Jacob Garchik’s ‘Ye Olde 2, At The End of Time’ is a fun listen in spite of its complexity because you can feel the apparent fun that went into playing it.

Michael Formanek Drome Trio’s ‘Were We Where We Were’ is a gratifying listen, whether the person beholding it realizes that these songs are musical palindromes or not.

Tom Tallitsch’s ‘Wheelhouse’ is all in a day’s work for this underappreciated tenor saxman, who once again demonstrates the continued vitality of the hard bop form. If that kind of jazz is in your wheelhouse, then this album is sure to be as well.

Here’s the part of the annual Best of 2017 lists that’s the most fun to pull together.

Vinnie Sperrazza and his audacious crew once again stretch jazz across multiple red lines and force people to rethink what defines that idiom.

Thus far for the drummer, composer and bandleader Vinnie Sperrazza, it’s two albums, two different approaches, same high quality level jazz. The consistent ‘Juxtaposition’ justifies keeping Sperrazza on the watch list.

Jacob Garchik’s ‘Ye Olde’ might be about the hardest rockin’ thinking man’s fusion record in recent memory.

Yes, ‘Apocryphal’ is ethereal, an adjective that might be overused a tad, but it’s all about the way Vinnie Sperrazza and his three accomplices give the music that quality. It puts Sperrazza’s formal debut in a far corner of jazz that’s rarely occupied with so much moxie.

I first encountered the savvy of Peter Brendler’s bass when sizing up Jon Irabagon’s wild, seventy-eight minute improvisation ride, Foxy (2010). You May Also Like: Tom Tallitsch – Gratitude (2016) Tom Tallitsch – Wheelhouse (2018) Kevin Eubanks – East West Time Line (2017)

Noah Baerman plays piano, organ, slide guitar and sings a little. He leads a trio, a chamber octet, a duet, a quartet of singers, a two-sax/vibes quintet, and an assortment of combinations of these ensembles. He composes for every shade of jazz from greasy soul-jazz to Third Stream. And heRead More