No artist is pushing harder to expand jazz’s frontiers than Makaya McCraven, and ‘In These Times’ opens up further possibilities of how the music form can progress upward.

Yellowjackets, Randy Waldman and Marquis Hill are part of the latest edition of Five for the Road, an occasional look at music that’s been in my car lately.

You won’t gain any academic knowledge about the human heart from listening to ‘Heart Tonic,’ but it’s clear Caroline Davis invested all of hers.

Preston Frazier’s Best Jazz of 2016 list crosses a striking number of musical boundaries from straight-ahead jazz to vocalists to fusion.

Marquis Hill is the textbook definition of a master, and ‘The Way The Play’ relentlessly demonstrates that craft.

The jazz/hip-hop hybrid ‘In The Moment’ from drummer Makaya McCraven retains the energy and impulsiveness of the live performances within hypnotic looped and sampled grooves.

This is how you do mainstream jazz, friends. ‘Focus’ is an album by jazz newcomer Kendall Moore, but this time, the rookie’s got it all together on the first try.

The third time is the charm…just like the first and second times. Chicago’s rising star trumpet player Marquis Hill wowed us just two years ago with his New Gospel debut, and quickly confirmed with Sounds of the City the following year that it was no fluke. Next week The PoetRead More

<<< Part One, Non-Jazz ||| Part 3, Whack Jazz >>> In the jazz world, I’ve found that the long-established artists, especially the ones who play in the well-established styles, get the bulk of the press and buzz. You May Also Like: Vijay Iyer Sextet – Far From Over (2017) RezRead More