After reveling in pre-Benny Goodman big band jazz with a cheery avant twist and unlikely pop references leading the Millennial Territory Orchestra, slide trumpet extraordinaire Steven Bernstein returns to his first major project after a seven year studio layoff. You May Also Like: Sexmob – Cultural Capital (2017) Steven Bernstein’sRead More
The Penguin Guide to Jazz On CD (Fourth Ed., Cook and Morton) opined back in the 90s that the Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko is an artist first and foremost and a musician second, asserting that “he is a man whose imagination is fired as much by words…as by music.” YouRead More
When Stan Killian came out with Unified a couple of years back, it didn’t knock me back in one certain way, it knocked me back in many ways. Killian brought a stout but sensitive tenor saxophone to compositions he crafted with canny detail, but also pleasing to the ear. YouRead More
Last week Boz Scaggs issued his first album since 2008’s Speak Low, another covers-dominant record, but as the name makes clear, Memphis is not a jazz crooner record like his prior two, but rather, a soul crooner record. You May Also Like: Boz Scaggs – Out Of The Blues (2018)Read More
A longtime member of both the Mingus Big Band and the Roy Haynes Quartet, saxophonist Jaleel Shaw had first gotten my attention as a leader with 2008’s Optimism and his ASCAP award winning song “Flipside.” You May Also Like: Woody Shaw – ‘Love Dance’ (1976, 2026 reissue) Ernesto Cervini’s TurbopropRead More
King Crimson, of all things, was the ensemble that first demonstrated (to the wider public, at least) the greater possibilities introduced by a double trio. And now, a Frenchman and an American extend this thrilling concept into jazz. You May Also Like: Illegal Crowns [Tomas Fujiwara, Mary Halvorson, Taylor HoRead More
An ambitious project for a first timer, multi-reedist, composer and bandleader Joshua Kwassman made Songs Of The Brother Spirit from a set of intricately scored music based on some reflections on his young life You May Also Like: Mabel Greer’s Toyshop, “Big Brother, Little Brother” (2016): One Track Mind HowRead More
Around the same time Robert Hurst recorded the trio document Unrehurst, Vol. 1 with Robert Glasper (piano) and Damion Reid (drums), the bassist/composer and bandleader had convened a sort of summit meeting You May Also Like: Bob James – ‘Once Upon a Time: The Lost 1965 New York Studio Sessions’Read More
Recently I came across a video of televised performance featuring the Gary Burton Quartet, and its guitarist Larry Coryell was using his solo time to deliver some tasty licks that perfectly bridged the gap between rock guitar and jazz guitar. You May Also Like: Larry Coryell – ‘Last Swing WithRead More
When listening to instrumental rock groups like Guapo, I realize how broad is that term “instrumental rock” because it can connote prog rock, art rock, fusion jazz, post-rock, experimental rock, kraut rock and avant-garde. You May Also Like: Thinking Plague – Hoping Against Hope (2017)
