by Mark Saleski Never heard of pianist Marilyn Crispell? I was first exposed to her work via Anthony Braxton’s momumental Willisau quartet recordings. Crispell has a unique style of play, which I put on the shelf next to Cecil Taylor and Keith Jarrett. This was her first solo record onRead More

by Tom Johnson I think there’s an annual requirement that Keith Jarrett must issue some kind of musical good. Going into this release, there had only been a handful of years in his career that have not resulted in some kind of album under his name — 1969, 1970, 1978,Read More

In the winter of last year, Chick Corea and Stefano Bollani performed at the famed Umbria Jazz Festival in Bollani’s home country of Italy, with no other instrumentation beyond two pianos positioned facing each other You May Also Like: Chick Corea (1941-2021): An Appreciation Chick Corea – ‘The Montreux Years’Read More

by Tom Johnson Jazz has been in a kind of holding pattern since the mid-1970s, when even Miles Davis declared the genre dead. You May Also Like: Matthew Shipp Trio – Piano Song (2017) Matthew Shipp – Zero (2018) Matthew Shipp – Symbol Systems (1996, 2018 reissue)

L.A. pianist and composer Josh Nelson has been busy making records (while not backing up Natalie Cole) since his 2006 semi-finalist finish in the Thelonious Monk competition. You May Also Like: Matt Nelson, Tim Dahl, Nick Podgurski – GRID (2017)

by Mark Saleski Several years ago, I happened upon a book called A Pattern Language. It was an odd purchase for me, because I’m not really an architecture person, at least not in the grand “Oooh, majestic building!” sense You May Also Like: Gareth Lockrane – Fistfight at the BarndanceRead More

by Mark Saleski I can probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of jazz “with strings” records that ‘work’ for me. This is a somewhat mysterious phenomenon as jazz and improvised music is food to me. You May Also Like: Steve Kuhn Trio – ‘To and FromRead More

Why wasn’t Roland Hanna, a first-rate piano improviser and brilliant accompanist, more famous? Newly unearthed sessions for the IPO Recordings release Colors From a Giant’s Kit, again first-rate, again brilliant, don’t do anything to solve the riddle. You May Also Like: No related posts.

Pianist Vincent Lyn puts a groove into Oliver Nelson’s classic lead-off number from his Blues And The Abstract Truth masterwork. You May Also Like: Vincent Meissner Trio, “Young Folks” from ‘Wille’ (2023): One Track Mind Joe Sofra, “One of Those Things” (2020): One Track Mind

Pianist Augusto Pirodda, on his fifth long player, plays with the melodic, insinuating sensitivity that belies his brief recording career. You May Also Like: Paul Bley, Gary Peacock + Paul Motian – ‘When Will The Blues Leave’ (1999, rel. 2019) Michel Petrucciani, with Gary Peacock + Roy Haynes – ‘OneRead More