by Mark Saleski There are two things that can be counted on when cracking open a new Carla Bley Big Band record: 1. many, many interesting and twisty passages of musical architecture and 2. volume. Oh yes, the horn section is enormous You May Also Like: Riverside [Dave Douglas, ChetRead More

Interplay. Whether I’m taking in straight ahead, bebop-style jazz or more out-there stuff, it’s all about listening You May Also Like: Darren Barrett – ‘The EVI Sessions: Mr. Steiner’ (2019)

The jazz world suffered a significant loss Monday with the passing of violinist Billy Bang. Reportedly afflicted with lung cancer, Bang, born William Vincent Walker, was 63 years old. Given his stage name from friends as a youth, a name taken from a cartoon character, Bang’s life was anything butRead More

by Tom Johnson Tortoise alum Rob Mazurek had a big concept behind this project. As we all know, sometimes big concepts pay off, sometimes they simply lead to big letdowns. You May Also Like: Rob Mazurek & Exploding Star Orchestra – ‘Lightning Dreamers’ (2023) Rob Mazurek – Chants And CornersRead More

As I type this review, I’m listening to not necessarily All Wrapped Up, the new record by organist Jared Gold, but also Unity by Larry Young. I know, it doesn’t make sense, since it’s Gold’s record being reviewed here, not Young’s. But something struck me about All Wrapped Up whenRead More

On this special edition of Something Else! Reviews’ One Track Mind, we hand the reins over to Orrin Evans You May Also Like: Bill Evans – Another Time: The Hilversum Concert (2017)

Rhys Chatham: The Man With The Horns. Many, many horns. It might be only the third Stacks so far this year, but it’s a much overdue one. There’s a whopping seven 2011 releases discussed here You May Also Like: Michel Petrucciani, with Gary Peacock + Roy Haynes – ‘One NightRead More

Orrin Evans arrived amidst a wave of new jazz performers in the early 1990s. Unlike many of those young lions, however, he managed to bob up from that era’s ultimately empty retro-conservatism. You May Also Like: Johannes Wallmann, jazz pianist and bandleader: Something Else! Interview Bill Evans – Time Remembered,Read More

Drew Paralic is that most unusual of things, a jazz pianist and composer who has released an album of originals played by others. Having taken up the instrument too late, he says, to approach the mastery of deeply appreciated influences like Bill Evans and Thelonious Monk, Paralic instead decided toRead More

During the first year or so of my post-college life, I developed a habit of visiting my local record shop every Saturday afternoon (it goes without saying that I already had this habit, maybe not so firmly attached to a particular day). It was an unassuming little store hiding inRead More