JACOB GARCHIK
For many jazz artists, making an album is a fairly straightforward process: You go into the recording studio, you play, you leave (maybe coming back later for the mix). Jacob Garchik made his latest album that way too—at first. Then he painstakingly remade it over three months. Ted Panken delves into Garchik’s process, which reveals a lot about this fascinating brass player and composer.
She’s a trombonist who’s also a singer/songwriter, an individualist who’s super-tight with her family, a player in the jam-band world who specializes in Brazil-flavored ballads, and a multifaceted artist who gets radical by turning down the volume. A.D. Amorosi talks to Cressman and summarizes her career, which so far is definitely a case of both/and.
They’re a piano trio, right? Think again. The Bad Plus, co-founder Dave King says, is “whatever we say it is.” As of now, that means it’s a quartet, with saxophonist Chris Speed, guitarist Ben Monder—and, for the first time since the group was founded more than two decades ago, no pianist. David Fricke finds out what it all means.
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JT Notes
Opening Chorus: Ronnie Foster reboots; Jennifer Hartswick recharges; Kalia Vandever regrows; and farewells to Barbara Thompson, Michael Henderson, Sy Johnson, Byron Morris, Howard Stone, Abdul Wadud, Bill Pitman, Warren Bernhardt, Dan Miller, Monnette Sudler, and Michael Bourne
Chronology: Kenny Dorham
Overdue Ovation: Enrico Rava
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Before & After: Kirk Knuffke
Coda: Miles Davis’ blue clusters
Audio Files: Brent Butterworth on Bluetooth improvements
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Reviews: Wayne Shorter’s 2017 supergroup, Julian Lage, Thumbscrew, early-’80s Miles, Tarbaby with Oliver Lake, Snarky Puppy, Lionel Loueke with Gilles Peterson, Kendrick Scott, Jon Irabagon, and many more
Cover image by Cory Dewald