Ideal Bread have made a career of lovingly presenting the music of the great Steve Lacy. On their previous records, The Ideal Bread and Transmit, the group trafficked in more or less straight readings of Lacy’s music. You May Also Like: Adam Hopkins’ Crickets, “Grounded” (2023): Something Else! One TrackRead More

Made up of three highly distinctive voices in the world of jazz and avant-garde music, Thumbscrew should probably collapse under the weight of its star power You May Also Like: Thumbscrew [Mary Halvorson, Michael Formanek + Tomas Fujiwara] – ‘The Anthony Braxton Project’ (2020) Thumbscrew – ‘Multicolored Midnight’ (2022) IllegalRead More

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLMme9ItKCw?rel=0&w=420&h=236] Well, of course I don’t think jazz is stupid. I love jazz. But that didn’t stop me from laughing out loud when this scene showed up out of nowhere in a recent episode of The Office. You May Also Like: Mark Wingfield: The Albums That Shaped My CareerRead More

Anyone who has heard Mary Halvorson perform even just once has likely caught her trademark move: the sudden burst of notes quavering, akin to hitting the whammy bar but with a little more nuance. You May Also Like: Illegal Crowns [Tomas Fujiwara, Mary Halvorson, Taylor Ho Bynum + Benoît Delbecq]Read More

The music of Tomas Fujiwara and his Hook Up band is some of the most deceptively clever jazz out there, which makes it very difficult to describe his music. You May Also Like: Tomas Fujiwara [w/ Tomeka Reid + Patricia Brennan] – ‘Pith’ (2023) Tomas Fujiwara, Ben Goldberg + MaryRead More

By Mark Saleski Many years ago, while stuck in traffic during the evening commute, I heard a radio segment on microtonal composer Easely Blackwood. I had read about things like microtones, 24-note equal tunings, and the like, but somehow none of the music had ever made it’s way into myRead More