Fabrizio Sferra is a favored drummer of fellow Italian Enrico Rava, having appeared on Rava’s Full of Life (2003) and last year’s Tribe. In evaluating Tribe, Sferra stood out to me You May Also Like: Walt Weiskopf European Quartet – ‘Diamonds and Other Jewels’ (2022) Doogie White – ‘As YetRead More

Many are the jazz adventurers who have run aground on the rocky shoals of the Thelonious Monk sound. They either come off as gimmicky impersonators, the portrait of studied eccentricity, or as well-meaning but genuinely confused – unsure of what to do with all of that dissonance. You May AlsoRead More

Josh Berman follows up a debut album that brilliantly collided the very old with the very new, mainly by expanding the harmonic range of his band. Old Idea, which cleverly retrofitted trad jazz with a healthy dose of Bill Dixon, announced to the world that Chicago is big enough forRead More

Where else will you find, side by side by side, new reissues of Miles Davis’ Porgy and Bess, Nirvana’s 1992 compilation Incesticide, and the Fat Boys’ Pizza Box album — packaged in (yes) a pizza box? You May Also Like: Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and Joe Strummer: The Singers andRead More

Amazon.com Widgets Beth Duncan’s Come the Fall isn’t the purpled and foreboding project that its title might suggest. If anything, it’s exactly the opposite You May Also Like: The Most Surprising Moment on Alan Parsons Project’s ‘Eve’

You mean the great jazz singer from the 40’s and 50’s, you ask? Not hardly, but carry over the word “jazz” and shift the “voice” from vocal to the cello (and the location from L.A. to Vancouver), and you’ll have the “Peggy Lee” I want to tell you about. YouRead More

The aptly-titled Forever is the fifth release from Gato Libre. This is sadly the last with the original quartet line-up, as bassist Norikatsu Koreyasu passed away suddenly in September of 2011 – weeks after the live recording. You May Also Like: Gato Libre – Neko (2017) Gato Libre [Natsuki Tamura,Read More

Just three years out of the Berklee College of Music, pianist and composer Julian Shore has figured out a couple of important things pretty early on in his career: mind your melodies and present them in the best possible light. You May Also Like: Julian & Roman Wasserfuhr – LandedRead More

Pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura take to Muku with designs on once again challenging the listener. The two have consistently done so throughout their impressive careers thus far, so it should come as no surprise You May Also Like: Satoko Fujii w/ Wadada Leo Smith, Natsuki Tamura, IkueRead More

The story of Leon Foster Thomas (not to be confused with the late jazz vocalist Leon Thomas) starts on the Caribbean island of Trinidad and continues in Miami. You May Also Like: Ruthie Foster Confirmed Her Genius With ‘The Truth According to Ruthie Foster’ ‘Leon Russell: The Master of SpaceRead More