By Nick DeRiso One of three jazz-legend siblings, Hank Jones was perhaps as unassuming as his brother Elvin (nine years younger, famously of the John Coltrane group) was the outsized extrovert. Feathery light, then concisely powerful at the piano, Hank concluded an intellectual, often overlooked eight-decade career on Sunday whenRead More

by Pico One of the most enduring singing piano players isn’t Billy Joel or even Elton John. Mose Allison has been at it since Nat King Cole was dominating the charts and although he’s slowed down a lot lately, the eighty-two year old was recently enticed back into the studioRead More

by Pico Rufus Reid has never had the flamboyant, edgy comportment of, say, Charles Mingus, but for decades now, he’s been a first-call bassist for many of the finest jazz (and even non-jazz) musicians. Making his way to the top level of bottom pluckers via stints in the Thad Jones-MelRead More

by Nick DeRiso Bassist Charles Mingus, an enlightening yet stormy presence, clearly felt he had unfinished business with some of his earlier work. So, he used “Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus” and a move to the more creatively open Impulse! label to take another pass at them. That turned intoRead More

by S. Victor Aaron These days, there’s very little in the way of positive vibes coming out of Venezuela to the U.S., so to balance things out, I’m going to offer up one: Otmaro Ruiz. Ruiz hails from Caracas, but his muse—not to mention his abilities on piano—brought him toRead More

Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times by S. Victor Aaron Last month ECM put on sale new offerings by two of their oldest stalwarts: drummer Paul Motian and Ralph Towner. Motian has been discussed on this site probably more than any other drummer, no doubt due to his longRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Last Tuesday, HighNote Records furnished two new CD’s, each by established veterans of the jazz scene. Look on the back of just about any classic Blue Note album from the 60s, and you’re likely to see Joe Chambers’ name listed as the drummer. And while there’sRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Fresh, new talent worth listening to is often hard to spot. Good thing the folks at jazz label Posi-Tone Records specialize in bringing to our attention promising young talent who will keep the flame of jazz going for another generation. Their issuance yesterday of the firstRead More

by Nick DeRiso Luis Bonilla’s “I Talking Now” (NJCO/Planet Arts), from the first bristling blast of trombone on the title track, is dashing down a busy city street. It’s difficult to tell, at first, if he’s running away from or toward something. Whatever the apprehensions, you are quickly surrounded byRead More

by S. Victor Aaron He looks like a young Keith Jarrett, even hums along to his piano lines a little like Jarrett, but Jacky Terrasson is defying straight comparisons to anybody. This 1993 winner of the Thelonious Monk competition can conjure the big, train-like sound of McCoy Tyner, the cerebralRead More