman Levitt's acoustic bass guitar serves as the lead instrument on this album. The music he plays with his trio here is full of simple melodic beauty and draws from several folk traditions. This work has a sparse, contemplative joy which bears kinship to the recordings of Ralph Towner... [ read more ]
There are two ways of looking at Hubub!, pianist Ted Kooshian's fifth album as leader. The first is, "nothing new here"; and the second, "everything is new here." On the one hand, Kooshian's able quintet hews closely to the post-bop canon which has given rise to its fabric; on the other, they do so within the framework of Kooshian's bright and engaging melodies, none of which seems commonplace or shopworn... [ read more ]
Trumpeter Tito Carillo's second bite of the apple on Origin was more than a decade in the making, following up his outstanding first release, Opening Statement (Origin, 2011). With Urbanessence (Origin, 2022), the Chicago-based artist is truly up to the task, producing a work which is an homage to everyday life in the city... [ read more ]
Carlos Jimenez is a kind of metaphor for Latin jazz, from Yonkers, New York, to Puerto Rico ("the island") and back, with instrumental and stylistic stops along the way. Jazz flute has had some storied practitioners, and Jiménez is obviously well along getting a foothold there too in this, his sixth album since 2005... [ read more ]
The group Scenes has released seven excellent albums over two decades of recording together, beginning with their eponymous debut (Origin Records, 2001). All of those are studio efforts. The group's 2022 outing, Variable Clouds is a first for Scenes--their first album recorded live in front of an audience, in 2021 at the Earshot Jazz Festival... [ read more ]
Notwithstanding a history including associations with the varied likes of famed jazz fretboardists John Abercrombie, and Chris Stamey of the veteran power popsters the dBs, guitarist Scott Sawyer may have the lowest public profile of the three musicians appearing on Change of Scene... [ read more ]
The first thing to register, within the opening few bars of Glaswegian tenor saxophonist Matt Carmichael's sophomore album, is how remarkably similar his sound is to that of New York's emerging saxophone colossus Oded Tzur. In an interview with All About Jazz in summer 2022, the Israeli-born Tzur named his primary formative influence as the great Dexter Gordon... [ read more ]
Mixed emotions must underline this review. Center Stage, featuring bassist Eddie Gomez, drummer Steve Gadd and baritone saxophonist Ronnie Cuber with Germany's superb WDR Big Band conducted by Michael Abene, was recorded in Cologne in January and February 2022... [ read more ]
The thing about a new Boney James album is that it is the same old Boney James album. James has skillfully found his niche as a musician and doggone if he's going to stray far from it. Detour is the saxophonist's 18th album as a leader, but the formula (and the songs) remain the same... [ read more ]
We've had a few from-the-vaults recordings worth celebrating since Esbjorn Svensson's sudden passing in mid-2008, but this long-belated discovery is a quiet surprise the music world could not have expected. There was the Esbjörn Svensson Trio (e.s.t.)'s final completed album Leukocyte (ACT Music) that same year, later followed by the equally exploratory 301 (ACT, 2012) which was compiled from the same sessions... [ read more ]
Insub dates back to 2006 when it began in Geneva, Switzerland, as a netlabel called Insubordinations and a non-profit association, initially called Association Insubordinations, both soon shortened to Insub, for obvious reasons. The Insub Meta Orchestra was founded in 2010 by the duo of percussionist Cyril Bondi and electronicist Laurent Peter, aka 'd'incise.' Ever since, the duo and the orchestra have figured prominently in the Insub story... [ read more ]
Urbanessence, the second album as leader from Chicago-area trumpeter, composer and educator Tito Carrillo, is a rhythmic showcase for ten of his buoyant original compositions, all of which embody his love of BAM (Black American Music) and the lyric legacy of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Brazil and Peru... [ read more ]
Dave Liebman's Trust And Honesty is the third release in Newvelle Records' limited edition audiophile-vinyl autumn 2022 Renewal Collection. It follows Elan Mehler's There Is A Dance and Michael Blake's Combobulate, both previously reviewed on these pages... [ read more ]
Sardinia is never far from Paolo Angeli's heart and mind. In a storied career, the Italian guitarist has often drawn inspiration from his island's landscapes, soundscapes, culture and history, notably on albums such as S'û (ReR Megacorp, 2015) and Jar'a (ReR Megacorp, 2021)... [ read more ]
Just from the paperwork alone, it was duly expected that Alien Skin would be unruly, raw, and cathartic. That is just the nature of the beast. That is just the way the big man planned it. But even with all that said, no one (including the players) saw Alien Skin coming down the runway. A bayou bebop rave-up of the highest order, the album's madcap namesake rips the veil, drops the mic, and makes subversive a badge of honor... [ read more ]
Ready or not, Christmas music is on the way. And this is Christmas music, old school. Do you remember The Andy Williams Christmas Album? Then, as the old joke goes, there may be fire in the hearth, but snow on the roof, because that was 1963, at least the first version. This recording, for sure, is a walk down memory lane and will produce a lot of nostalgia in listeners of a certain age... [ read more ]
The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Los Angeles Forum April 26, 1969 is an integral component of one of the earliest posthumous Jimi Hendrix anthologies, the four x CD set Lifelines: The Jimi Hendrix Story (Reprise, 1990). Yet it appeared there in slightly truncated form, and until this standalone release, the entire concert has never been issued in its entirety... [ read more ]
The coastal rainforest of Brazil, otherwise known as Mata Atlantica, and "its beauty and vivacity" are the inspiration for Retiro e Ritmo. It is an album frontloaded with a varied cast of characters from hither and yon. Maybe that casting is behind a project seeking to draw worldwide attention to the ongoing shit-storm that includes not only the Amazon but the whole planet... [ read more ]
Australian saxophonist and composer Jeremy Rose has created a unique body of work since he arrived on the music scene in 2008 with his collaborative quartet, The Vampires. He has forged an innovative path over the course of several local and international projects and multiple recordings... [ read more ]
Since Rory Gallagher's untimely passing in 1995, there have been more than a few posthumous audio and video packages devoted to the prolific output of the late bluesman. And while most of them, supervised by family members as is this one, have been both historically exacting and passionate in devotion to their subject, none are more so than this Deuce: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of the man's second solo album... [ read more ]
The shiny silver disc of Brian Eno's CD is encased in a simple outer shell of cardboard, accompanied by an equally unassuming booklet with over a half-dozen spherical images. In all probability, this modest packaging and those spheres, many supported by skeletal broadcast tower-like shafts, is a cryptic puzzle being used by Eno to help him contact someone, somewhere far, far beyond the faintest of stars... [ read more ]
Adding politically charged spoken-word lyrics to instrumental jazz needs to be done with care, because if sloganeering is tedious to listen to once, it becomes unbearable on repeated exposure. The record containing it drops off one's playlist. Counterproductive or what? The British saxophonist and rapper Soweto Kinch, however, has pulled the trick off many times... [ read more ]
The worlds of classical and jazz frequently intersect. Composers such as Igor Stravinsky and George Gershwin are known for incorporating jazz motifs into their work. In contrast, compositions by such jazz artists as Duke Ellington and The Modern Jazz Quartet often show the influence of classical music... [ read more ]
Caldera constitutes an impressive final entry in the Lithuanian NoBusiness imprint's Sam Rivers Archive Project. It showcases the legendary multi-instrumentalist's longstanding trio with bassist Doug Matthews and drummer Anthony Cole, which he established two years after his relocation from New York to Florida in 1991 and which remained active until 2006... [ read more ]
Book Of Innocence, an album from pianist Stefano Travaglini and reedist Achille Succi, opens with a tune entitled "Rothko," taking inspiration from the Russian-born abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko. The music is an edgy, frenetic romp... [ read more ]
The beat goes on. Yes, that was a big hit for Sonny and Cher back in 1967. However, here it references the third volume of drummer Rob Silverman's Drumology series. The formula seems to be working, so why not keep pounding them out? Again all proceeds go to the Neil Peart Fund for brain cancer research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center... [ read more ]
On October 21st 2022, America's PBS channel screened a two-hour documentary about the life and work of Ron Carter titled Finding The Right Notes. This seventy-three minute CD is the soundtrack. It is a beauty, a roll-around-in feast of Carter's inimitable, sumptuous bass. The ten tracks, recorded between 2014 and 2021 in Europe and America, has Carter in situations ranging from duos to a big band, playing jazz standards, songs from the Great American Songbook and his own compositions... [ read more ]
Originally released on CD on the Criss Cross label in 1993, Hammond B3 organist Melvin Rhyne's Boss Organ is issued here for the first time on vinyl. Spanish archive label Elemental, under license from Criss Cross, has repackaged it as a double LP in a gatefold sleeve on 180-gram audiophile vinyl... [ read more ]
Sustaining a career as a full-time working musician, especially if you live far from major urban centers, requires that you speak several languages. With a resume that includes party band Hey Mavis to the acclaimed period-instrument Baroque orchestra Apollo's Fire, jny: Cleveland-based drummer Anthony Taddeo qualifies on musical terms... [ read more ]
Guitarist Greg Chako has always considered himself a composer and arranger first and foremost over his abilities as a player. After a long chapter in his life where he performed and produced music in Asia, his return to the states and coming back home to Cincinnati, has energized the guitarist and filled him with a new sense of purpose, resuming his prolific music career by signing with a new label (Mint 400 Records), re-releasing previously produced recordings and finally presenting Friends, Old and New... [ read more ]
Viewed from the other side of the Atlantic, Mike Westbrook is probably Britain's best kept secret. A composer, pianist and tubaistand#151;above all, composerand#151;Westbrook's recording career began in the late 1960s. Since then he has released upwards of fifty albums, spanning jazz rock through jazz and contemporary-classical fusions such as the 2 x CD London Bridge Live In Zurich 1990... [ read more ]
These are solo recordings by two musicians who can create dense forests of sound with only one instrument. one with the help of electronics and the other just using his lips, breath and tongue. Glenn Dickson Wider Than The Sky Self-Produced 2022 Glenn Dickson is a klezmer clarinetist who has been experimenting with electronic effects since the early 2000s... [ read more ]
"Take a page out of Judy Whitmore's playbook for life, and be inspired by a true modern-day Renaissance woman--cabaret and recording artist, best-selling author, and licensed jet pilot--whose passion for adventure has audiences and readers across America abandoning their fears and reawakening to long-forgotten dreams and new desires." Thus Judy Whitmore, her web page... [ read more ]
Jazz guitarist Greg Diamond presents the enchanting Calera Solo Sessions, his fifth album as leader, second solo album and first recording on the classical guitar. As he states, the album ..."is a series of compositions written primarily for solo classical guitar; however, as such they are not bound to any specific genre." The project is dedicated to the memory of his late father, Jerome H... [ read more ]
Franco Ambrosetti's album is called simply Nora. Short and sweet, four letters, two syllables. But it could easily have been called "Franco Ambrosetti with Strings," as the Swiss flugelhornist and trumpeter follows the orchestral path of alto saxophonist Charlie Parker and his groundbreaking Charlie Parker With Strings (Verve, 1950), trumpeter Chet Baker's Chet Baker with Strings (Columbia, 1953) or trumpeter Clifford Brown's Clifford Brown with String (Verve, 1955)... [ read more ]
Percussionist Greg Stuart is afflicted with focal dystonia, a neurological disorder which limits the motor function of one hand. Despite that physical challenge, Stuart has undertaken a sweeping and ambitious percussion album which goes beyond the traditional drum kit... [ read more ]
If trumpeter Eric Jacobson's name doesn't ring a bell, it could be because he is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, not in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles or any other jazz mecca. What's more, Jacobson has not recorded often; Discover is only his second date as leader or co-leader... [ read more ]
Few places on the global jazz scene are enjoying the enthusiastic resurgence of the genre more than the UK. Names that are becoming more familiarand#151;Binker Golding, Nubya Garcia, Idris Rahman, Shabaka Hutchings and othersand#151;have triggered something of a youth movement... [ read more ]
Is it OK for music to be background? In other words, does all music have to be listened to with the same degree of concentration and freedom from distraction? It may be a moot question in these greatly distracted times. Here's another, related question: is the music you want on in the background necessarily inferior to the stuff you need to pay attention to? This new album from flutist/tenor saxophonist Chip Wickham is in the genre of spiritual jazz kicked off by the late Pharoah Sanders, and it follows a similar trajectory to his 2020 release Blue to Red (Lovemonk, 2020): each tune starts up, usually a simple melody on just one or two chords, and after the solos it finishes... [ read more ]
Southern California-based saxophonist, songwriter and award-winning producer Jason "Spicy G" Goldman, presents There's Only One, an engaging encore performance to his previously well-received album Hypnotized (2020, Self-Produced). This offering provides a selection of re-imagined standards supported by a core septet, plus the addition of violins and cello on selected tracks, that manages to produce a large ensemble sound affirming the axiom "the little big band that could." Complementing the music here is Goldman's collaboration with the vibrant young vocalist Lia Booth, who has quickly established herself as one of the most in-demand and talked about singers in the Southern California jazz scene... [ read more ]
Aside from the Grateful Dead (and possibly Rush), there's perhaps no band that can boast a more die-hard fan base than Little Feat's. It seems that embracing a group with prime instrumental and songwriting skills, that authentically incorporates rock, country, blues and New Orleans funk, with some jazz and even fusion touches, that were the darlings of their top-tier rock contemporaries and DJs alikeand#151;and that for some reason never really got the popular attention they deservedand#151;makes the embrace that much stronger... [ read more ]
Roger Clark Miller (who has simply been "Roger Miler" on many prior recordings) has a hell of a resume. He is best known for his guitar-playing in the experimental rock band Mission of Burma, which he co-founded in 1979. But he has also made piano-based music with Maximum Electric Piano, The Binary System and Birdsongs of the Mesozoic... [ read more ]
To say that saxophonist Ivo Perelman and pianist Matthew Shipp have seamless synergy is an understatement. After a dozen and a half improvised duet albums the two men form a single creative entity, one that is multifaceted, dynamic and crackles with spontaneity. Fruition, their eighteenth, is a stimulating set of eleven interlinked tracks which has a melancholic undercurrent and a fluid poetry... [ read more ]
No matter your format of choice--the deluxe 180g 3-LP set, streaming, or a 2-CD packageand#151;there is some serious, late 60's hard bop soul-searching happening on this eye-opening, mind-expanding, previously unreleased Revival: Live at Pookie's Pub. Elvin Jones cleared the cobwebs just two weeks after John Coltrane's passing and the resounding end to the classic quartet of Coltrane, Jones, McCoy Tyner and Jimmy Garrison... [ read more ]
Lars Gullin was a Swedish baritone saxophonist active mainly in the Fifties and Sixties and known for his work on his native jazz scene as well as playing with American stars such as Chet Baker and Lee Konitz... [ read more ]
Alto saxophonist Rob Brown has always been accompanied by adroit and masterful drummers. Throughout his career he can be heard with the likes of Denis Charles, Jackson Krall, Lou Grassi, Warren Smith, Marc Edwards, Satoshi Takeishi, Whit Dickey, Luther Gray, Andrew Barker, Gerald Cleaver, and Hamid Drake... [ read more ]
Cacophony! Cataclysm! Clamor! Construction! Reconstruction! Deconstruction! These are some of the signposts that lie ahead while listening to the relentless siege of Bagman Live at Cafe Oto. The sonic destroyer, British pianist Pat Thomasand#151;who at age 60 is beginning to cut a wider swath through the free jazz world then ever beforeand#151; spearheads fellow raconteurs, drummer Raymond Strid and saxophonist Sture Ericson, through a senses-clearing blowout of maximum proportions- Call the music what you will, even call it non-music or noise if you must, but this is a sound not to be turned away from... [ read more ]
The conventions of traditional jazz can provide a refreshing simplicity. If proffered with sufficient panache and ingenuity, the music transcends its superficial stylistic principles and tenders what amounts to a reboot of the psyche. So it is with Bobby Broom's Keyed Up and Bobby Watson's Back Home In Kansas City; with both of these albums, the artists draw on their own history and by extension, that of jazz at large, using their cumulative knowledge and technical expertise to formulate long-players that remain true representations of the genre, reaffirming the veracity and durability of its accepted boundaries... [ read more ]
The first thirty-three minutes or so of Rituals, the latest album by the excellent Frankfurt Radio (hr) Big Band, is an homage to Igor Stravinsky's symphonic suite The Rite of Spring, which premiered in Paris in 1913, reimagined "in the Stravinsky spirit" by the group's director, Jim McNeely, in a big-band framework and featuring the acclaimed American tenor saxophonist Chris Potter... [ read more ]
Once improvisers reach a certain level of experience, it is rare that a meeting between them does not deliver the goods. By this stage they are well versed in the mechanics of collective music making off the map. They have developed a fine sense of when to play and when not, how much they can respond without it becoming predictable, and a host of other similarly arcane split-second decisions which happen faster than thought... [ read more ]
British pianists Howard Riley and Keith Tippett were seasoned proponents of the never widespread format of the piano duet, both together and apart. Riley's partners also included Jaki Byard as well as overdubbed sessions with himself, while Tippett's discography contains entries with Stan Tracey, Daryl Runswick and Matthew Bourne (though the last took place subsequent to this 2016 concert at Soho's Pizza Express)... [ read more ]
Saxophonist Tim Berne has gained most of his notoriety via small group recordings, with ensembles such as Big Satan, Hard Cell, Snakeoil and Science Friction. His partnership with ECM Records, beginning with 2012's Snakeoil--after a few sideman contributions on the label--lifted his profile, deservedly... [ read more ]
East/West jazz fusion has a long presence on the U.S. jazz scene and that foothold has been growing in the 2000s. Composer/guitarist/oud player Jussi Reijonen is uniquely qualified to bridge musical cultures. Nordic by birth, he has lived in the Middle East, Africa, and the U.S., absorbing native music at each stop... [ read more ]
Eyes Like Predatory Wealth by the trio Apparitions is an ambient drone-heavy metal recording and a sound collage, à la Teo Macero and his mad scientist Miles Davis mixes. For their debut recording, guitarist Andrew Dugas and drummer Grant Martin invited Igor Imbu (Wøunds) to add his synthesizer to this geographically diverse collaboration... [ read more ]
Voices Of Bishara is one of the top three jazz albums of 2022 so far and it would take the second comings of John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Horace Silver and Lee Morgan to threaten to dislodge it... [ read more ]
Unison Polyphony features two renowned Swiss players, Markus Eichenberger on clarinet and Christoph Gallio on saxophones. Considering that both were born in 1957 and first played together in the '80s, it is somewhat surprising that this is their first recording together... [ read more ]
The thrumming double basses of Larry Grenadier and Thomas Morgan initiate the conversation. Then the scattered insistence of rhythm by drummers Joey Baron and Jorge Rossy enters, pushing Once Around the Room into consciousness with all the anticipation and hushed intent of an orchestra tuning before a performance... [ read more ]
View With A Room looks in on two generations of American guitarists; the younger generation is represented by Julian Lage, the leader of the effort, and the older generation by Bill Frisell, who sits in on seven of the ten original Lage tunes ("Echo" is co-written by Lage and the set's bassist Jorge Roeder)... [ read more ]
The trumpet and the accordion may seem like an incompatible musical combination, and perhaps that may be so, except in the hands of Dutch trumpeter Eric Vloeimans and American accordionist Will Holshouser... [ read more ]
Into Another Land braids together the voices of percussionist Mauricio Zottarelli, guitarist George Muscatello and vocalist Shiri Zorn into music that has a much heavier impact than its light and bright, floating and breezy sound... [ read more ]
Drummer Gustavo Cortinas' previous album was cinematic in scale, and he has followed it with the more intimate yet equally enchanting Kind Regards (Saludos Afectuosos). Leading a quintet of young, intrepid, Chicago musicians, Cortinas interpretes ten of his own songs that explore themes of social justice, love, and life in general... [ read more ]
More than half a century after Sonny Rollins' civil rights statement Freedom Suite (Riverside, 1958), we have not advanced enough as a species to lay such sentiments to rest. The Ogún Meji Duoand#151;drummer Mark Lomax, II and saxophonist Edwin Bayardand#151;honor Rollins and the suite, with a new and different interpretation of his seminal work... [ read more ]
Guitarist Shawn Purcell's latest CD, 180, is all about swinging; Purcell's trio (Pat Bianchi on Hammond B3 organ, Jason Tiemann on drums) nestles squarely into the groove on the double-quick opener, "Cat and Mouse," which sets an upbeat tone for the album as a whole... [ read more ]
You Never Know is the Club d'Elf studio album that captures the whirling, overlapping orbits of acoustic, electric and exotic sounds of the floating improvisational collective, which has recorded and performed together for more than two decades, with crisp studio clarity... [ read more ]
While drummer Mike Clark and bassist Leon Lee Dorsey are the nominal leaders on Blues on Top, the album's subtitle --"featuring Mike LeDonne"--speaks volumes about its import and rationale... [ read more ]
For his first release as a leader, pianist Thomas Linger has surrounded himself with first rate musicians: guitarist Peter Bernstein, bassist Yasushi Nakamura]] and drummer {{Joe Farnsworth, each of whom share Linger's commitment to a reflective approach... [ read more ]
Those unfamiliar with the esoterica of the Hindu or Buddhist religious traditions may not know much about Mount Meru, a mysterious metaphysical destination said to be at the center of the world, either geographically or spiritually (or both). There is a Mount Meru in Tanzania as well, but Portuguese guitarist André B... [ read more ]
Some people can probably say what they were doing the first time they heard modern Brazilian music. The first wave hit in the early '60s with Vinicius de Moraes and Antonio Carlos Jobim, but there has been a great deal of water over the dam since then... [ read more ]
A career anthology of trumpeter Miles Davis' music would struggle for cohesion, trying to combine sounds from his Birth Of The Cool (Capitol, 1957) to the first and second great quintets, to Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1970) and On the Corner (Columbia, 1972)... [ read more ]
Having a wonderful new record from Greece come to the fore is a reminder of how random it all is. There are so many works of brilliance out there, all over the world, that no matter how hard one tries to uncover every stone, it is impossible to come close. It is necessary to be discerning. This album needs to be shared with as many serious jazz ears as possible... [ read more ]
The Path is the fourth record to be released by Canadian group The Cookers Quintet and is a collection of eight originals, recorded at the Warehouse, Vancouver, that were first played to live audiences on a West Canadian tour in the fall of 2021, and then put down in the studio. The album continues the legacy of the hard bop era that dominated the jazz scene in the 1950s and 1960s and is brought to life by tenor saxophonist Ryan Oliver along with trumpeter Tim Hamel and bassist Alex Coleman... [ read more ]
Flashbacks pop up immediately on registering the instrumentation (flugelhorn and piano) and material (jazz standards and Great American Songbook ballads) on Enrico Rava and Fred Hersch's The Song Is You. Among them, Chet Baker and Paul Bley's Diane (Steeplechase, 1985) and Baker and Enrico Pieranunzi's The Heart Of The Ballad (Philology, 1988)... [ read more ]
Ikigai is a Japanese concept which pertains to leading a vibrant, fulfilling, purposeful life. Over his career, Victor Haskins, who spent his early years in India, has obviously been influenced by the improvisational potential of music. With Ikigai, the visionary performer, composer and creator of "ImproviStory" delivers an utterly enthralling sonic exploration in nine originals... [ read more ]
The British trumpeter and composer Henry Lowther, who first made an impact in the 1960s and released the well received album Can't Believe, Won't Believe (Village Life) in 2018, came to jazz via a circuitous route. After playing cornet in a provincial Salvation Army band, he moved to London around 1960 to study violin at the Royal Academy of Music... [ read more ]
Saxophonist Brian Landrus created this project with a purpose summed up in its subtitle, Music Dedicated to the Preservation of our Endangered Species. The album was made to create awareness about all the animal species on Earth in danger of extinction, thirteen of which are explicitly referenced here... [ read more ]
In the Tyrrhenian Sea, just north of Sicily sits the tiny island of Vulcano, the mythological chimney of the Roman god of fire, Vulcan. While Italian trumpeter, Andrea Tofanelli may or may not be paying pay tribute to Vulcan or his eponymous isle, with Vulcano he's gathered some of Italy's top players to deliver 10 explosive tracks of screaming trumpet, killer ensemble, and A-1 solo playing... [ read more ]
The life stories of musicians raised along the Southern border of the United States tend to be compelling. The Juárez-El Paso conurbation is home to 2.7 million people. It is famous, not to say notorious, for many of its lurid stories of drugs, cartels, mayhem and violence. It is a pity that more of them are not like Abel Mireles' because where the news is sensational, the deeper substance of people's lives and culture often goes unnoticed... [ read more ]
Where so much music (like life itself) became permanently divided between the Covid-19 age and the world before, there were some creations here and there that bridged both sides of the gap. Lorenzo de Finti happened to have this set in progress when the first shutdowns hit, but suddenly ended up cut off from his home and studio for four months... [ read more ]
The Southwest region of North America is full of adventure, beautiful scenery, barren rocks of the desert wilderness, lonely great-walled canyons, blending cowboy influences and Spanish traditions. What is heard on A Southwest Story is a consistently calm, very sensitive and well-arranged album of instrumental piano music with a bright Southwestern flavor... [ read more ]
First things first: there is no doubt that Chris Walden's reverential Missa Iubileum Aureum ("Golden Jubilee Jazz Mass") is beautifully written and wonderfully performed by the LMR Jazz Orchestra, St. Dominick's Schola Cantorum and cantors Kurt Elling and Tierney Sutton... [ read more ]
Deep and wonderful instrumental music, mostly acoustic guitar, sometimes with fretless bass, and sometimes just a piano with no guitar, always flowing and gently weighty. "Passing" can mean a play that involves one player throwing the ball, or a natural event that involves a change in the position or location of something, and it can refer to the act or fact of dying... [ read more ]
After releasing the albums Hypnos (Mainland Records, 2011) with a quartet and Layers (Zennez Records, 2016) with a quintet (both bearing his name), Dutch guitarist/composer Michiel Stekelenburg introduces a trio with the traditional line-up of guitar, Hammond organ, played by Arno Krijger, and drums, played by Jasper van Hulten... [ read more ]
Brazilian singer and composer Daniela Soledade presents her sophomore release Pretty World continuing a family tradition of exploration into light bossa nova music. Recognized as a proponent for a new bossa nova sound, her unique hushed-styled vocals distinguish this singer from the other vocalists of the genre... [ read more ]
With the possible exception of Louis Armstrong, Clark Terry was probably the most unique trumpet "stylist" in jazz history. Hearing one note you would bet the farm that it was CT... [ read more ]