Twangtown Paramours Double Down on a Bad Thing Inside Edge This full-band effort from the three-time Kerrville Folk Finalists, The Twangtown Paramours, bears little resemblance to the husband-and-wife team’s two previous duo acoustic efforts. Double Down on a Bad Thing is rife with hooks, brassy R&B, blues, and the Beatlesque pop. The eclectic mix somehow […]
Mathis Picard Live at the Museum Outside in Music Mathis Picard, only in his mid-twenties, is an emerging French-Malagasy pianist, composer, producer, and bandleader who currently resides in New York City and is ascending in popularity. If you’ve been fortunate to hear him, it was probably through his genre-bending 2020 EP World Unity under the […]
Lee Oskar Never Forget Dreams We Share Productions You know the name Lee Oskar. Aside from his melodic harmonica tones, don’t expect to hear anything resembling “Slipping Into Darkness” or “The World Is a Ghetto” from his renowned tenure with War, yet this tour de force, Never Forget, is every bit as indelible in a […]
North Mississippi Allstars Set Sail New West The North Mississippi Allstars (NMA), helmed by brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson, sons of famed musician and producer James Luther Dickinson, have long operated as a small loose collective, with slight changes to the lineup over their 25-year plus history. Highly decorated with four Grammy nominations, Set Sail […]
Katie Henry On My Way Ruf New-Jersey based roots-rocker Katie Henry leveraged her acclaimed 2018 debut High Road into signing with one blues music’s top labels, Ruf, for her second release On My Way. If you heard her debut, you know that Henry plays several instruments, but she slims it down a bit this time, […]
Emile Parisien Sextet Louise ACT Music & Vision French soprano saxophonist Emile Parisien forms American-European sextet for Louise, marking a decade with the Munich-based label, ACT Music & Vision. New listeners to Parisien will quickly sense a distinctive soprano saxophone tone, one that is softer and that often reads like a string instrument such as […]
The Jazz All Stars Volume 2 Le Coq The straight-ahead jazz label Le Coq enters its second year, reprising their introductory salvo of 2021, Volume 1, featuring an aggregation of premiere jazz musicians, with The Jazz All Stars, Volume 2. Most of the inaugural roster is aboard including both pianist/composer/arrangers Bill Cunliffe and John Beasley […]
John Hébert Sounds of Love Sunnyside Bassist John Hébert who keeps progressive company with the likes of Fred Hersch, Mary Halvorson, Uri Caine and bands led by Andrew Hill and Paul Bley earlier in his career, has long been fascinated with the music of Charles Mingus to the extent that he has modeled Sounds of […]
Oscar Hernandez & Alma Libre Visión Ovation Visión is the third release and the second on his own label, Ovation, for Multi-GRAMMY® Winning pianist, composer and bandleader Oscar Hernández, a giant of Latin jazz, most known as the leader of the Spanish Harlem Orchestra (SHO). Here, he leads his quintet, Alma Libre – a Los […]
Grant Dermody & Frank Fotusky Digging in John’s Backyard Self-released Blues fans should be familiar with harmonist Grant Dermody who released one of 2019’s best blues albums, My Dony, produced by the great roots producer, Dirk Powell. This time out, although Powell just does a superb job mixing the album, this is a duo recording […]
Dave Wilson Stretching Supreme Self-released Dave Wilson’s Stretching Supreme is a follow-up of sorts to his 2019 release One Night At Chris’, a Philadelphia jazz institution that is the site for this tribute to John Coltrane. We did cover that release on these pages. Yes, one may be asking – do we need another tribute […]
Tony Malaby The Cave of Winds Pyroclastic The title, Cave of Winds, sounds like a rock formation but draws its name from an interesting place where saxophonist/composer Tony Malaby and his trio played in 2020 during the lockdown months. Beginning in July of that year, Malaby began hosting improvisational jamming sessions featuring bassist John Hébert […]
Taru Alexander Echoes of the Masters Sunnyside Drummer Taru Alexander was blessed with the jazz genes from his father, saxophonist Roland Alexander, and an extended family of professional musicians while growing up in Brooklyn, NY. As the title, Echoes of the Masters, suggests, the drummer pays tribute, in one of the most sacred traditions of […]
Roswell Rudd & Duck Baker Live Dot Time This is one that broke late in 2021 that we’d be remiss to overlook. It is not often that one finds duets between trombone and fingerstyle guitar to begin with and considering that the trombonist is the late legendary Roswell Rudd along with the renowned finger stylist […]
Making a Scene Presents Jim Hynes Top Jazz Releases for 2021 2021 marked by far the most jazz reviews we have ever done in this space which has proven to be a haven for some lesser-known names, artists making debuts, and a surprising number of forward-thinking, explorative performers. In hindsight, the list, which includes […]
Greg Amirault News Blues Self-released This week’s theme seems to be mostly about Canadian artists. Jazz guitarist, educator, and composer Greg Amirault originally hails from Nova Scotia and has been living and performing in the Montreal area for over three decades. As an educator he teaches at the prestigious McGill and Concordia Universities. He has […]
Dave Young Mantra Modica Music This is the third review you may be reading this week about a Canadian artist, in this case, the seemingly ageless bassist and composer Dave Young, 81 years young (not a play on words, it just turned out that way). If you are unfamiliar with him, consider that he has […]
Asaf Yuria Exorcisms Jojo Israeli saxophonist Asaf Yuria’s Exorcisms is an old school album, or mostly a vintage hard bop excursion. One can tell Yuria grew up on the great Blue Note era of the 1960s with artists such as Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, Lee Morgan, and early John Coltrane. Consider the conventional […]
Bruce Cockburn Greatest Hits (1970 – 2020) True North This may be the first time this writer has ever given ink to a greatest hits album, but my guess is that there are not many of us thinking of Bruce Cockburn, one of the most indelible voices of early non-commercial FM radio in the ‘80s, […]
Matt Patershuk An Honest Effort Black Hen There must be something in those canola fields of Alberta that makes good songwriters. Matt Patershuk is the third singer-songwriter this writer has covered in just the past two months. Those who read reviews know that this writer is especially fond of Black Hen Records, and virtually anything […]
Martin Wind My Astorian Queen Laika We’re brought to this new release, My Astorian Queen by German native, New York-based bassist and composer Martin Wind partly through coincidence. Having just reviewed on these pages, the terrific vocal album While You Were Gone from Paul Jost, on which Wind plays impressively on four tracks as a […]
Mareike Wiening Future Memories Greenleaf Music Certain jazz labels such as Greenleaf Music, Pyroclastic, and Outside in Music are just a few that one can count on for creative jazz presentations today. Greenleaf, the subject at hand, is an independent music company owned, operated and curated by trumpeter and composer Dave Douglas. The label is […]
Joe Fiedler Fuzzy and Blue “Open Sesame” Multiphonics Music Who would have thought we’d encounter the music of the long-running television show Sesame Street through a progressive jazz outfit? Well, this is not the first but the second time for trombonist Joe Fiedler who released Open Sesame in 2019 and is the EMMY-nominated music director […]
Colin James Open Road Stony Plain One of Canada’s most renowned blues artists, Colin James, has reached a milestone, issuing his 20th album, Open Road. It’s the third in a trilogy of records. It’s the follow-up to 2018’s Juno Award -winning Miles to Go, and 2016’s Blue Highways. Even though the travel motif is in […]
Dionne Bennett Sugar Hip Ya Ya Hunnia Prepare for blast-off. This one comes as an explosive surprise. British Jamaican singer-songwriter, producer, and radio personality Dionne Bennett, who has forged most of her career in Europe, means business. We can thank Little G Weevil for bringing Bennett to our attention as the album was recorded in […]
Various Artists Highway Butterfly – The Songs of Neal Casal (3 CDs, 5 LPs) Royal Potato Family Neal Casal never got his due as a complete artist and certainly as a songwriter until now. Spread across 5 LPs and 3 CDs from a stunning list of artists are 41 of the late Casal’s songs in […]
Eberhard Weber Once Upon a Time Live in Avignon ECM Bassist Eberhard Weber has been recording since the mid-1970s back in the dark ages when this writer was just beginning his now-retired radio career. Perhaps that’s why we are taking up for the first time a review of a solo bass album. You may not […]
Shubh Saran inglish Art of Life Shubh Saran is a New York-based guitarist, composer, and producer who has performed globally and grew up in six different countries. His nomadic raising shapes a wide range of influences in his music, sourcing from modern jazz, neo-soul, rock, classical Hindustani and Rajasthani folk music, and more. In short, […]
Dylan Jack Quartet Period Pieces Creative Nation Music Period Pieces is the follow-up to this quartet’s 2020 Tale of the Twelve-Foot Man which we covered on these pages. Although we don’t see “Dylan Jack Quartet” on the cover, we see the same four names – guitarist Eric Hofbauer, drummer Dylan Jack, bassist Anthony Leva and trumpeter Jerry […]
Dave Specter Six String Soul – 30 Years on Delmark Delmark Guitarist Dave Specter lives up to the enticing album title Six String Soul, with his career-to-date selection of 28 remastered tracks spanning his three decades with Chicago’s Delmark records. It’s so tempting to engage in the kind of wordplay found in the liner notes […]
Dino Govoni Hiding in Plain Sight Whaling City Sound Hiding in Plain Sight is a terrific title when considering that tenor saxophonist and composer Dino Govoni hasn’t issued a recording in nearly a decade yet has remained continually active as an educator, a long-time faculty member at Berklee School of Music. This is his third […]
Dave Meder Unamuno Songs and Other Stories Outside in Music Undoubtably you are wondering just what are Unamuno songs? This album has quite a concept behind it. Pianist and composer Dave Meder is using the writings of Spanish Civil War-era philosopher Miguel de Unamuno as a historical analogy to recent sociopolitical unrest here in the States. Meder […]
Sylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson Searching for the Disappeared Hour Pyroclastic Pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and guitarist Mary Halvorson are two of the most forward-thinking musicians on their respective instruments. While a duo recording of two chordal instruments may seem bound for clashing rather than harmonizing, one can point to classics such as Bill Evans and […]
Paul Jost Quartet While We Were Gone – Live at Soapbox Gallery Self-released Paul Jost’s While We Were Gone may well be the top jazz vocal album of 2021. Yes, we said the same about Roseanna Vitro’s Sing a Song of Bird, but let’s just consider that one a collaborative vocal effort. Jost delivers a […]
Jeremy Monteiro & Alberto Marsico Jazz-Blues Brothers Jazz Note Back in April of this year, we brought you the elite trio of pianist Jeremy Monteiro aka Singapore’s King of Swing, bassist Jay Anderson, and drummer Lewis Nash Live at No Black Tie. That session introduced this writer and you readers to the swinging, bluesy piano […]
Jane Ira Bloom and Allison Miller Tues Days Outline/Supaphine In 2017 in one of the first jazz reviews (see Wild Lines) this writer contributed to these pages, we praised soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom with these words – “If you love the pure sound of the soprano without the screeching and honking and free from […]
Hayes Carll You Get It All DualTone Hayes Carll has built his career mostly on singer-songwriter roots-rock records but he claims that You Get It All is a country singer-songwriter record. He turns to his wife, Allison Moorer, and her favorite producer, guitar great Kenny Greenberg as co-producers of this, his eighth album. The many […]
Alex Brown The Dark Fire Sessions Self-released Pianist and composer Alex Brown is relatively new on the scene and The Dark Fire Sessions marks only his second release as a bandleader. Having seen Brown perform in virtual performances such as Sean Jones’ Dizzy Spellz at the 2021 Detroit Jazz Festival and at Baltimore’s Keystone Korner […]
Benjamin Schnake Ensemble The Joy of Playing Self-released The Benjamin Schnake Ensemble presents an enticing meshing of jazz and South American music. Schnake, a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and arranger was born in Chile and studied both classical and popular music growing up. He is skilled at the charango (Andean small guitar), pan flutes, and quena (Andean […]
Sue Foley Pinky’s Blues Stony Plain Canadian-born and longtime Austin TX resident Sue Foley is back with Pinky’s Blues, the follow-up to her acclaimed 2018 The Ice Queen. The title references her signature pink paisley Fender telecaster, “Pinky.” Foley is at the peak of her still growing career as she won “Best Traditional Female (Koko […]
Kazemde George I Insist Greenleaf Music I Insist is the debut as a leader for Brooklyn-based tenor saxophonist, composer, and educator Kazemde George. The title is to both signify an emphatic statement and a nod to Max Roach’s landmark 1960 protest album We Insist! Freedom Now Suite. George has previously released a series of electronic […]
Ben Levin Still Here VizzTone Still Here is the third release for the youthful pianist/songwriter/vocalist Ben Levin, who has already matured well beyond his years. When we last visited him on his 2020 release Carryout or Delivery on these pages, Levin was still in college, having just reached drinking age. And, as we said then, […]
Farnell Newton Feel the Love Posi-Tone Feel the Love is third Posi-Tone release for Portland, OR-based trumpeter and composer Farnell Newton. We covered his second one, Rippin’ and Runnin’, on these same pages in May 2020. Newton, who after being raised in Miami, FL attended the Philadelphia High School for creative and Performing Arts, studied […]
Adonis Rose and The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra feat. Cyrille Aimée Petite Fleur Storyville The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (NOJO) under the direction of drummer Adonis Rose issues its second release, cementing the city’s French connection on a 10-song collaboration, Petite Fleur, with French vocalist, turned Crescent City resident Cyrille Aimée. It was she who […]
Marilyn Crispell and Yuma Uesaka Streams Not Two/Polyfold Music Avant-pianist Marilyn Crispell has built her distinguished career in the company of inventive saxophonists, from the AACM artists Anthony Braxton and Joseph Jarman to more recent outings with Joe Lovano’s Tapestries. She now teams in duo format with Yuma Uesaka, and emerging talent among multi-reed performers. […]
Kurt Elling SuperBlue Edition Recently this writer is pondering if there are any limits to Kurt Elling’s talent. We witnessed a two-hour radio play, Big Blind, at the virtual Detroit Jazz Festival held in the beginning of September. His 2020 project Secrets Are the Best Stories, with pianist Danilo Perez won a Grammy. Now we […]
Mary LaRose Out Here little (i) Music Seldom has there been a more appropriate title for an album but it’s fascinating for fans of Eric Dolphy and the edgy music that he made in the early sixties. Vocalist Mary LaRose dedicates Out Here, a play on ‘out there,’ entirely to the music of Dolphy, using […]
Q’d Up Going Places Tantara This is for all the folks, and there are many, who say that there’s no jazz in Salt Lake City, let alone Utah, despite the name of its NBA team. This quintet, Q’d Up, is here to negate that statement. The founder is multi-instrumentalist Ray Smith who started a band […]
Zac Harmon As Long As I Got My Guitar Catfood Long As I Got My Guitar is the latest from Texas-based blues singer/guitarist Zac Harmon who returns to Bob Trenchard’s Catfood label and again taps producer Jim Gaines, recording at Trenchard’s base studio, the Sonic Ranch, near El Paso. Although Harmon is based in Texas, […]
Michael Stephenson Meets The Alexander Claffy Trio (with Benny Benack III) Cellar Music Group Sometimes just a couple of highly recognizable names will draw one to an album. Although familiar with Claffy and Benck III, it was Executive Producer Cory Weeds and Producer Jeremy Pelt that caught my attention and neither plays on this album […]
