Liberty Ellman’s new PI Recordings release ‘Last Desert’ is some cerebral jazz, yet avoids the clutter of some music that often falls into that category.

Liberty Ellman takes time off from doing great things for other jazz musicians to do a pretty great thing under his own name.

‘Mise En Abîme’ would be a stunning achievement for just about anybody else; for Steve Lehman, it’s just his still-evolving musical personality racing out beyond jazz’s frontiers and daring anyone to try and catch up.

There’s been a ton of great modern and mainstream jazz albums released this year, coming from stalwarts and newcomers alike. It’s not just tradition being upheld with grace and passion, there were loads of creative spurts by newcomers and stalwarts alike You May Also Like: Rudresh Mahanthappa – ‘Hero Trio’Read More

For this middle-of-2013 version list of best modern and mainstream jazz records, I expanded the meaning of “modern and mainstream jazz” a little bit this year You May Also Like: Craig Taborn’s Junk Magic – ‘Compass Confusion’ (2020) Dave Holland, Chris Potter, Lionel Loueke, Eric Harland – Aziza (2016) DaveRead More

Amazon.com Widgets Very soon, Jonathan Finlayson will lose his distinction as jazz’s best trumpet player on the scene today without a record under his name. You May Also Like: Liberty Ellman – ‘Last Desert’ (2020) Miles Okazaki Quartet – ‘Thisness’ (2022) Miles Okazaki – ‘The Sky Below’ (2019)

“Every beat on the album was original,” said Herbie Hancock about his game-changing funk-jazz album Head Hunters. It’s the one aspect about that record that has stood out to me over everything else, and made Harvey Mason a drum hero in my book You May Also Like: Michael Coleman +Read More