Regardless of where you drop the needle on Jonathan Powell’s ‘Mambo Jazz Party,’ you will be inspired, energized, and pleased.

Preston Frazier’s Best of 2020 Jazz list includes Wayne Escoffery, Gary Husband and Markus Reuter, Nick Finzer and Wolfgang Muthspiel, among others.

Trevor Rabin, Nir Felder, Judith Owen are part of the latest edition of Five for the Road, an occasional look at music that’s been in my car lately.

Using bright, open-minded up-and-coming musicians much as Miles had done throughout his career, Weiss through Point of Departure very effectively uses a forgotten, fertile slice of jazz’s past to suggest a way forward.

There are more than a few jazz fusion bassists out there with outstanding dexterity, who’ve mastered every Jaco Pastorius lick and made some fusion record full of endlessly serpentine melodies. You May Also Like: The Chick Corea + Steve Gadd Band – Chinese Butterfly (2018)

“Landrus shows he has the goods to take his muse down whatever path he chooses and produce a winner every time.” This ending to my review on Brian Landrus’ last album Capsule (2011) is also an apt way to begin an assessment of his next album, Mirage. You May AlsoRead More

Sometimes, a good thing is worth repeating. In 2010, Weiss released Snuck In, a souvenir from a club date in NYC two years earlier (additional tracks from that gig were issued the following year as Snuck Out). You May Also Like: David Weiss and Point of Departure – Wake UpRead More

The Le Boeuf Brothers, like many of the younger jazz musicians today, crave bashing up jazz of their formal training with the Bjork, Radiohead and Sufjan Stevens of their iPod playlists. And as I’ve come to realize, this often has great results. But these identical twins, Romy (reeds) and PascalRead More

Photo from www.BobbySelvaggio.com by S. Victor Aaron For a serious post-bop performer to take a leap into Grooveland, it can often be a risky bet. Will they be able to keep their artistic integrity? Will they even care? A couple of years ago, alto saxophonist Bobby Selvaggio made his secondRead More