A lesser talent than Israeli guitarist-composer Yotam might have gotten lost in this project. You May Also Like: Victor Assis Brasil – Toca Antonio Carlos Jobim (1970, 2017 reissue) Claudio Roditi’s Gorgeous ‘Brazilliance x4’ Deftly Balanced His Many Influences

A record of Brazilian jazz led by Brazilians and featuring three A.C. Jobim standards invites “been there, done that” responses, but the fresh, updated arrangements that pianist Gilson Schachnik and drummer Maurico Zottarelli apply to these and other well-worn tunes distinguishes Mozik from other such excursions into this style. BothRead More

Claudio Roditi is on a roll coming off the critical triumph of Grammy nominated Brazilliance X 4 (2009), and the master trumpet player continues “trumpeting” his Brazilian roots with Bons Amigos. You May Also Like: Claudio Roditi’s Gorgeous ‘Brazilliance x4’ Deftly Balanced His Many Influences Claudio Scolari Project – ‘Cosmology’Read More

André Vasconscellos is, like Leonardo E.M. Cioglia, a forward thinking acoustic bassist and composer from Brazil. 2 is, you guessed it, his second album, but the first one released in the U.S. Heading up a five or six piece band (depending on whether Torcuato Mariano’s guitar is included), Vasconscellos leadsRead More

You don’t see me cover a lot of jazz vocalist or smooth jazz records, so you may wonder what is up with this piece about a record from smooth jazz’s premier vocalist, Michael Franks? When I informed our own Mark Saleski my intention to cover Franks his reaction was toRead More

Israeli-born guitarist Roni Ben-Hur and Brazlian-born bassist Nilson Matta head a date with percussionist Café (another Brazilian) and American drummer Victor Lewis in tow, called Mojave. While the title might conjure up images of the American Southwest, pay closer attention to the native country of both the bass player andRead More

Guitarist/bandleader Anthony Wilson, son of legendary L.A. composer, pianist and big band bandleader Gerald Wilson, has established himself as an artist in his own right since leading his own records from 1997 on, including a long, ongoing stint in Diana Krall’s band. Though Anthony chose guitar as his instrument andRead More

Many relative newcomers like Sarah Wilson have brought a breath of fresh air to jazz this year. by Pico When scanning the landscape of jazz records from 2010, one thing is clear: there’s an awful lot of very skilled and talented jazz musicians out there today, and I would argueRead More

by S. Victor Aaron I’m not one of those critics who creates a “best of” list by merely dumping a bunch of names and titles. But I felt a need to explain that because this list of mainstream and modern jazz from the past year has 41 entrants on it.Read More

The last two Quickies were an investigation of jazz records only. We’re still hacking through some recent noteworthy jazz records of different stripes, but this time, I threw in some non-jazz right at the end. Still on a blues bent that started with coverage of Shemekia Copeland’s and Joe Bonamassa’sRead More