Tim Berne has been such an imposing figure in New York’s improvised music scene since the 80s, it’s impossible to avoid his presence on significant recordings from that scene for too long. You May Also Like: Tim Berne’s Snakeoil – ‘The Fantastic Mrs. 10’ (2020) Tim Berne’s Snakeoil – ‘TheRead More

ECM is a record label that is often stereotyped as offering only open, spacious, and sterile European — frequently Scandinavian — kind of chamber jazz and I’ve often come across so many exceptions, that characterization can’t even be considered the rule. But Tord Gustavsen’s music can be. Playing economically andRead More

In rock music, there’s been occasions where one act provokes another in a rock song, resulting in a retaliatory song by the provoked. You May Also Like: Steely Dan, “A Man Ain’t Supposed to Cry” from ‘Northeast Corridor’ (2021): Steely Dan Sunday Steely Dan’s Aja at 40: Still the pinnacleRead More

In a couple of days, bassist/composer/bandleader Josh Ginsburg will issue his first album, one he’s clearly ready for. You May Also Like: Naya Baaz [Rez Abbasi + Josh Feinberg] – ‘Charm’ (2023) Josh Johnson – ‘Unusual Object’ (2024)

You can’t have a discussion about characters in jazz with including Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

When you peel away all chordal instruments, the rhythm section gets exposed. That can be a delight or a disaster, but in the case of Toronto’s October Trio, it’s the former. Evan Arntzen’s sax or clarinet has a lot of character, a product of his expressive articulation, but Josh Cole’sRead More

Trumpeter Justin Walter sensed that his latest album Stars was destined to be out of the ordinary. “I was very aware from the beginning that this was going to be a strange album,” he acknowledges, “but I also wanted it to be a serious album.” You May Also Like: RobertRead More

Like Giuseppi Logan, tenor saxophonist Charles Gayle was in the thick of it during the free jazz revolution taking place in New York during the 1960s. You May Also Like: How Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle Saved ‘One From the Heart’ Similar Fashion – Portrait Of (2018)

It’s yet another tribute to the singular artistry of Bill Evans, but this one has a special plot line: the drummer played for Evans in one era and the bassist played for him in another era. You May Also Like: Bill Evans – Another Time: The Hilversum Concert (2017) TheRead More

Both Pete Robbins’ band and music represents reaching across from one space to another. The aptly named Transatlantic Quartet consists of musicians on either side of the “pond,” starting with the Massachusetts saxophonist Robbins You May Also Like: Albert Ayler Quartet – Copenhagen Live 1964 (2017) Matthew Shipp Quartet –Read More