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Jazz Review

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Nadje Noordhuis Full Circle

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Nadje Noordhuis Full Circle Newvelle The Australian-born trumpeter Nadje Noordhuis leads a first-rate quartet on Full Circle, the fourth album in NewVelle Records’ Renewal Series.  Flanked by pianist Fred Hersch, bassist Thomas Morgan, and drummer Rudy Royston, Noordhuis, who composed all eight compositions, gives each of her bandmates plenty of solo opportunities.  This is a […]

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Lisa Hilton Paradise Cove

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Lisa Hilton Paradise Cove Ruby Slippers Productions Paradise Cove marks the 26th album for pianist, composer and producer Lisa Kristine Hilton, and her second release in 2022, following March’s Life Is Beautiful. It also marks the debut of her new, L.I.L.O Quartet (all first initials) featuring returning mainstay bassist Luques Curtis with trumpeter Igmar Thomas (Hilton’s former roommate at […]

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Laszlo Gardony Close Connection

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Laszlo Gardony Close Connection Sunnyside Hungarian-born pianist and Berklee College of Music Professor Laszlo Gardony delivers his fourteenth album and sixth with his trio of bassist John Lockwood and drummer Yoron Israel. The trio has been playing together for more than twenty years so the deep level of understanding facilitates a lively session that has […]

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David Bloom Cliff Colnot Shadow of a Soul

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David Bloom and Cliff Colnot Shadow of a Soul Fire and Form Shadow of a Soul is an expansive, largely orchestral album from guitarist, flautist, composer, educator David Bloom and esteemed arranger Cliff Colnot.  This is their fourth collaborative album with 15 original compositions from Bloom and 13 arrangements by Colnot, with the two arranging […]

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Rodney Whitaker Oasis

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Rodney Whitaker Oasis – The Music of Gregg Hill Origin Detroit native, Director of Jazz Studies at Michigan State University, and esteemed bassist Rodney Whitaker is back with his third album dedicated to music of his East Lansing neighbor, composer Gregg Hill, with Oasis. If this, the first one this writer has heard, is any […]

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Santi Debriano & Arkestra Bembe Ashanti

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Santi Debriano & Arkestra Bembe Ashanti Jojo Panama-born and New York-based composer and bassist Santi Debriano has been a longtime bandmate for Kirk Lightsey but is an accomplished bandleader as well. Ashanti is his eighth release as a leader and the first for Jojo Records.  Bembe is quite the ensemble, boasting a five-horn front line, with four […]

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Jussi Reijonen Three Seconds/Kolme Toista

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Jussi Reijonen Three Seconds/Kolme Toista Challenge Records International If you were to know that the leader has lived in Finland, Jordan, Tanzania, OMan, Lebanon, and the United States, it would pique your curiosity. Add to that the unusual instrumentation and background of the players in his nonet: Jason Palmer on trumpet and flugelhorn; Bulut Gülen […]

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Sam Blakeslee & Wistful Thinking Busy Body

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Sam Blakeslee & Wistful Thinking Busy Body Outside in Music Ohio native, New York City based trombonist and composer Sam Blakeslee follows up his 2021 debut The Long Middle with his band, Wistful Thinking, delivering their second release, Busy Body. The bandleader has created an almost entirely new sound that contrasts to the intimate, melancholy […]

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Michael Blake Combobulate

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Michael Blake Combobulate Newvelle Combobulate is the second release in Newvelle Records Renewal Series is a celebratory and unique exploration of saxophonist and composer Michael Blake’s compositions and arrangements featuring a star-studded brass section including TWO legendary tuba players Bob Stewart and Marcus Rojas, Steven Bernstein on trumpet, Clark Gayton on trombone and Allan Mednard […]

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Eddie Palmieri Sonido Solar

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Eddie Palmieri Sonido Solar Truth Revolution Recording Collective NEA Jazz Master, 85-year-old Eddie Palmieri, dubbed “The Sun of Latin Music” has figuratively passed the torch to many but is doing so directly on this recording, Sonido Solar. While Palmieri’s spirit and guiding light brightens the whole album, he plays just on two tracks while handing […]

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Hilario Duran and David Virelles Front Street Duets

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Hilario Duran and David Virelles Front Street Duets Alma Hilario Duran and David Virelles are two acclaimed Cuban pianists and composers who have known each other for over two decades.  They come together here on Front Street Duets with their most extensive project to date.  There seems to be a proclivity for Cuban pianists to […]

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Steve Tintweiss Spacelight Band Live at NYU:1980

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Steve Tintweiss Spacelight Band Live at NYU:1980 INKY DoT Media Why bring something so ‘old’ to these pages?  Admittedly, it’s due to Steve Tintweiss, the bassist and composer, who appeared on several avant-garde or free jazz recordings of the ‘70s and ‘80s, including the most intriguing album this writer has heard this year – Albert […]

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Franco Ambrosetti Nora

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Franco Ambrosetti Nora Enja Maybe it’s these unsettled times that call for calming sounds. Or perhaps it’s this writer’s enduring love for Charlie Parker with Strings together with Swiss trumpeter/flugelhornist Franco Ambrosetti’s touch on ballad material. Ambrosetti may have as a unique as resume as any jazz musician. For almost six decades he has been […]

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Rufus Reid Trio with the Sirius Quartet Celebration

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Rufus Reid Trio with the Sirius Quartet Celebration Sunnyside Rufus Reid is acknowledged as one the most distinctive and revered bassists in jazz, having been a mainstay for such giants as Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, Freddie Hubbard, the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, and countless others. This recording, Celebration, more than anything else though is […]

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Claudia Acuña DUO

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Claudia Acuña DUO Ropeadope Claudia Acuña is a Chilean-born American jazz vocalist with a dynamic range and an emotionally incisive delivery. Following her dynamic debut on the NY scene in the 1990’s she recorded five albums as a leader, and then stepped away for a decade to raise her son and restore her power. Returning […]

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Roxana Amed Unanime

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Roxana Amed Unanime Sony Latin Unanime (“Unanimous”) is a different kind of Latin jazz album. While that sub-genre is most often associated with Caribbean Basin countries, vocalist Roxana Amed has tapped guests from South America as she celebrates the works of both contemporary and historic Latin American composers. Her previous release, 2021’s debut U.S. recording, […]

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Steve Turre Generations

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Steve Turre Generations Smoke Sessions Trombonist and composer Steve Turre gathers rising stars and jazz masters in tribute to influential elders on Generations. Turre, as you may know, has been blessed to have played with some of the greatest artists in the music including Art Blakey, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Woody Shaw, and Ray Charles, to […]

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Will Vinson Tripwire

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Will Vinson Tripwire Whirlwind One of the most outstanding trio albums we covered on these pages was the 2020 release of TRIO GRANDE with alto saxophonist Will Vinson, drummer Antonio Sanchez and guitarist Gilad Hekselman. Now Vinson returns with another mostly trio recording, Tripwire, going chord-less, a configuration favored by legends such as Sonny Rollins, […]

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Rafael Zaldivar Rumba

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Rafael Zaldivar Rumba Effendi We bring you a Cuban pianist and composer, Rafael Zaldivar, by way of Montreal. Zaldivar calls the ensemble gathering for Rumba some of the best Cuban Canadian-American jazz voices from around the world. The term RUMBA refers to social gatherings of the black community from Havana, Cuba. By the beginning of […]

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Abel Mireles Animo

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Abel Mireles Animo Sunnyside This is the debut as a leader for saxophonist and composer Abel Mireles, born and raised on the Southern border in the infamous Juarez -Tijuana region. For once, his story brings some ‘brightness” to this locale that we otherwise rather automatically label with crime, drugs, gangs, cartels, and the like. Mireles […]

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Joe McCarthy’s New York Afro-Bop Alliance Big Band The Pan American Nutcracker Suite

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Joe McCarthy’s New York Afro-Bop Alliance Big Band The Pan American Nutcracker Suite By Jim Hynes We associate Tchaikovsky’s ballet, The Nutcracker, with the Holiday season so this may seem a bit early. Yet the score is timeless. Drummer/leader Joe McCarthy’s 18-piece New York Afro Bop Alliance Big Band (NYABA) is not the first large […]

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Mike Clark, Leon Lee Dorsey, and Mike LeDonne Blues on Top

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Mike Clark, Leon Lee Dorsey, and Mike LeDonne Blues on Top Jazz Avenue 1 The title, Blues on Top, could just as easily read “Blues on Tap.” This trio tackles true classics – Oliver Nelson’s “Stolen Moments,” Ann Ronell’s “Willow Weep for Me,” Ellington’s “C Jam Blues,” and Dizzy’s “Birk’s Works,” among others. This is […]

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Ana Nelson Bridges

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Ana Nelson Bridges Self-released Bridges is the first full-length debut, following 2017’s EP Wanderlust, for talented alto saxophonist and clarinetist Ana Nelson from Indiana who points to such formidable mentors as Walter Smith III, Greg Ward, and Gary Bartz, among several others. Originally trained in classical music, the album title is Nelson’s way of expressing […]

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Al Foster Reflections

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Al Foster Reflections Smoke Sessions The recently turned octogenarian drummer Al Foster does not have many who can claim to have played with as many icons as he has.  Only Ron Carter, Roy Haynes, and Jack DeJohnette come to mind. There are likely others but consider that at various points in his career, Foster was […]

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Quentin Baxter Quintet Art Moves Jazz Charlton Singleton Crossroads

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Quentin Baxter Quintet Art Moves Jazz Charlton Singleton Crossroads BME Baxter Music Enterprises Art Moves Jazz and Crossroads are tandem releases on the same label by two friends, bandmates, and fellow members of South Carolina’s Gullah cultural community. They are two-fifths of the Grammy-winning (Good Time, 2017 Best Regional Roots Album) Gullah community ensemble Ranky […]

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Enrico Pieranunzi Quintet The Extra Something Live at the Village Vanguard

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Enrico Pieranunzi Quintet The Extra Something Live at the Village Vanguard Camjazz Is it possible to record over eight albums and still remain under the radar?  If you are unaware of pianist and composer Enrico Pieranunzi, that’s perfectly forgivable as the Italian piano master has developed most of his career in Europe.  The Extra Something […]

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