05/14/13 By John Murph

Gerald Clayton
Life Forum
Concord Jazz

Gerald Clayton switches up his game on this thrilling disc. He ups the conceptual ante and widens his sonic palette to include trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, saxophonists Logan Richardson and Dayna Stephens, and singers Gretchen Parlato and Sachal Vasandani...

Venture Inward David Weiss & Point of Departure

05/13/13 By Steve Greenlee

David Weiss & Point of Departure
Venture Inward

Let’s call bunk on the claim that jazz should always find new things to say. Venture Inward , the new platter from trumpeter David Weiss and his quintet Point of Departure, is steeped in 1960s postbop—specifically that of Miles Davis—and it would be futile...

05/12/13 By Thomas Conrad

Stefano Battaglia
Songways

The five albums that Stefano Battaglia has made for ECM since 2005 contain the strongest work released by an ECM pianist during that period. That claim will be controversial, given that pianists like Keith Jarrett, Stefano Bollani, Bobo Stenson and Craig...

Long Story Short: Curated By Peter Brötzmann Various Artists

05/11/13 By Steve Greenlee

Various Artists
Long Story Short: Curated By Peter Brötzmann
Trost

The five-CD set Long Story Short is a distillation of the 2011 Music Unlimited festival in Wels, Austria, curated by angry-jazz saxophonist Peter Brötzmann. The box set presents more than six hours of free jazz performed by 18 different configurations, some...

05/10/13 By Christopher Loudon

Herb Alpert
Fandango
Shout Factory

The 1960s gave us the Beatles and the Stones, Joni Mitchell and Janis Joplin. They also gave us Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Indeed, among the era’s American hitmakers, few came close to matching the popularity of the TJB (none of whom were Mexican...

Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue Terri Lyne Carrington

05/08/13 By Jeff Tamarkin

Terri Lyne Carrington
Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue
Concord Jazz

On her 50th-anniversary tribute to the Duke Ellington-Charles Mingus-Max Roach sessions that produced the original Money Jungle , drummer Terri Lyne Carrington wisely chooses not to attempt a reproduction of the earlier work but rather to approximate and...

05/08/13 By Lloyd Sachs

Charles Lloyd/Jason Moran
Hagar's Song
ECM Records

When jazz historians look back on this era, one of the things they’ll highlight is the transcendent role played by two young piano greats in support of two resurgent tenor legends: Danilo Pérez in Wayne Shorter’s quartet and Jason Moran in Charles Lloyd’s...

05/08/13 By Carlo Wolff

Verneri Pohjola & Black Motor
Rubidium
Tum

Picture a band on a street corner in the very Nordic north. It’s winter. To keep warm, they spool out blowsy melodies of grave gait and linearity, their authority not immediately apparent. Then, as trumpeter Verneri Pohjola and Black Motorists Sami Sippola...

Champian Sings and Swings Champian Fulton

05/07/13 By Christopher Loudon

Champian Fulton
Champian Sings and Swings
Sharp Nine

She was tutored in jazz by Clark Terry while still a tyke and gained youthful appreciation of big bands from Red Holloway, Butch Miles and other Basie-ites. In other words, 27-year-old pianist and vocalist Champian Fulton was taught to swing by experts and...

05/06/13 By Mike Joyce

Jonathan Kreisberg
One
NFN

Lest anyone jump to a logical conclusion while playing Jonathan Kreisberg’s ingeniously arranged new solo CD, One , a listener’s note is included: “Although subtle (and not so subtle at times) guitar effects were utilized by Jonathan on some of the material...