Andrew Binder’s Conspiracy Deliracy Conspiracy Deliracy Self-released Bassist and composer Andrew Binder leads his spirited septet in a program of original compositions at the intersection of modern jazz and pop with tongue-in-cheek references to today’s era of fake news and outlandish theories. The ensemble features trumpeter Justin Dyar, saxophonist/flutist Brian Stark, trombonist Frank Niemeyer, Brazilian […]
Ches Smith Laugh Ash Pyroclastic Drummer and composer Ches Smith is a free spirit that keeps us constantly guessing on what his next project holds. Two are never the same and even rarely similar when considering his Haitian Vodou ensemble We All Break, his stunning Interpret It Well with Bill Frisell, Craig Taborn and Mat […]
Satoko Fujii Tokyo Trio Jet Black Libra Satoko Fujii is recognized as one of the world’s leading composers for large jazz ensemble but is also building a reputation for leading one of the most forward-thinking piano trios of our times with this, Jet Black, only the trio’s second recording. It follows 2021’s Moon on the […]
Marshall Gilkes and the WDR Big Band LifeSongs Alternate Side Records Twice Grammy-nominated trombonist and composer Marshall Gilkes, well-renowned for his big band compositions, teams with the esteemed WDR Big Band for Life Songs. There’s some glowing history here as The WDR Big Band is where Gilkes both established and cemented as reputation. If the […]
Marlon Simon and The Nagual Spirits On Different Paths Truth Revolution Drummer and composer Marlon Simon leads his sextet, The Nagual Spirits On Different Paths, his fifth effort with the unit as they fuse pan-Latin jazz with classical influences, some veering toward chamber music with the addition of a bassoonist and French horn player. With […]
Eddie Roberts & The Lucky Strokes Self-titled Color Red Guitarist Eddie Roberts steps away from his The New Mastersounds and other jazz-funk related projects that typically appear on the label Color Red, to step into southern rock with a new group of musicians who are debuting on the label. Dubbed The Lucky Strokes, the band […]
Cary Morin Innocent Allies Self-released Fingerstyle guitarist and singer-songwriter Cary Morin has long been identified with Colorado but on Innocent Allies, we learn (if not knowing before) that he was born and raised in Billings, Montana by native American father and mother from two different tribes. Although we’ve heard his Native American references on previous […]
Betty Bryant Lotta Livin’ Bry-Mar Music We last visited pianist, vocalist and composer, the now 94-year-young Betty Bryant when she celebrated her 88th birthday with her 2019 release Project 88 and despite the loos of most of her vision, she’s still belting out her trademark mix of blues and jazz. Bryant is one of the […]
Abdullah Ibrahim 3 Gearbox This live recording, 3, from NEA Jazz Master, pianist, and composer Abdullah Ibrahim (formerly Dollar Brand and dubbed the “Duke Ellington of South Africa) will long hold a special place for this writer and those fortunate enough to attend live performances of this repertoire in the states (where there were only […]
Keyon Harrold Foreverland Concord The much-anticipated release, Foreverland, from trumpeter and composer Keyon Harrold, his first album in six years, is effectively two albums in one, the first part featuring a potpourri of guests and the second part showcasing Harrold leading various small combos. Doubtlessly the bevy of guests is due in part to the […]
Peter Hand Blue Topaz Whaling City Sound Guitarist Peter Hand is both new to this writer and these pages even though he has issued three acclaimed big band recordings. Blue Topaz, though represents a new step forward for Hand, working with a surefire small combo to deliver his straight-ahead originals, jazz standard interpretations, as well […]
Reggie Quinerly The Thousandth Scholar Redefinition Music The curiously titled The Thousandth Scholar is drummer/composer Reggie Quinerly’s fifth album as a leader. Known primarily for his straight-ahead chops, (last covered herein on his fond farewell to NYC, 2021’s New York Nowhere) Quinerly challenges himself with an Afro-Latin jazz offering, lending credence to the album title […]
Elan Mehler Trouble in Mind Sunnyside We often use the term “in the moment” or talk about most jazz compositions never rendered quite the same way twice, especially live. Another factor, though less discussed, is the circumstances leading up to and surrounding a recording. These are all critical elements in gaining appreciation for this solo […]
Diane Coll Old Ghosts Happy Fish Atlanta-based folk singer-songwriter Diane Coll brings us her second release, Old Ghosts, which follows her debut in 2022, Happy Fish and other Delights and her 2023 EP Into the Fire. While the initial impression of the album may be dark and moody, certainly introspective, there are multiple healing messages […]
Ulysses Owens Jr. and Generation Y A New Beat Cellar Music Group GRAMMY-Award winning drummer and composer Ulysses Owens Jr. has risen quickly from “young lion” to seasoned mentor. In jazz’s time-honored tradition of recruiting younger musicians to keep pushing the music forward (i.e. Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and Miles Davis’s Second Great Quintet, as […]
Mark Winkler The Rules Don’t Apply Café Pacific The Rules Don’t Apply is the 21st album for vocalist and songwriter, the L.A. based Mark Winkler. This is the fifth time this writer has reviewed a Winkler effort, one a year since beginning to write on these pages. To his credit, he brings a different configuration […]
The Dave Stryker Trio w/ Bob Mintzer Groove Street Strikezone At this point you surely know what you’re getting with the soul-jazz of Dave Stryker’s Trio with the leader on guitar, the redoubtable Jared Gold on organ and groove maestro McClenty Hunter on drums. Yet, this session, Groove Street, adds the legendary tenor saxophonist of […]
Blue Moods Swing & Soul Posi -Tone We kick off 2024 with Posi-Tone’s super quartet Blue Moods delivering a stirring set of soul-jazz and swing that will invariably evoke the glory years of Blue Note Records. Aficionados may note, though likely covered before that the name “Blue Moods” is a play on hard bop/soul-jazz trumpeter […]
The Memphis Blues Box Original Recordings First Released on 78s and 45s, 1914-1969 Bear Family Here are the staggering numbers: 534 songs, 161 artists, 360 11×11 pages in a hefty hard-bound coffee table book, 20 CDs, 13 years in the making, for a total weight of 10.5 lbs. How can we possibly do justice to […]
Rob Susman Top Secret Lab Self-released Trombonist, composer, and arranger Rob Susman is a veteran of many NYC-based large ensembles, two of which we have covered on these pages – Swingadelic and Funk Shui NYC. Top Secret Lab is his first effort as a leader since his eponymous album in 2002, giving him the opportunity […]
Micah Thomas Reveal Artwork It seems only appropriate as we finish 2023 to have a review of a jazz pianist as one of final reviews. It has been an extraordinary year for jazz pianists and for jazz piano trio and solo albums. This new label, Artwork, in his first year boasts a Grammy nomination for […]
Charles Owens Trio Here It Is LA Reserve Here It Is follows up 2021’s 10 Years from the Charles Owens Trio, a jazz-funk unit from Richmond, VA, the same town in which Butcher Brown resides and, in fact, claims the other two members of saxophonist Owens’ trio. They are drummer DJ Harrison, a master of […]
Uncle Lucius Like It’s the Last One Left Boo Clap/Thirty Tigers The Austin, TX band Uncle Lucius returns after a five-year hiatus with Like It’s the Last One Left. Essentially this is the story of a fan base that just wouldn’t let this band fade away. Yet, there were other fortuitous factors at play as […]
Bloodkin Out of State Plates World Will Turn This reissued, remastered, remixed, and appended Bloodkin’s Out of State Plates revisits the band’s 1999 effort, their third album and the first produced by the near legendary David Barbe. Barbe is the main culprit here as well, as he gained permission from co-founder Eric Carter and the […]
Don Thompson Rob Piltch Bells… Now and Then Modica Music Being pleasantly surprised is always good. In this case, approached an album recorded some 42 years ago, held modest expectations at best but the music from veteran multi-instrumentalist Don Thompson and the accomplished fingerstyle guitarist Rob Piltch not only sounds uniquely creative but compatible with contemporary offerings. Bells… […]
Palle Mikkelborg/Jacob Bro/Marilyn Mazur Strands: Live at the Danish Radio Concert Hall ECM Three generations of Danish jazz greats come together for this concert, recorded in February of 2023 at the Danish Radio Concert Hall. Octogenarian trumpeter and flugelhornist Palle Mikkelborg’s gorgeous tones float spaciously through the hall, buttressed by the supportive and at times […]
Lisa Hilton Coincidental Moment Ruby Slippers Productions It is to the point now that we can mark the beginning of December on our calendars and know that we’ll have a new release from pianist and composer Lisa Hilton. She returns with Coincidental Moment featuring her mainstay bass-drum tandem of Luques Curtis and Rudy Royston, along […]
Rich Halley Fire Within Pine Eagle The expression “three strikes and you’re out” becomes “three and you’re on again” as force-of-nature tenor saxophonist, Oregon based Rich Halley once again teams with leading creative music scene improvisors pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Newman Taylor Baker for the more than aptly named Fire Within. […]
The Flying Horse Big Band A Message From Flying Horse Records This writer is struck by the seemingly recent trend for large ensembles to tackle material from the great hard bop combos of Horace Silver, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Cedar Walton, and others. Just last week we reviewed Cory Weeds’ Little Big Band […]
Sullivan Fortner Solo Game Artwork We’ve covered many pianists this year in 2023, remarking often about this new generation that includes the likes of Isaiah J. Thompson, Sean Mason, Joey Alexander, and several others. Yet, the generation that preceded them, the ‘thirty somethings’ if you will, point to Sullivan Fortner with the utmost admiration. His […]
Benjamin Koppel White Buses – Passage to Freedom Cowbell Music Often music is the best conveyor of stories. And, if there were justice in the music world, Danish saxophonist and composer Benajmin Koppel’s White Buses – Passage to Freedom would accrue the kind of publicity that Silk Road Ensembles’ American Railroad (that amplifies the untold […]
Geri Allen + Kurt Rosenwinkel A Lovesome Thing – Live at the Philharmonie de Paris Motema Sometimes it seems pointless to describe in words music that is so sublime, delicate, and intricately woven into gorgeous layers. That’s the case with this recently unearthed recording from the late, revered pianist Geri Allen and guitar great, master […]
Cory Weeds and his Little Big Band Home Cookin’ Cellar Music You’ve seen Vancouver-based Cory Weeds’ name often on these pages but typically in the producer role as he is also the label owner of Cellar Music. Weeds is a terrific tenor saxophonist as well as you may also realize. So, here on Home Cookin’ […]
Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels The Last Roundup: Live from the Bijou Café in Philadelphia March 16th, 1973 Amoeba Music Fifty years after Gram Parsons’ passing, Amoeba Music and Polly Parsons have unearthed the only live-to-an-audience recording of Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels – The Last Roundup: Live from the Bijou Café in […]
Trio Grande 2.0 Urban Myth Whirlwind We brought you the first foray of Trio Grande with their eponymous 2020 album featuring co-leaders guitarist Gilad Hekselman and saxophonist Will Vinson (also on synths and Wurlitzer). For that date they had Grammy-winning drummer Antonio Sanchez. That was their only showing as the pandemic precluded any chance of […]
Mike DiRubbo Inner Light Truth Revolution Inner Light is alto saxophonist and composer Mike DiRubbo’s tenth album as a leader, fronting a quartet of long-held collaborators. DiRubbo cut his teeth as a sideman for the likes of Al Foster, Harold Mabern, and Cecil Payne among others before proving to be a steadily prolific leader in […]
Dori Freeman Do You Recall Blue Hens Music Do You Recall is the fifth album from evolving singer-songwriter Dori Freeman. Here first three were recorded in NYC and produced by Teddy Thompson but Freeman began to blend electric with acoustic sonics on her 2021 Ten Thousand Roses and continues in that direction with this electrified […]
Silvan Joray UPDRAFT Ubuntu Music The Swiss-born, NYC-based guitarist Silvan Joray is releasing UPDRAFT, his second album as leader. Having established considerable acclaim in Europe, Joray is poised to expand his footprint in the U.S. and globally. Beginning as many Europeans do, he studied classical guitar but when hearing jazz, he switched to electric guitar, […]
Ray Gallon Grand Company Cellar Music Group Pianist and composer Ray Gallon collaborates with the legendary bassist Ron Carter and nearly legendary drummer Lewis Nash, for this trio release, Grand Company. Gallon, previously not covered on these pages, is known for his work with such luminaries as Art Farmer, Lionel Hampton, George Adams, Wycliffe Gordon, […]
Ned Hill Band Thousand Watt Town Self-released Troubadour Ned Hill delivers a country-tinged rock n’ roll record with a touch of his native Kentucky twang. Even the opening chords of “Gotta Get Out of This Town” will evoke Steve Earle’s Guitar Town or Copperhead Road. On Hill’s Thousand Watt Town the singer-songwriter collaborates with the […]
Adam Deitch Quartet Roll the Tape Golden Wolf Drummer and composer Adam Deitch is best known as the leader of the jazz/funk/jam band Lettuce, but he leads his soul-jazz quartet for the second time here on Roll the Tape. This is organ-oriented music featuring organist Wil Blades and two of Deitch’s Lettuce bandmates, Eric ‘Benny’ […]
Yuhan Su Liberated Gesture Sunnyside What are the odds of us covering two female Taiwanese-born, NYC-based vibraphonists leading quintets and releasing albums in the same week? However low those odds may have been, we bring you Liberated Gesture, the fourth album (and second for Sunnyside) from Yuhan Su, and you will also see on these […]
Mareike Wiening Reveal Greenleaf Music Reveal is drummer and composer, the German-based Mareike Wiening’s (Mar-eye-kuh Vee -ning) third album for Dave Douglas’s Greenleaf Music. We covered her second, 2021’s Future Memories, on these pages and much remains intact not only in terms of personnel but also in outlook, namely that her band, spread throughout the […]
Susan Alcorn CANTO Relative Pitch We are revisiting the creative pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn, who presents an altogether different set of sonics than she did on her 2020 quintet rendered Pedernal which we covered on these pages. This time Alcorn leads a septet, labeled here as Septeto del Sur, a group of Chilean improvisers […]
Hassan Ibn Ali Reaching For the Stars: Trios/Duos/ Solos Omnivore This writer’s two previous reviews of the legendary pianist Hassan Ibn Ali appeared in another outlet so it’s probably best to provide some background information. Reaching For the Stars: Trios/Duos/ Solos is the third collection released by Omnivore Records, another look into the previously unheard […]
John Chin Sun of Music: Live From The Lockdown Self-released Pianist John Chin leads a trio of bassist Sean Conly and drummer Jaimeo Brown in a live performance without an audience from Smalls in NYC during the height of the pandemic. Fortunately, the tape machines were rolling. The trio has played together for decades but […]
Lafayette Gilchrist Undaunted Morphius The Baltimore-based, D.C.-born pianist and composer Lafayette Gilchrist leads a sextet through five of his compositions on Undaunted that course through a potpourri of styles from, barrelhouse blues, stride, post hard bop, hip-hop, R&B, and his foundational go-go, the musical style of Washington D.C. His angular style makes him a descendant […]
Chien Chien Lu Built In System (Live from New York) Giant Steps Art Vibraphonist Chien Chien Lu leads her top shelf quartet of trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, bassist Richie Goods, and drummer Alan Mednard in this vibrant live recording, Built In System (Live from New York) from Hunter College in January of 2023. Lu composed all […]
Marcel Smith From My Soul Little Village Singer-songwriter Marcel Smith’s From My Soul follows up his Little Village release Everybody Needs Love, covered in 2020 by Richard Ludmerer on these pages. His review has considerable biographical information, so we’ll forge ahead with the essence of what’s at hand this time out. First, Smith co-wrote five […]
Wayne Nicholson Gin House Grindstone Singer-songwriter, producer and frontman Wayne Nicholson is the blues voice of Canada’s East Coast. He has fronted Horse and the Oakley Band and is out with his seventh solo effort, Gin House, recorded on his home turf in Nova Scotia. This writer covered his 2020 effort with John Campbelljohn on […]
