Last year’s Opening made me a believer in the trumpet wizardry of one Carol Morgan, who blazed through a set of originals and standards in a small combo without a piano. Her brand new follow-up Blue Glass Music follows the same formula, with perhaps a bit more emphasis on theRead More

The toughest part about writing this review has been trying to decide if I should file it under the jazz category or the fusion jazz category. And whenever that conundrum happens, it’s usually a good sign for the record. You May Also Like: Makaya McCraven – ‘Universal Beings’ (2018)

A mainstream jazz pianist leading a trio through a set of tunes out of the Great American Songbook doesn’t signal that the record is going to set the jazz world on fire with a cutting edge material and indeed, Out Of This World by the Ted Rosenthal Trio doesn’t deliverRead More

Composer Jason Kao Hwang, performing on both violin and viola, starts with a foundation of chamber jazz, and then blows it up. Hwang (Reggie Workman, Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill) is just as apt to set off an explosion of emotive, Eastern-themed motifs (as on the title track from Crossroads Unseen,Read More

You hear, for one final time, the promise of Amy Winehouse — if only in the way she can so expertly imitate the memorable phrasing of Dinah Washington. You May Also Like: Jazz Reedist Daniel Bennett on How Musicians Can Thrive In (and After) the Pandemic Age [Part 1 ofRead More

At the very moment I was waxing poetic last year over Italian whack jazz trio Neo’s last album Water Resistance, the band was in a studio in Chicago recording their next album. You May Also Like: Azymuth – Fênix (2016) Bucher Tan Countryman – Acceptance – Resistance (2017) Adrian YoungeRead More

‘Levin Torn White’ ain’t for the weak, but it’s lethal combination of brawn and brains makes it the release of the year.

Singer-pianist Christie Winn, a performer who crackles with spontaneity, pushes Closer to Home into every corner of her craft. Her deft ability to sound both quiet and strong, rhythmic and yet lucid, soulful and still multi-dimensional makes the album a consistently engaging delight. You May Also Like: No related posts.

Salon writer Touré misses monoculture. This isn’t the monoculture of a Starbucks every 1 1/2 miles, bookending the Walmart and the Lowes. You May Also Like: No related posts.

On this special edition of Something Else! Reviews’ One Track Mind, we hand the reins over to blues legend Duke Robillard, founder of Roomful of Blues and former member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds. You May Also Like: How Pee Wee Ellis Finally Stepped Into the Spotlight With ‘Blues Mission’