In a rare turn as a leader, Russell Malone reminds us of his canny ability to play with both speed and emotion, power and space.

Photo by Jim Eigo by Nick DeRiso People think of clarinets as this sound from a different era, and the guys who play them as having done so in black and white. The late Alvin Batiste, who initially found his muse in Charlie Parker’s “Now’s the Time,” was never thatRead More

by Pico Last week, another Strickland made his debut. Enoch Jamal Strickland, better known as “E.J.” Strickland, has made his name as a drummer for notables that include Freddie Hubbard,

by Nick DeRiso Ray Brown is one of those underrated guys who kept on producing important work well past his so-called prime, because he remained such an in-the-pocket guy. You can’t go wrong with the old Jazz at the Philharmonic stuff, of course. But I also typically recommend his late-periodRead More

Neatly mixing two of our favorite topics, Branford Marsalis pays no empty lip-service to exploring blues through the jazz idiom here. In fact, you don’t have to listen more than once to hear that’s he’s gone off the deep blue end. Any CD with appearances by B.B. King, Linda HopkinsRead More