The Brothers March 10, 2020/Madison Square Garden/New York, NY Peach The Brothers is like having the Allman Brothers greatest hits performed live in one handy 4-CD package. Given that only one member of the original lineup, Jaimoe, is still alive, this is the second incarnation of The Allman Brothers Band (2001-2014) plus some guests who […]
Jackson Browne Downhill From Everywhere Inside Recordings This is Jackson Browne’s first album in six years and like many veteran musicians, he’s finding the studio conducive to songwriting. In other words, his songs often take new directions, once he begins to collaborate with bandmates, most of whom have cemented their chemistry with the iconic songwriter […]
Greg Ward, Rajiv Halim, Sharel Cassity Altoizm AFAR Music Usually any three-headed saxophone group comes together to honor a legend like Bird or Trane, notwithstanding bigger units such as the World Saxophone Quartet of Odean Pope’s Saxophone Choir. Yet this unit, self-dubbed Altoizm, is making their own music with all seven compositions composed by the […]
Steve Dawson at the bottom of a canyon in the branches of a tree Pravda Besides having one of the longest and strangest album titles seen in some time, Chicago-based singer- songwriter Steve Dawson brings us a powerful album of loss and rebirth. Dawson is vastly underrecognized and underrated but has long been one of […]
Mehmet Ali Sanlikol An Elegant Ritual DÜNYA Last year one of our Top 30 Jazz albums was from multi-instrumentalist and composer Mehmet Ali Sanlikol leading a large ensemble featuring NEA Jazz Master Dave Liebman for The Rise Up: Stories of Strife, Struggle, and Inspiration. This one, An Elegant Ritual, is almost entirely different as Sanlikol […]
Mike Clark and Michael Zilber Mike Drop Sunnyside Renowned jazz drummer Mike Clark and acclaimed saxophonist Michael Zilber have a decade-long musical relationship in the Bay Area. Although Clark spends more time now in New York, the two had such an inspiring week of performances in the Bay Area in 2018 that they decided to […]
Adam Schultz Soulful Distancing Blue Heart It’s rather common for an established bluesman to have a younger protégé that he is mentoring, with Buddy Guy and Quinn Sullivan being perhaps the most recognizable example to most blues fans. But Pennsylvania’s Clarence Spady has an apprentice too, 18-year-old guitarist Adam Schultz. After a long recording hiatus, […]
Gary Vogensen Shot of Hope Little Village Here’s an unfamiliar name to most but you’d likely perk up when you learn that Gary Vogensen played with Mike Bloomfield, Barry Melton, Norton Buffalo, Maria Muldaur, Etta James, Commander Cody, John “Marmaduke” Dawson of the New Riders of the Purple Sage (for years), and more. Bay Area […]
William Parker Mayan Space Station – Painter’s Winter AUM Fidelity This likely introduces some of our readers to William Parker for the first time. Parker is an edgy, free jazz, avant-garde composer, multi-instrumentalist, poet, griot, shaman, and community leader. His major instrument is the bass, but he plays such instruments as the trombonium and shakuhachi […]
Art Hirahara Open Sky Posi – Tone Pianist/composer/ and bandleader for his sixth outing on the Posi-tone label, Art Hirahara, furthers his appealing mix of straight-ahead jazz to standards to progressive jazz as he splits the selections between a trio and quartet on Open Sky, the title alone suggesting few, if any boundaries. The trio […]
Samara Joy Samara Joy Whirlwind We first introduced our readers to jazz vocalist Samara Joy, who appeared on Bruce Harris’ Soundview, released just a few weeks ago. Now Joy delivers her self-titled debut, after winning the Sarah Vaughn International Jazz Vocal Competition. Consider that past winners include the likes of Jazzmeia Horn and it harbingers […]
Daniel Herskedal Harbour Edition Chances are good that you have never heard an album where the music perfectly captures the song titles as well as this one. Close your eyes and conjure the images for Norwegian master of the tuba Daniel Herskedal and his trio for Harbour. His may well be the only trio of […]
Robert Billard & The Cold Cuts Stop Self-released Robert Billard, formerly mostly a folk singer and now a bluesman, may be the only one of that ilk living in Nunavut, Canada’s newest province, a massive, sparsely populated territory of northern Canada, forming most of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Its islands have expanses of tundra, craggy […]
Will Bernard Ancient Grains Posi-Tone Guitarist Will Bernard’s musical history is truly versatile and Ancient Grains is his third as a leader for Posi-Tone, the label that tends to favor straight ahead jazz. However, Bernard, a Berkeley CA native and Brooklyn transplant, has recorded with avant –garde trumpeter Don Cherry, worked with Hindustani-influenced Jai Uttal, […]
Horizons Quartet Self-titled PM Records As soon as we mention the Deer Head Inn, the jazz readers of these pages will realize that the Horizons Quartet are local to this writer. Yet, keep in mind that the venue is home to many reputable musicians and a gig location for many prominent NYC-based musicians. After all, […]
Various Artists A Sweet Relief Tribute to Joey Spampinato True North This is an amazing group of artists all generously donating their proceeds from these recordings to the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund to support NRBQ founding member/bassist/songwriter Joey Spampinato with his current health issues. Joey’s wife Kami Lyle and producer Sheldon Gomberg rallied a group […]
Gerald McClendon Let’s Have a Party Delta Roots Chicago soul singer Gerald McClendon, the “Soul Keeper,” makes a quick return from 2020’s Can’t Nobody Stop Me Now, a major statement, which he now quickly follows with Let’s Have a Party. McClendon first got a lift from 2019’s Delta Roots release, Battle of the Blues: Chicago vs. Oakland, […]
Troy Roberts and Tim Jago Best Buddies Toy Robot Music The best buddies referred to in the title are indeed versatile saxophonist Troy Roberts and guitarist Tim Jago, both originally hailing from Down Under where the album was recorded last summer during the pandemic. Not only do these two co-leaders have origins in the same […]
Patti Parks Whole Nother World VizzTone Working nurse and blues belter Patti Parks hails from Buffalo, NY but made the trek to Baton Rouge, LA to record Whole Nother World, her second full-length release, at Kenny Neal’s studio. After hearing Parks at the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge, Kenny Neal signed her to his Booga […]
Lauren Henderson Musa Brontosaurus Bilingual and multi-cultural jazz vocalist Lauren Henderson, who has appeared on these pages before, returns with an album that explores love and relationships in a blend of styles. The traditions that influence her sound, jazz, flamenco, and Afro-Latinx are here in a bigger way than they have been on her seven […]
Tom Kennedy Stories Autumn Hill Bassist/composer Tom Kennedy has been working mostly in the fusion jazz realm for nearly five decades. Stories is his sixth album as leader and provides an opportunity to share his original songs inspired by his many global travels with those he has often played and formed lasting relationships with. Kennedy […]
Madre Vaca Elements Madre Vaca We have covered this imaginative quartet Madre Vaca (“Mother Cow”) before on these pages for 2020’s interpretation of Franz Schubert’s Winterreise. Elements is their fourth album and deals with four elements of earth in just four long extended pieces, each composed by a different member of the quartet. Yes, lots […]
Ches Smith’s We All Break Path of Seven Colors Pyroclastic The music on Path of Seven Colors is likely unlike most anything we have heard. After all, how many of us are familiar with traditional Haitian Vodou music? The octet We All Break, led by forward-thinking drummer Ches Smith, take this foundation, and mix it […]
Julian Lage Squint Blue Note Squint is esteemed guitarist Julian Lage’s debut for Blue Note as a leader although he has appeared on the label for Nel Cline’s Lovers (2016) and Nel Cline’s 4 Currents, Constellations (2018). This writer was especially impressed by his performance on Charles Lloyd’s 8: Kindred Spirts (Live from The Lobero) […]
Molly Miller Trio St. George GSI The Molly Miller Trio features three well-known first-call musicians. Molly Miller, the chair of the Guitar Department at Los Angeles School of music and has a regular gig with Jason Mraz, having also played with the Black Eyed Peas, Donna Missal and Morgxn. Bassist Jennifer Condos has a decorated […]
Leni Stern Dance Self-released Dance is the second quartet album for guitarist/vocalist Leni Stern, following rather closely last summer’s 4. For the past decade-plus Stern, hailed as one of the world’s top guitarists (her guitarist husband, Mike Stern, isn’t shabby either), has fused a contemporary jazz approach with West African folkloric elements. She has traveled and studied […]
Judy Wexler Back to the Garden Jewel City Los Angeles-based jazz vocalist Judy Wexler is taking more risks with each album, Back to the Garden, being her sixth. Her last effort, 2018’s Crowded Heart (covered here) had her stepping away from Great American Songbook fare to present, in this writer’s terminology, the Great Global Songbook, […]
Tim Mayer Keeper of the Flame D Clef Saxophonist and composer Tim Mayer leads an octet as well as other intimate configurations of first-call musicians including bassist Rodney Whitaker, drummer Ulysses Owens Jr., and trombonist Michael Dease, with pianist Emmet Cohen sitting in for one track on Keeper of the Flame. The dates and places […]
Jalen Baker This Is Me, This Is Us Outside In Music There’s a new vibraphonist on the scene not named Joel Ross. Indeed, hailing from Houston, TX we have the young Jalen Baker, also a composer of merit that belies his youthful stature with his auspicious debut This Is Me, This Is Us. Baker has […]
Mary Hott with The Carpenter Ants Devil in the Hills – Coal Country Reckoning Self-released You may be thinking that The Carpenter Ants may not be the most inviting band name, but this is as an important concept album as you’ll find. Singer-songwriter Mary Hott is a seventh generation West Virginian who has devotedly researched […]
Bruce Harris Soundview Cellar Music Group Trumpeter Bruce Harris is a died-in-the-wool New Yorker, having grown up in the Soundview section of the Bronx (hence the title) and living now in the Sugar Hill section of Harlem. The album is a tribute to his community and family in both places and Black American Music. The […]
Chris Bergson All I Got Left 2 Shirts Coincidentally as we sit down to write on this day of Levon Helm’s birthday, we have one of his many disciples – singer-songwriter, blues guitarist Chris Bergson, offering his new solo effort, All I Got Left. It’s solo in the true sense of the word as you […]
Dahveed Behroozi Echos Sunnyside Echos is the sophomore album from both classically and jazz trained, California-bred, and New York based pianist Dahveed Behroozi. This is his first studio recording and he’s flanked by two of New York’s finest in this trio – bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Billy Mintz. The leader has already received high […]
Andre Ferreri Quintetto Numero Uno Laser A first glance at the name and title would suggest a European group but New York born, Charlotte, NC-based guitarist Andre Ferreri and his quintet are a stateside group. Ferreri has worked in an array of genres including frequent stints with the Charlotte Symphony. For years he led the […]
Almog Sharvit Get Up or Cry Unit Get Up or Cry is the first album as a leader for New York-based bassist and composer Almog Sharvit. Yet this is far from your conventional jazz record; some of the press materials bill it as a crossover record. Much of that has to do with Sharvit’s sense […]
Alex Conde Descarga for Bud Sedajazz If you were to ask most casual jazz fans to name the most important pianist of the fifties, it would inevitably be Thelonious Monk. Yet although the jazz pianists may agree, they would also name the bebop giant Bud Powell as the major contender as he had a profound […]
Kendall Carter Introducing Kendall Carter Lladnek Music Recently one of my review comments was that organ trios are far from dead. In fact, we’ve seen several contemporary twists on the idiom lately, but newcomer B3 master Kendall Carter mostly embraces the tradition on this soulful, bluesy debut. Impressively he teams with one of today’s most […]
Dara Tucker Dreams of Waking Green Hill Productions The blues readers of these pages probably know the name Dara Tucker, ostensibly a jazz vocalist on this outing – Dreams of Waking – Music for a Better World. She co-wrote and sang on the title track for ‘Keb Mo’s Grammy winning Oklahoma. Tucker indeed hails from […]
Donna Herula Bang at the Door Self-released Donna Herula, a killer slide and resonator player and singer-songwriter, is releasing her third album, Bang at the Door. She brings ten originals, a co-write, and three well-chosen covers. While Herula’s slicing guitar is usually front and center, she is joined by quite a cast including FJ Ventre […]
Ahmed Warshanna Ishta Tiber River Ahmed Warshanna is an artist to watch, hailing from Baltimore and leading a septet that combines the western music of jazz with the eastern music of Egypt. Warshanna is a recent graduate of the University of Maryland Baltimore County where he received a Music Achievement Award in 2020. Warshanna is […]
Aaron Germain Bell Projections Aaron Germain Music This is a one-of-a-kind for this writer and maybe for any artist as the versatile Bay Area musician Aaron Germain who typically plays bass, delivers 17 compositions for guitar quartets and plays every guitar part himself. He does have accompanying musicians who appear in various configurations across the […]
Oliver Wood Always Smilin’ Honey Jar/Thirty Tigers Okay, before anyone gets too worried and jumps off the next cliff, the Wood Brothers remain intact as an ongoing band. That said, Always Smilin’ is the first solo outing for one of the three members, Oliver Wood. As you likely know, brother Chris has long had side […]
Jacqui Naylor The Long Game Ruby Star Jacqui Naylor is not your prototypical jazz vocalist. She stands apart in this intensely competitive field from those who revel in an over reliance the Great American Songbook, scat, and predictable fare. She is a terrific writer and an inventive interpreter of contemporary material found in other genres. […]
Dan Moretti Tres Libre Roots Grooves Tres Libres is the unusual trio album that features ten musicians and ten different instruments. Marking his twentieth recording as a leader, versatile saxophonist Dan Moretti, as you might guess, uses an array of combinations across diverse styles ranging from free-Latin-jazz, funk, ambient, modal, and swing. Moretti employs all […]
Declan O’Rourke Arrivals Miesta Music/Warner UK Arrivals is the seventh album for Irish singer-songwriter Declan O’Rourke and represents his first new material in two years, and importantly, a new raw, intimate sound encouraged and realized by producer Paul Weller of Jam fame. Weller is also a multi-instrumentalist who chips in now and then along with […]
Rale Micic Only Love Will Stay Whaling City Sound Organ trios generally take the soul-jazz path, to the point where such a configuration is too easily stereotyped. Guitarist Rale Micic will argue that he still brings plenty of soul in this quartet setting, Slavic soul that is. As such, it is a refreshingly different sound […]
Maia Sharp Mercy Rising Self-Released Maia Sharp just did two years ago what many singer-songwriters do. She moved to Nashville to be in the company of kindred spirits, hoping her change in scenery from L.A. would inspire her musically and give her personal life a necessary reboot. This is not to say she hadn’t enjoyed […]
Jesse Terry When We Wander Wander Recordings When We Wander marks a series of first for New England-raised, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Jesse Terry. It’s the first album of his seven, that he wrote since becoming a parent, the first he ever recorded live in the studio, and likely the first that was delayed for a year. […]
Lunar Octet Convergence Summit Put Ann Arbor in the headline and this writer is immediately interested, having received a degree from the city’s most famous school and hosting a wonderful jazz radio show during my tenure there. Yet, of course, this is not about yours truly but about the long-running Lunar Octet who return after a […]
Alex Sipiagin Upstream Posi-Tone Russian-born, once New York-based trumpeter Alex Sipiagin has recorded near twenty albums as a leader, yet Upstream marks his debut for the Posi-Tone label. He is backed by the label’s consistent and reliable rhythm team of pianist Art Hirahara, bassist Boris Kozlov, and drummer Rudy Royston, each of whom contribute originals […]
