The music of Wadada Leo Smith, no matter the setting, is spiritual, mesmerizing, purposeful and often dense. We found out back toward the end of ’09 just how dense his music can be You May Also Like: Wadada Leo Smith – Najwa (2017) Wadada Leo Smith and Orange Wave ElectricRead More

There is this deeply personal texture to A Lifetime, a redemptive 10-track journey through love’s rocky terrain. French jazz-pop singer-songwriter Dawn Harden wrote or co-wrote, with pianist Patrick Pernet, all but one of the songs, giving the record a lasting resonance. She starts with “Traces,” a lovelorn tale of aRead More

Bill Summers shares thoughts on a new album, his rejuvenated collaboration with Irvin Mayfield and some of those classic Headhunters sides.

Since Tom Cora’s tragic passing in 1998, there might not have been a more adventurous cellist on this planet than Erik Friedlander. You May Also Like: George Crotty Trio – ‘Chronotope’ (2022) Tim Berne – ‘inSOMNIA’ (2011): On Second Thought

Too often, it was like Jon Anderson didn’t want to make a solo record that sounded too much like Yes. As interesting as these sideroads no doubt were, they gave few clues to how his own voice fit into the wider topography of the band. You May Also Like: TheRead More

Three of the larger figures in the downtown New York avant jazz scene – Jim Black, Nels Cline and Tim Berne – join forces.

Over the course of the striking, stripped-down Medicine, former Detroit autoworker Solomon King returns to that moment when the blues moved inexorably away from the uplift that defined gospel music, and ultimately toward rock ‘n’ roll and then hip hop. You May Also Like: How B.B. King Left Us WithRead More

Intense and beautiful, Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba’s new Fe’ … Faith, is this meditative wonder. Like the earth making its inevitable yearly circle, Rubalcaba returns time after time to themes and thoughts — but never approaches things exactly the same twice. You May Also Like: Susie Blue and the LonesomeRead More

Listening to Allison Miller’s superb CD from last year Boom Tic Boom, I appreciated how it covered a lot of ground within advanced modern jazz, helped along by such sympathetic supporting players in this piano jazz trio. But that album still left me wondering where this ace drummer, composer andRead More

It was only a matter of time before Robert Fripp came out of hiding again. Notoriously reclusive, the unusual guitarist seems to disappear just when things seem to get really interesting, such as a few years ago when You May Also Like: No related posts.