Ray Obeido Latin Jazz Project Vol. 2 Rhythmus Latin Jazz Project Vol. 2 is the tenth release by the Bay Area guitarist and composer Ray Obeido, his originals plus one from producer/arranger Gerald Wilson. Of the 29 musicians in the credits, 15 of them return from Volume 1, they being mostly Bay Area veterans but […]
Pat Metheny Side-Eye – NYC (V1-IV) Modern Recordings No ‘jazz’ musician except Chick Corea has amassed more Grammy awards than Pat Metheny but the use of quote marks around jazz indicates that both for Corea and Metheny, some of these awards were due to projects in other genres besides jazz. Our greatest artists are both […]
Aakash Mittal Nocturne Self-released This unique project, Nocturne, from alto saxophonist and composer Aakash Mittal and his Awaz trio transports you to the nighttime streets of Kolkata, (formerly Calcutta), India. The instrumentation is unusual to say the least as Mittal fronts the trio of guitarist Miles Okazaki and percussionist Rajna Swaminathan (playing mridangam and Kanjira). […]
Dave Zinno & Unisphere Fetish Whaling City Sound Bassist and composer Dave Zinno issues his third album, Fetish, with his group Unisphere. Zinno calls it the culmination of a year without live music and thus, it’s a huge, in some cases, unbridled release of energy for he and his band members – Mike Tucker (tenor […]
Andy Farber and his Orchestra Early Blue Evening ArtistShare Saxophonist, arranger, composer and bandleader Andy Farber issues his fourth album as a leader and second big band effort with Early Blue Evening. His is a 17-piece band that digs back to the original big bands and infuses those sounds with a more contemporary language. The […]
Lisa Hilton Transparent Sky Ruby Slippers Productions Composer/pianist/producer, Lisa Hilton is back less than a year later with her follow-up to her 2020 More Than Another Day, again featuring her longstanding bandmates: Rudy Royston on drums, and Luques Curtis on bass. Considering that this writer has covered Hilton twice previously for two different outlets, perhaps an introduction is appropriate for […]
Carlos Henriquez The South Bronx Story Tiger Turn Carlos Henriquez is best known as the bassist for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, a position he has held for over two decades. Henriquez is also a composer and bilingual artist, stepped in the Latin music of his Puerto Rican heritage. Currently, many acknowledge him as […]
Andrew Renfroe Ride in the Storm Self-released Ride in the Storm is guitarist Andrew Renfroe’s first album as a leader with all original compositions. Renfroe has built a reputation as a first call guitarist for artists such as Braxton Cook, Tia Fuller, and Jonathan Barber, to name a few. Renfroe’s many references, based on his […]
Kerry Moffit What Goes Around Comes Around Self-released Veteran composer, arranger, trumpeter Kerry Moffit has been playing professionally for 41 years, appeared on over 70 recordings as a sideman in many configurations, and is just now issuing his debut as a leader with What Goes Around Comes Around. Moffit leads his sextet, Turning Circles through […]
Gary Meek Monterey Groove Autumn Hill Saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Gary Meek debuts a new band formed in and inspired by California’s central coast, as indicated in the title. The project began with no intention of a recording but simply to form a fusion band which was unique to the Monterey area, for playing locally. You’ve […]
Tom Cohen My Take Versa Music Philly drummer Tom Cohen leads the modern incarnation of the jazz organ trio across three different configurations on My Take, for extended versions of jazz classics from Gigi Gryce, Benny Golson, Wayne Shorter, Sonny Stitt, and Vincent Youmans. Featured are master organist and fellow Philadelphian Joey DeFrancesco, tenor giants […]
Leon Lee Dorsey Freedom Jazz Dance Jazz Avenue 1 Bassist Leon Lee Dorsey and legendary drummer Mike Clark are a tandem that just keeps on chugging, raising curiosity as to who will be the third member to join them on their next outing. Freedom Jazz Dance marks their fourth collaboration, having begun with 2019’s Monk […]
Jeff Pearring Pearring Sound – Socially Distanced Duos Self-released Alto saxophonist Jeff Pearring usually leads groups ranging from trio to quintets under the group name Pearring Sound, but the pandemic intervened. So Pearring took a safe approach instead, deciding to play duos with six diverse musicians across eight selections, each recorded in a socially distanced […]
Tim Motzer Many Ways Around the Sun Ropeadope Tim Motzer’s Many Ways Around the Sun is a true solo album with the multi-instrumentalist who has made nine solo soundscape albums now adding vocals to his compositions for the first time. Playing mellotron, guitars, bass, prophet synth, optigan, wood flute, cymbals, drums, reed organ, electronics, drum […]
Billy Test Trio Coming Down Roses ATM His name is not yet widely known but this writer first became familiar with Pennsylvania-bred pianist and composer Billy Test when he and trio mates, bassist Evan Gregor and drummer Ian Froman backed Dave Liebman in last year’s Invitation by The Generations Quartet. Having studied with Liebman while […]
System 6 Tales from the Backyard Skipper Productions Bandleader and multi-reedist, the English-born and now L.A. based Benn Clatworthy, returns with does his long-standing sextet, the totally acoustic System 6, with Tales From the Backyard, a follow-up to last year’s Bennie’s Lament, which we covered on these pages. Initially this writer felt that this one […]
Blue Reality Quartet Blue Reality Quartet! Mahakala In another time the album cover would come across as daunting with four men, each with his face covered with a mask. Yet, in these times, we quickly realize that these four musicians have recorded an album during the height of the pandemic. That’s a blue reality itself […]
Keith Loftis Original State Long Tone Music Original State is saxophonist Keith Loftis’ fourth album as a leader. Loftis is the saxophonist for the three-time Grammy nominated Baylor Project, among his other pursuits. This is a new quartet for him in this lyrical, free blowing, mostly swinging session that features six originals in the nine […]
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 […]
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 […]
HOME PAGE Making a Scene Presents an Interview with John McTigue III Award winning drummer John McTigue III, currently recording and playing with Grammy Award Winning Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, began making noise at a very early age. A graduate of the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts John earned a degree […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Maria Muldaur Let’s Get Happy Together Stoney Plain Records Six-time Grammy nominee Maria Muldaur was raised in Greenwich Village. In 1963 she began her recording career as a member of The Even Dozen Jug Band. She left the following year and joined The Jim Kweskin Band where she married Geoff Muldaur. As a duo she […]
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