by Pico For the second time in a year, we’re here looking at an Avishai Cohen album, but from two different musicians. Because, while both are jazz artists who hail from Israel, the one we examined earlier specializes in acoustic bass. The one we looking at here is a trumpetRead More

photo: Dario Villa“Erik Friedlander can do things with a cello that should have a reasonable listener fearing for her life.” That quote came from not the Lester Bangs of whack jazz Mark Saleski, but from none other than Pitchforkmedia.com. There aren’t that many cellists—much less whack jazz cellists—who get anyRead More

by Pico If you’ve followed this space the last couple of months, you’ve might have first noticed the warm reception that Brazilian bassist Leonardo E. M. Cioglia got here for his majestic debut Contos. And if you missed that, perhaps you detected the album’s prominent mention in the “Best ofRead More

Arild Andersen may not be the first name that comes up when one thinks of the greatest living acoustic bassists, but he’s at least earned the right to be considered somewhere on that list. A player of expansive range, lyricism and velocity, Andersen’s list of credits as a sideman readsRead More

Jazz just lost an all-world trumpeter. Indianapolis’ Frederick Dewayne Hubbard — who died Monday morning from complications following a heart attack a month earlier at age 70 — may not have shaped jazz as the great trumpet men before him like Armstrong, Gillespie and Davis did, but his mastery ofRead More

NOTE: The New Jazz Composers Octet was the last backing band of jazz trumpet legend Freddie Hubbard, who passed away this morning at age 70 due to complications from a heart attack suffered on November 26. A truly major figure in jazz and one of the best trumpet players ofRead More

I think it was about a year ago since there was last a discussion of 80s funk at our little corner of the blogosphere. But really, you can’t have a conversation about that topic without putting Prince into the equation. This ain’t about the once-nameless Purple One, though (for allRead More

If whack jazz isn’t exactly your cup of tea, this fifth and final installment of “The Best of 2008” might suit you better. It’s all about the blues, here. I took a fairly broad view of what is called “the blues.” Some of these records may not have a singleRead More

This is Part Four overall, but the last part of the “Best of Jazz” trilogy. While the last section focused on fusion, here’s where we’re gettin’ wiggy with it because this section is devoted to whack jazz. Looking back, I’m disappointed in myself that I didn’t cover that many newRead More

photo: Rueters (R.I.P. Esbjörn) by Pico With the best releases of the more mainstream type of jazz examined, it’s time to take a look at jazz hybrids, or fusion. In years past,”fusion” usually meant just jazz-rock fusion. Increasingly, even jazz-rock music has become more fragmented, as we’ve seen an explosionRead More