Recent Jazz Articles

Some artists maintain a busy release schedule, putting out an album a year--sometimes, in the case of musicians like guitarist Bill Frisell, even more frequently--while others, for a variety of reasons, are less prolific. Pianist Edward Simon has, in recent years, been issuing albums with broader distribution under his own name--which automatically discounts 2010's independently released ...

It's difficult to know what is most surprising about Tap: Jon Zorn's Book of Angels | Vol. 20. It's the first collaboration between guitarist Pat Metheny and saxophonist/composer/Tzadik label head John Zorn, two musicians who, at least on the surface, couldn't be more different. Of course, those who look beyond Metheny's more listener-friendly Pat Metheny Group ...

He may be flying somewhat beneath the radar internationally, but in Norway, saxophonist Kjetil Møster has a vibrant career that ranges from the acoustic post-John Coltrane group The Core--whose Office Essentials (Jazzland, 2008) made clear that the American tradition is a touchstone, at least to some, in the country's distinctive jazz scene--to ongoing work with the ...

Norway's Jaga Jazzist has always been difficult to pigeonhole. Despite the word “jazz" in the nonet's moniker, its principle writer, multi-instrumentalist Lars Horntveth, has cited everyone from Steve Reich, Rick Wakeman, Dungen and Spirit to Fela Kuti, King Crimson, MGMT and Air as influences on the group's last studio record, One-Armed Bandit (Ninja Tune, 2010). Horntveth ...

Steven Wilson Club Soda Montreal, Canada April 25, 2013 When currently ex-Porcupine Tree founder/front man last played Montreal in November, 2011--touring in support of his second solo recording, Grace for Drowning (Kscope, 2011)--it was clear by the end of the performance that the next time he came to the Canadian city, the ...

In a time when leadership roles are being thrust increasingly upon young musicians who may have the chops, the technique and the theory, but not the experience, drummer Paul Motian could be considered a lesson in patience, in waiting for the right time, in holding off for the precise moment of readiness. It's not that Motian ...

While he's been making himself a ubiquitous presence on the jazz scene for the past two decades--playing with everyone from saxophonists Tim Berne, David Binney and Chris Potter (on the equally stellar The Sublime And (Thirsty Ear, 2003), Graylen Epicenter (Mythology, 2011) and The Sirens (ECM, 2013), respectively), to bassists Michael Formanek and Scott Colley (whose ...

Vossa Jazz Oslo, Norway March 22-24, 2013 Every festival hopes to have a signature, that certain something that differentiates it from all the rest and makes it a desired destination, but few have as many things going for it as the annual Vossa Jazz Festival, now in its 40th year. It certainly may seem ...

When you've got some time to kill between two festivals--in this case, Burghausen, Germany's B-Jazz Festival and Vossa Jazz in Voss, Norway, the following weekend--there are few better places to do it than Oslo, a city that supports live music better than most cities in the world, with the possible exception of New York. Oslo's residents ...

Burghausen Jazz Festival Burghausen, Germany March 12-17, 2013 Located almost exactly halfway along the border of the province of Bavaria (located in Germany's southeast) and Austria, the town of Burghausen might seem an odd place for a jazz festival, especially one now celebrating its 44th year. But this town of just 18,000 people, located ...

ECM's Old & New Masters Edition series was not just created to bring material back into print. Some has been available on CD before, but an even bigger carrot for fans of the label is material that has never been on compact disc, like bassist Arild Andersen's three 1970s recordings, collected on Green in Blue (2010), ...

Since returning to the ECM fold in 1994 to record Matka Joanna (1995), Tomasz Stańko has virtually rebooted a career that demonstrated significant promise back in the 1970s, when he released Balladyna (1976) for the label, and worked with others including Finnish drummer Edward Vesala and American bassist Gary Peacock. The Polish trumpeter was far from ...

On the back of drummer Antonio Sanchez's New Life, there's a quote from guitarist Pat Metheny, who says, “This record feels like a leap forward for Antonio." He should know; Sanchez has been the guitarist's drummer of choice for literally every project requiring one since he recruited him for Pat Metheny Group and Speaking of Now ...

For a country isolated in the north of Europe, Norway has experienced a surprising number of musical waves. The first came in the early '70s, when producer Manfred Eicher and his fledgling ECM Records label brought the Scandinavian “big five"--Swedish pianist Bobo Stenson and, from Norway, saxophonist Jan Garbarek, guitarist Terje Rypdal, bassist Arild Andersen and ...