While it still displays plenty of Shipp’s rule-breaking flamboyance, a willingness to kick down the wall of tradition and traipse through the debris, there’s an introspection here, a sense of exploration turned deep inside instead of outside.
It may not be accurate to claim that Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers invented hard bop, they certainly epitomized it.
A lot of people think of big bands and jazz orchestras as repertoire acts, created to honor and/or exploit the music of the past. But there’s been a revival of large ensemble groupings in the jazz world of late, including Assembly of Shadows, led by composer and saxophonist Remy Le Boeuf.
As if former Drones leader Gareth Liddiard wasn’t busy enough with the prolific, hard-touring Tropical Fuck Storm, he has to go and form another band in his native Australia – during the pandemic no less.
This is a fun memento for Peanuts and Vince Guaraldi vinyl collectors, or anyone waiting at the pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin to finally make his grand entrance.
Featuring an expertly selected setlist and a bravura performance with a well-oiled band, Edizione Speciale shows a jazz veteran at his absolute best.
With a lineup like that, plus the decades of experience everyone brings to the table, there’s little chance of Homeward Bound sucking, and sure enough, it doesn’t.
Though weaned on Japanese classical music, pianist Ayumi Tanaka has done her most formative work in the Norwegian jazz scene.
With loyalty to guitar hooks and counterpoint harmonies, clever lyrics that made seedy personalities sound like the folks next door, and an expansive musical mind attuned to creating just the right arrangement or fill for the song at hand, the Los Angeleno makes music that has an easy familiarity without ever sounding specifically like anyone else.
A pastel psychedelic haze, seasoned with notes of modern angst.
Tenor saxophonist Chet Doxas is probably best known for playing in the jazz supergroup Riverside with trumpet star Dave Douglas and bass god Steve Swallow. But there are good reasons he keeps such heady company, and they’re on display on his latest leader LP You Can’t Take It With You.
Joined by bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland, one of the greatest, grooviest rhythm sections in jazz, Loueke focuses less on finger-twisting licks and more on using his impressive technique to convey the melodies in the most efficient way possible.
A lifelong Replacements fan talks about his 10 favorite bonus tracks (so far…) from the definitive new ‘Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash’ box set.
Saxophonist Kazemde George has performed alongside several certified badasses, including Jason Moran, David Murray and Solange Knowles – so you know he can play. What I Insist, his first album as a leader, proves is that he can write and lead a band as well.
Originally intended to be sketches for development at a later date, the songs settled into being complete in and of themselves, with Stevens generating patterns, following their offshoots, and adding smidgens of improvisation for spice.
As might be expected from three players who’ve been partners on and off for so long, the threesome connects on a level so deep it’s nearly spiritual.
The long and winding road of the Fab Four’s most troubled album.
Exactly what you’d hope for from the prime era of “college rock” – catchy, smart, cheeky, with plainspoken girl/guy next door singing and a perfect balance between jangle and crunch.
A longstanding practice in the jazz tradition is the concept of veterans collaborating with up-and-comers, and that’s what happens on Streams.
His boundless imagination and thirst for good stories beyond boy-meets-girl and this-is-why-I-killed-them-all fills his albums with songs that are structurally informed by the narrative flow, rather than melody or harmony. But that doesn’t mean they’re not musical.
Rightfully acclaimed as one of the most impressive and imaginative pianists currently treading the jazz boards, Craig Taborn has played everything from hard bop to avant-garde to fusion to electronica, sitting comfortably in every situation and bringing his own distinctive style to all of them.
From Love to the Beatles to the Beach Boys, echoes of the sunnier side of the sixties abound, not to mention side glances at the PJs’ neo-psych peers. But they’re only implications – this band never rips off anyone.
This is the kind of music that could become overbearing in the wrong hands, a gloom-soaked ride to nowhere. But Rosenthal always drives his despairing themes with genuine emotional power, never toppling into melodrama or misery porn.
Working with jazz violin maverick and co-producer Regina Carter, Sung and her cohorts have crafted a superb record that doesn’t so much push the boundaries of jazz as make clear how much discovery there still is within its borders.
There are musicians who combine genres, to find the ways the frisson between styles can produce something interesting. Then there are the artists who want to simply obliterate genre designations altogether.
The Bootheels were one of many, many combos knockin’ it out with little goal in mind than making a big honkin’ noise and hoping someone might notice. It’s a familiar story, which begs the question: what makes the Bootheels special enough to earn 1988: The Original Demos, a collection from one of the country’s most respected reissue labels?
Eick’s focus is on ensemble playing and melody, often upbeat and overtly pretty melody, not rhythm or improv fire.
Though formally trained, the Norwegian has spent nearly four decades standing consistently at a crossroads where rock, jazz, electronica, psych and ambient music meet, copulate, and produce healthy mutant children.
Soulful stars and wannabes, from Lloyd Price and The Clovers to Baby Dee and TNT Tribble.
Sanford presents a wide program on A Prayer For Lester Bowie, encompassing all facets of his musical personality.
All is groove.
Dylan chases inspiration every which way, never pausing to rest.
The Saskatchewan native is at her best when she and her keyboard are up front, leading a band of excellent musicians in showcasing her own compositions.
Life Lessons, the latest album from prolific keyboardist and composer Marc Cary, is the kind of record one makes after many years of expansive experience.
Though they never hit the big time, the Delevantes – New Jersey-born brothers Bob and Mike – provided unsung highlights of the nascent Americana scene of the nineties.
Produced by Chris Stamey and considered a minor classic of the college rock era, Myra Holder’s Four Mile Road has been out of print for decades, but has now been resurrected in digital form for the first time.
The smoke, the glitter, the creeping misery, the fierce joy – it all comes together on Black Acid Soul, the debut LP from Lady Blackbird.
It sometimes seems like every jazz musician has that one specific fantasy – that of being backed by an orchestra, or at least a string section.
In many ways, the Polish trio embodies the popular perception of the so-called “chamber jazz” that ECM has championed over the decades.
The blend of Indian music and jazz is always an interesting one.
Multi-instrumentalist Cromm Fallon plies his trade with the psych popsters the Laissez Faire, among others. But he casts a much wider net when left to his own devices.
It may be noodling, but it’s noodling with a purpose.
London’s Green Lung follows up its debut album Woodland Rites with second LP Black Harvest, and if you’ve already guessed that we’re getting a metalized soundtrack to a folk horror epic that exists only in the band’s head, you’re dead on.
When alto sax-wielding jazz warrior Kenny Garrett (Miles Davis, Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and many more, including a ton of solo albums) decides to get spiritual, he reaches way back.
Elegant instrumental gems from the impeccably funky Memphis quartet.
Each of the eight tunes was recorded outside with no rehearsal, and only first takes were used.
Taking its time in following up its 2014 debut The Witching Hour, Ohio’s Doctor Smoke sno time in distinguishing itself from the underground metal hordes on Dreamers and the Dead.
Though he’s been a star on smooth jazz radio from pretty much the time he emerged in the early eighties, it’s not a comfortable fit, as his latest LP Faraway Place indicates.
For his first full-length album, up-and-coming young guitarist Andrew Renfroe recruits friends on whose records he’s recorded, including saxophonist Braxton Cook, keyboardist Taber Gable, bassist Rick Rosato and drummer Curtis Nowosad, all part of the new crop of young NYC jazz artists.
