Here’s a free mp3 download of Cassandra Wilson’s “Silver Moon,” a tune featuring saxophonist Ravi Coltrane from the forthcoming Blue Note recording Silver Pony. A hybrid live/studio album set for release on Nov. 9, Silver Pony features live songs from a European tour and studio work done at New Orleans’Read More

by S. Victor Aaron Pianist and composer Ryan Cohan follows up his highly acclaimed One Sky (2007) with another slate of mostly originals, Another Look. Though Cohan is an exceptional composer (Ramsey Lewis has recorded many of his tunes), Cohan sought to make his latest record more performance-oriented. He supplementsRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Ideal Bread is a Steve Lacy tribute band, at least a tribute band in that they play the songs of the late, great soprano saxophonist and composer of the free jazz world. But this four-piece band, which includes baritone saxophonist Josh Stinton, Lacy’s copyist and studentRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Since at least the fifties, many a jazz musician have made records of their live gigs at festivals. Some of the largest and most enduring ones have been a favorite location for cutting a record: Newport, Montreaux, Monterrey, North Sea and so on. And then there’sRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Around the same time William Parker released the culmination of an epic Curtis Mayfield project that spanned live performances over seven years, Parker quietly released a decidedly more personal and discreet affair, Uncle Joe’s Spirit House. Dedicated to his 92-year-old uncle Joe and his wife ofRead More

by S. Victor Aaron This is a compilation of some highlight tracks from Mike Marshall’s albums released under Adventure Music, a label he co-founded in the late 1990s. Going agaist the grain, the track sequence goes in reverse chronological order, which means two cuts from last year’s Mike Marshall’s BigRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Last month, percussionist Sameer Gupta presented a CD that was one of the more creative fusions of East Indian and jazz music ever attempted. His keyboardist Marc Cary played a key role in that endeavor but the productive partnership extends to Cary’s own records, too. LiveRead More

Photo: Shawn Brickbill/High Two It’s been quite a while since the bassist and composer Michael Formanek has led a date but with his ECM debut The Rub And Spare Change, he’s more than made up for lost time. Out since October 12, The Rub marks his return as a leaderRead More

One of the bigger regrets I’ve had with this site was missing the opportunity to review Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Kinsmen when it was released two years ago, because this saxman of Indian descent did such a brilliant job in combining traditional Indian music with traditional jazz. Last week, the debut albumRead More

by Mark Saleski, at Binghamton University, Vestal, N.Y. Oh dear, I was this close to feeling disappointed. I loved the Orchestrion concept and music so much that tickets were procured and a trip was planned (across southern New Hampshire, Vermont, and all the way out past Albany to Binghamton, NY)Read More