Like another Cuban product Aruán Ortiz, Manuel Valera is a gifted piano player who is able to reconcile the rhythmically based Afro-Cuban jazz of his homeland with the harmonically complex modern jazz of New York. You May Also Like: Roberto Occhipinti – Stabilimento (2017) Aruan Ortiz, with Andrew Cyrille +Read More

This is a drummer’s record but not a record about drum solos. Musically, however, it’s about a lot of other things, like rhumba, West African, reggae, Moroccan, Afro-Cuban, funk-fusion and, finally jazz. You May Also Like: Daniel Carter, William Parker, Matthew Shipp – Seraphic Light, Live at Tufts University (2018)Read More

Kenny Garrett’s place in jazz history was secured long ago as the last in the line of one of the most prestigious clubs in all of jazz You May Also Like: Darren Barrett – ‘The EVI Sessions: Mr. Steiner’ (2019)

When Henry Cole sought to find a singular style of music that would appeal to the diverse tastes of his local Old St. Juan music scene, his search was over when he discovered the pioneering Afrobeat sounds of Fela Kuti. You May Also Like: Paula Cole – ‘Revolution’ (2019)

Longtime reedman Bill Barner has played it all in his career: Dixieland, free jazz, bop, Latino music, fusion jazz, and on and on. You May Also Like: Bill Frisell – Music IS (2018) Andrew Cyrille, with Wadada Leo Smith and Bill Frisell – ‘Lebroba’ (2018) Bill Evans – Time Remembered,Read More

Brooklyn-born to Haitian parents, drummer Andrew Cyrille had gone on to record with Mary Lou Williams, Coleman Hawkins and Roland Kirk before beginning a decade-plus stint in Cecil Taylor’s band during some of Taylor’s most creative periods. You May Also Like: Andrew Cyrille, with Wadada Leo Smith and Bill FrisellRead More

A record of Brazilian jazz led by Brazilians and featuring three A.C. Jobim standards invites “been there, done that” responses, but the fresh, updated arrangements that pianist Gilson Schachnik and drummer Maurico Zottarelli apply to these and other well-worn tunes distinguishes Mozik from other such excursions into this style. BothRead More

Occasionally I’ll come across a record that sounds very pleasing to me and then realize that the music falls outside my usual areas of interest. Like, for instance, this new one by Florencia Ruiz that I’ve been listening to a lot in the last few days. You May Also Like:Read More

Eugene Marlow’s Heritage Ensemble’s follow-up to last year’s Celebrations CD is also its predecessor. Let me explain. Marlow’s first Heritage Ensemble record, Making The Music Our Own (2006) was Marlow’s first stab at making a record of modern, multicultural takes on old Hebraic (Jewish) music. Since that album was recorded,Read More

Listening to the guitarist Aram Bajakian is lot like listening to Marc Ribot, and Aram follows much of Ribot’s wildly divergent style that incorporates the vintage forms of swing, punk and rock and roll into a fresh and daring style. So it’s fair to state that if you like Ribot,Read More