After four decades of explorations with his New Jungle Orchestra, Danish bandleader/guitarist Pierre Dørge hasn’t forsaken the art of playfulness. The NJO’s planned 40th-anniversary celebration … Read More “Pierre Dørge & New Jungle Orchestra: Bluu Afroo (SteepleChase)”
If you’re going to make a tribute album that’s more meaningful than just reminding the listener to go play the original, it helps to highlight … Read More “Lionel Loueke: HH (Edition)”
A longtime renegade who refused to move from his native Baltimore to New York in order to avoid the groupthink of a jazz scene, self-taught … Read More “Lafayette Gilchrist: Now (Lafayette Music)”
The No Tears Suite is a sweeping tribute to the Little Rock Nine, young heroes of the civil rights movement, who integrated Little Rock Central … Read More “Christopher Parker & Kelley Hurt: No Tears Suite (Mahakala)”
Sometimes big lives require big bands. That’s what Cuban composer/pianist Manuel Valera discovered after he’d completed his 2013 Chamber Music Jazz Works commission for the … Read More “Manuel Valera/New Cuban Express Big Band: José Martí en Nueva York (Greenleaf)”
Let the record show that Oneness of Juju founder James “Plunky” Branch fostered charismatic musical ambitions. With varying degrees of success, Branch attempted to reflect … Read More “Oneness of Juju: African Rhythms 1970-1982 (Strut)”
Guitarist Miles Okazaki is in a sweet-spot phase of his career. It began in 2017 with a new quartet and its eponymous album, Trickster (2017), … Read More “Miles Okazaki: Trickster’s Dream (Pi)”
Ray Mantilla, who died in March of lymphoma at 85, knew Rebirth would be his final album. Yet there was no need for the master … Read More “Ray Mantilla: Rebirth (Savant)”
This phenomenal 41:24 piece of spontaneous improvisation is rooted in the bonding of outcats in the ’70s Deep South. Drummer Alvin Fielder, a founder of … Read More “Kidd Jordan/Joel Futterman/William Parker/Hamid Drake: A Tribute to Alvin Fielder, Live at Vision Festival XXIV (Mahakala)”
Pianist Micah Thomas has been able to play what he’s heard since the age of two, but his debut, Tide, demonstrates that this is a … Read More “Micah Thomas: Tide (Self-released)”
Trumpeter Dave Douglas doesn’t perform tributes so much as he fences with the music of jazz artists who are criminally underrated (Booker Little), towering in … Read More “Dave Douglas: Dizzy Atmosphere (Greenleaf)”
Belgian-born, German-based vocalist Sophie Tassignon has issued more than a half-dozen records since 2006 as a member of various ensembles and duos, as well as … Read More “Sophie Tassignon: Mysteries Unfold (RareNoise)”
Throughout his now five-album catalog for Posi-Tone, pianist Art Hirahara has often filtered his music through the emotional touchstones of his life, creating what amounts … Read More “Art Hirahara: Balance Point (Posi-Tone)”
“This from That” sounds like a flashback of Wayne Shorter writing for Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the mid-’60s. An initially knotty opening passage straightens … Read More “Falkner Evans: Marbles (Consolidated Artists Productions)”
The narrative seems as clear-cut as an elevator pitch: Rising, still-young saxophonist felled by an illness that required extensive dialysis is now blowing with a … Read More “Dayna Stephens: Liberty (Contagious)”
Best known for his membership in the pioneering jazz-rock ensemble Tortoise—and now the elder statesman among a crew of 21st-century Chicago renegades bringing a fresh … Read More “Jeff Parker: Suite for Max Brown (Nonesuch/International Anthem)”
The serenity of Brazilian vocalist/composer Milton Nascimento is one of the most reliable virtues in all music. These two soundtracks for ballets—originally recorded early in … Read More “Milton Nascimento: Maria Maria/Ultimo Trem (Far Out)”
When you peruse the song list of Eric Alexander With Strings and notice “Lonely Woman” and “The Thrill Is Gone,” you naturally think of Ornette … Read More “Eric Alexander: Eric Alexander With Strings (HighNote)”
The evolution of New Yor-Uba, pianist Michele Rosewoman’s painstaking synthesis of modern jazz and ancient Afro-Cuban folkloric traditions, has been a journey of slow-motion magnificence. … Read More “Michele Rosewoman’s New Yor-Uba: Hallowed (Advance Dance Disques)”
French clarinetist Louis Sclavis has composed a lot of music inspired by visual art, including soundtracks for modern and silent movies and a 2003 ECM … Read More “Louis Sclavis: Characters on a Wall (ECM)”
On the final track of Maqueque’s self-titled debut five years ago, Jane Bunnett spiked the punch with her longtime collaborator Hilario Durán and a few … Read More “Jane Bunnett & Maqueque: On Firm Ground/Tierra Firme (Linus)”
True to its name, the quartet Parlour Game plays music meant to evoke informal, intimate, and innocent settings, a gently bucolic mix of vintage jazz … Read More “Jenny Scheinman & Allison Miller’s Parlour Game: Jenny Scheinman & Allison Miller’s Parlour Game (Royal Potato Family)”
Spaza is a South African collective with neither permanent members nor prewritten songs. Yet the seven improvised tracks on their eponymous album, recorded in 2015, … Read More “Spaza: Spaza (Mushroom Hour Half Hour)”
Guitarist Will Sellenraad has known drummer Eric McPherson since they were teens, more than 30 years ago in New York City. Back then, bassist Rene … Read More “Will Sellenraad/Eric McPherson/Rene Hart: Greene Street Vol. 1 (Deko)”
Chilean tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana invokes the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo as the inspiration for Visions, which was originally commissioned as a suite, with its … Read More “Melissa Aldana: Visions (Motéma)”
In physics, flux is the movement and flow of radiant energy across a given area. In the mind of saxophonist Quinsin Nachoff, it’s a band … Read More “Quinsin Nachoff’s Flux: Path of Totality (Whirlwind)”
Trion is frequently torrential, and aggressively virtuosic. A significant chunk of this magnanimous offering—nearly two hours of music, recorded live at the Jazz Gallery in … Read More “Johnathan Blake: Trion (Giant Step Arts)”
Through 11 records as a leader on the Criss Cross label between 2001 and 2017, the Russian trumpeter Alex Sipiagin steadily tweaked his no-compromise template … Read More “Alex Sipiagin: NoFo Skies (Blue Room)”
Pianist Marc Copland treats the compositions of bassist Gary Peacock with a respectful intimacy on this stark solo album. The two artists, who first met … Read More “Marc Copland: Gary (Illusion)”
It isn’t a coincidence that the three albums Miho Hazama has recorded with her 13-piece “m_unit,” most recently Dancer in Nowhere, convey a sense of … Read More “Miho Hazama: Dancer in Nowhere (Sunnyside)”
