Michael Houstoun with the Rodger Fox Big Band: Concerti

There is a saying about "the best of both possible worlds," an adage that springs immediately to mind when listening to Concerti, a remarkable collaboration between classical pianist Michael Houstoun and trombonist m: Rodger Fox's superb big band from Wellington, New Zealand. The captivat... [ read more ]

Tiffany Austin: Nothing But Soul

While countless artists have covered the music of m: Hoagy Carmichael, album-length tributes from a single artist saluting his work aren't all that common; Carmichael salutes that reshape some of his most beloved compositions are, understandably, even more scarce, as there are heavy risks... [ read more ]

Bret Higgins' Atlas Revolt: Bret Higgins' Atlas Revolt

The eponymous debut from Toronto-based bassist Bret Higgins' Atlas Revolt is a tough one to pin down and an easy one to get pleasantly lost in. Higgins regularly walks through different musical worlds, working with the folk-rock outfit Great Lake Swimmers, the Balkan-klezmer band Beyond The Pale, th... [ read more ]

Harris Eisenstadt: Canada Day IV

Canada Day has been drummer Harris Eisenstadt's flagship ensemble since its first gig on July 1, 2007--his homeland's national holiday, hence the band name. In the ensuing years the quintet has developed an identifiably cohesive sound that expertly balances avant-garde explorations and in-the-pocket... [ read more ]

New Zealand School of Music Big Band: Too Cool

While the latest CD by the splendid New Zealand School of Music Big Band may not be Too Cool, it's definitely chilly enough to demand that the average listener wear earmuffs while sampling its frigid yet at the same time fiery bill of fare. Blues got you down? A few bars of the orchestra's sunny cur... [ read more ]

Yelena Eckemoff Quartet: Everblue

In a quick follow-up to her masterful two CD set Lions, Russian-born and now North Carolina-based pianist m: Yelena Eckemoff offers up Everblue, the most "ECM Records-sounding" set not on that deservedly esteemed label. It is, rather, released on her own L&H Productions. The names of the... [ read more ]

The Weave: The Weave: Knowledge Porridge

Once there was a time when to be an individual meant pursuing self-realisation, working out who you were, how you felt about the world and what you believed for yourself. If that meant that say m: Thelonious Monk, m: Sun Ra or m: Charles Mingus were viewed as eccent... [ read more ]

Percival Roman: Spiritual Frequencies

The Raleigh, North Carolina based drummer Percival Roman has a proclivity for his free jazz counterparts, some of whom occupy the front cover design of Romans's album Spiritual Frequencies. Roman, who also records under his given name, T.J. Goode, took his inspiration from disparate sources. Influen... [ read more ]

Olavi Trio: Oh, La Vie!

These Finnish improvisers frame spontaneous combustion and mellower moments on their second outing for Tum Records. They're also one of many bands to dispel stereotypes that Scandinavian ensembles are largely about performing chamber jazz amid ethereal soundscapes, evidenced throughout the years on... [ read more ]

Fred Hersch: Solo

To paraphrase the famous remark m: Miles Davis made about m: Bill Evans, m: Fred Hersch plays the piano the way it ought to be played. This album documents a live performance from August, 2014, which was not originally intended for release. But when Hersch listened t... [ read more ]

The Dan Trudell Trio: Dan Trudell Plays The Piano

The decline of the joyously swinging piano trio has been greatly exaggerated. It may be an endangered species, but it's still out there, roaming the countryside, appearing when you least expect it, and making the occasional trip into a studio. Exhibit A is this fine recording from Dan Trudell, a Mid... [ read more ]

Halie Loren: Butterfly Soaring

Its hard to categorize Halie Loren--for those who feel the need to do so--a singer/songwriter who started performing at age 10 in her native state of Alaska and now, from her home in Oregon, tours jazz clubs and jazz events on a regular basis in different parts of the world and regales audiences wit...

Mike LeDonne: AwwlRight!

On AwwlRight!, his eighth outing at the Hammond B3 for Savant Records, pianist-turned-organist m: Mike LeDonne uses the same personnel and prescription that have worked so well for him in the past, guiding his sure-handed Groover Quartet through its paces in a series of bracing tunes that... [ read more ]

FranA ois Carrier: Unknowable

The mystery of spontaneously created music is most certaintly "unknowable," but saxophonist m: FranA ois Carrier has shown himself to be completely at home facing, and embracing, the unknown. Unknowable finds Carrier and his long-time percussionist m: Michel Lambert meeting ac... [ read more ]

Eple Trio: Universal Cycle

The fourth album of the Norwegian m: Eple Trio--pianist Andreas Ulvo, bassist Sigurd Hole and drummer Jonas H. SjA vaag--marks an exciting new chapter in the trio ten years of work. The album was recorded in a remote studio in the vast forestry scenery of Sweden where evolution, its most... [ read more ]

Chris Trinidad: Chris Trinidada€(TM)s Certain Times

Bright, upbeat modern jazz from bassist/composer m: Chris Trinidad and his quartet. The Filipino-Canadian leader (now residing in the Bay Area) set out to make groove-oriented music; he structured the tunes with few chords (to give the soloists more freedom), and chose a low woodwind sou... [ read more ]

Michael Gibbs and The NDR Bigband: Play A Bill Frisell Set List

Guitarist Bill Frisell probably never had a preconceived notion that he'd one day record with famed British arranger, conductor and composer, Michael Gibbs after taking several of his classes as a student at Berklee College of Music back in 1975. Thus, Gibbs and the legendary NDR Bigband instill a s... [ read more ]

Miles Davis: Miles Davis at Newport 1955-1975: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4

There's a theory a nascent jazzlover could build an estimable collection of the music simply by picking and choosing from the discography of m: Miles Davis and the various musicians with whom he's collaborated over the years. Likewise, the mercurial alterations of style enacted by the man... [ read more ]

Bobby Shew with the University of Florida Jazz Band: Bobby Shew - Live 1983

What once was lost, now is found. Scott Wilson, head of the jazz studies program at the University of Florida, recently discovered this recording of a concert from 1983 that features Bobby Shew as the guest soloist with the University of Florida Jazz Band, then under the direction of Gary Langford... [ read more ]

All Included: Satan In Plain Clothes

Cooperative five piece All Included goes from strength to strength on Satan In Plain Clothes, building on the already considerable charms of their debut Reincarnation Of A Free Bird (Stone Floor, 2012). Connections abound in the unchanged line up which reflects the burgeoning, almost incestuous, Sca... [ read more ]

Lorraine Feather: Flirting with Disaster

The release of a new m: Lorraine Feather recording consistently brings a sense of excitement and delicious anticipation. What does this gifted singer-lyricist who, like a figure-ground illustration simultaneously brilliant at both, have in store for us? More than likely, if she's true to... [ read more ]

Take Five with Cesar Orozco

Meet Cesar Orozco: Orozco, a prolific pianist, composer, and arranger, fuses jazz with Cuban and Venezuelan musical styles in unexpected ways that fans in North and South America find irresistible. Born in Cuba in 1980, he moved to Venezuela in 1998, then to the United States in 2012. He has perform...

Man Overboard Quintet: Down In The Deep Deep Blue

A rhythm section that would make even a half-decent front line sound great; a front line that would enhance any ensemble; a bunch of great, sometimes neglected, songs with catchy tunes and quirky, image-laden lyrics. Surely, it's all just a wonderful dream? Nope, it isn't. It's Down In The Deep, Dee... [ read more ]

Jimi Hendrix: Jimi Hendrix: Freedom-Atlanta Pop Festival

Jimi Hendrix' performance at the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in Bethel, NY may be his most iconic single live performance, but as the conclusion of the August 1969 event, it was offered in front of approximately half the 300-400,000audience he faced at the Atlanta Pop Festival roughly a year l... [ read more ]

Mort Weiss: Mort Weiss is a Jazz Reality Show

The informal definition of a Character is an "odd, eccentric, or unusual person." That is a bit disappointing in that "odd, eccentric, and unusual" more often than not may be pejorative. I prefer a "unique, memorable, or exceptional person." That said, it takes all six adjectives to adequately descr... [ read more ]

Spin Marvel: Infolding

As a Professor of Jazz (Drums/Percussion) at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and as contributor to recordings and performances by m: Lee Konitz, m: Dave Holland, m: Bill Bruford's Earthworks and other progressive jazz thinkers, drummer, composer and bandleader... [ read more ]

Liberty Ellman: Radiate

Radiate is guitarist Liberty Ellman's fourth album under his own name since 1997 and his third for Pi Recordings, following 2006's Ophiuchus Butterfly. Ellman's output as a bandleader over the years has been secondary to his role as an in-demand sideman however, working with such luminaries as {{m... [ read more ]

Tomoko Omura: Roots

Chosen as one of 2015's "Rising Stars" in Downbeat magazine's critics poll, violinist Tomoko Omura's Roots is evidence that some of the most alluring music is that which combines disparate locales and cultures. The artistic fusion of songs from her homeland in Japan with verdant progressive jazz is... [ read more ]

Enoch Smith Jr.: Misfits II: Pop

Growing up in the Pentecostal Church of God by Faith (in Rochester, NY) has been the biggest musical influence on pianist m: Enoch Smith, Jr. He titled his 2010 self-produced debut Church Boy and continues to serve as full-time Director of Music and Worship and pianist for Allentown (NJ)... [ read more ]

Steve Washington: Right to Love

m: Steve Washington is a versatile and personable singer, the kind you might hear in a lounge, bar or bistro and think to yourself, "Hey, he's pretty good." And he is. Pretty good, that is. On the other hand, he's not a singer whose name you're likely to see at the top of any charts, jaz... [ read more ]

Kat Reinhert: Spark

Vocalist Kat Reinhert's Spark is a musical treatise on navigating the bends and sharp turns on the road of life. It's a journey of self discovery, personal expression, and empowerment, bravely put on display for all to hear. Reinhert, a New York-based vocalist who splits her time between teaching an... [ read more ]

Herb Alpert: Come Fly with Me

With his latest recording, Come Fly with Me, legendary award-winning trumpeter, producer, artist and overall Renaissance Man, Herb Alpert takes the listener on a melody-rich, groove-embellished artistic journey, offering marvelous musical perspectives and insights with both familiar and exciting ne...

Giacomo Gates: Everything Is Cool

m: Giacomo Gates was almost forty years old when someone suggested that he try his hand at singing. Luckily for the rest of us, Gates thought that was a good idea, moved to New York City later that year (1989) and began singing in clubs. Six years later Gates recorded his first CD, Blue... [ read more ]

Enrico Rava Quartet with Gianluca Petrella: Wild Dance

Stalwart Italian jazz trumpeter m: Enrico Rava introduces his new working quartet for this Wild Dance, joined by longtime playing partner trombonist m: Gianluca Petrella. Petrella contributed to Rava's three ECM post-millennium quintet albums Tribe (2011), The Words and The Day...

Junior Mance: Jubilation

Pianist Junior Mance has a bop-based facility with improvisation and a bluesy, "no- nonsense" candid style. Mance debuted his career with this unique blend of traits and his singular voice has changed little over the course of his prolific career that spans over half a century. The Delmark reissue o...

Peter Hum: Alpha Moment

Pianist Peter Hum's second album--Alpha Moment--was recorded back in December of 2011, but there's good reason for the fact that it's only just seeing the light of day in 2015: Hum has had his hands full, serving as the restaurant critic at the Ottawa Citizen, delivering some of the most informative...

Jakob Norgren Jazz Orchestra: Pathfinding

The last word has yet to be spoken on the role of the baritone saxophone in jazz big band writing. m: Duke Ellington used Harry Carney to great, often magnificent effect. Then, in 1960, m: Gerry Mulligan took things further with his Concert Jazz Band. At that moment the Beatles...

Fort Knox Five: Pressurize the Cabin

Pressurize the Cabin delivers the best of the club dance experience--funky grooves, spacey loops and echoes, scratches and samples, shout outs and call outs--without overpriced drinks or the ubiquitous smoke, glitter or perfume. The core four of the m: Fort Knox Five--Sid Barcelona, Jon...

Blasie Siwula/Luciano Troja/John Murchison: Beneath the Ritual

The biggest slice of the free jazz stew is cooked up with--going back to the beginnings of alto saxophonist m: Ornette Coleman's artistry--a horn or two stirred in with bass and drums. The chording instrument--guitar or piano--is generally optional. But when a piano sits in, the potential...

Larry Newcomb Quartet: Live Intentionally!

New York-based guitarist Larry Newcomb says his latest album was recorded "live"--but don't hold your breath waiting for the sound of applause. As it turns out, the CD was recorded "live" at Tom Tedesco Studios in Paramus, NJ. Using that as a measuring stick, it could be argued that every album is r...

Ajoyo: Ajoyo

Multi-reed player m: Yacine Boulares has picked up, and left behind, musical footprints literally all around the world. He was born in North Africa (Tunisia) but grew up in Paris, where he studied philosophy at the Sorbonne and jazz performance at the National Conservatory and New School...

Matt Panayides: Conduits

Conduits, m: Matt Panayides' second album as a leader, pairs his resilient guitar on the front line with the reliable tenor saxophonist m: Rich Perry, ably supported by bassist m: Thomson Kneeland and drummer m: Mark Ferber. In spite of its esoteric na...

Wayne Horvitz: Some Places Are Forever Afternoon

Poet and essayist Richard Hugo, a celebrated son of Seattle, was best known in his short life for his straight-forward but moving portrayals of the stark realities of the Pacific Northwest, both people and places. His works have previously been documented in print and on film and now by pianist/comp...

Pete Magadini: Bones Blues

The Canadian label Sackville is known for its unique catalogue of superb Avant-Garde music and engaging trad-jazz recordings. So its 1976 Bones Blues is a bit of an anomaly as it documents a modern mainstream session that drummer Pete Magadini lead and featured California based saxophonist {{m: Don...

The Woodshed Orchestra: Brass Bandit

"Curiouser and curiouser!" cried Alice. She was opening out like the largest telescope ever, at the time, but she could equally well have been listening to Brass Bandit, the third release from Canada's Woodshed Orchestra. An eccentric collection of curiosities, featuring musical genres as diverse as...

Jennifer Leitham: Mood (S)wings

One of the rules of thumb in jazz is that hardly anyone ever looks forward to a bass solo. Rules, however, were made to be broken, and a case in point is multi-talented m: Jennifer Leitham whose solos on Mood (S)wings are nimble, well-crafted and consistently engaging--in other words, wo...

Joe Smith and The Spicy Pickles: High Fidelity

The Swing Era, usually thought of as the late 1930s to the early 1940s, is that one unique time when jazz was America's pop music. While this is not the place to go into the history of that period or its precedents, suffice it to say that the bands of say, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, Ji...

Rose Colella: Cocktail

Vocalist Rose Colella is from Chicago. And so is vocalist Paul Marinaro ( Without a Song (Self Produced, 2013)). It is no coincidence. Colella and Marinaro duet on the medley "Would You Like to Take a Walk--I get Ideas" on her present Cocktails. They shared a holiday duet on a steamy and good-nature...

Mark Taylor and the BigBand: To the Edge

The person who grasps the reins as big band arranger assumes assorted artistic and aesthetic responsibilities--a "structural" engineer, a sound painter, a decision-maker, and quite importantly, a challenger and motivator. The finest purveyors of the craft, both past and present, are all well-aware o...

Red Garland: Swingina€(TM) on the Korner: Live at Keystone Korner

It's often been written about many (sometimes less deserving) artists, but in his case it's genuinely true: Pianist m: Red Garland played on too many classic jazz albums--especially in bop quintets led by m: Miles Davis and m: John Coltrane--to fully count. Swingin...