Satoko Fujii and Tatsuya Yoshida are heavyweights in Japan but are both world-class vanguard musicians. ‘Baikamo’ is a welcome return to their summit meetings on the edge of what is possible with just a piano and drums.
Murmullo features five young and very talented musicians whose surety and confidence in what they do is growing.
#Bloomerangs has achieved something which is not easy on ‘Moments and Fragments,’ linking many different influences and musical references.
Bela Fleck, Robin McKelle and Delfeayo Marsalis are part of the latest edition of Five for the Road, an occasional look at music that’s been in my car lately.
‘Ordinary Heroes’ is better than your ordinary mainstream jazz because Peter Hum composes, arranges and plays with the finesse and conviction he brings to his political activism.
Broadly speaking, ‘From This Place’ is the classic Pat Metheny plot updated with new twists; that is still miles better than what the vast majority of artists are capable of today – jazz or not.
Matt Mayhall went for an instinctual approach on ‘Fanatics,’ took a few chances and with the right guys to assist him, emerges triumphal.
Two albums of Miles Davis material emerged from a single concert held today in 1964 at Philharmonic Hall in New York. But that wasn’t the only history made.
Jazz piano great Lyle May passed away on February 10, 2020. Few have been able to project subtle emotions so powerfully.
Satoko Fujii doesn’t play an instrument in her orchestra; she conducts it. Still, there is hardly a more accurate manifestation of her genius artistry.
