Articles by Dean Nardi

Interview

Jussi Reijonen: Memory and Consciousness Not Visited Before

by Dean Nardi
August 16, 2026

In 2025, Finnish guitarist and oud player Jussi Reijonen launched sayr, his intimate series of recordings for solo string instrument with simultaneous release of two stunning albums. One is a fully improvised take at his home studio on steel-string acoustic guitar on an afternoon in March 2025, split into two contrasting arcs--"salt" and “thirst"--as on two sides of a vinyl LP. The other was recorded live in concert in Helsinki, Finland on steel-string acoustic guitar and the Arabic oud, September ...

Interview

Steve Swallow: Music Is Elemental

by Dean Nardi
August 5, 2026

For esteemed composer and bassist Steve Swallow, writing music is a long, sometimes arduous process that typically begins with only a cup of coffee in the morning before putting in hours, days, weeks--five months in fact, to complete the music for Winter Songs (ECM Records, 2026). For him, that is lightning fast. His idea of composition is to punch in every day, then sit there and sweat until notes, chords and rhythms emerge that co-mingle to his satisfaction.

Interview

Nadav Remez: At the Intersection of Modern Jazz and Jewish Folk

by Dean Nardi
July 30, 2026

Summit (self-released, 2025) is as moving and inventive as any of Nadav Remez' previous albums, either as a leader--So Far (Brooklyn Underground Jazz Records, 2011)--or with various sideman projects, all of which similarly test the limits of modern guitar music. Summit feels like a direct extension of a slippery sound he has been refining for at least two decades and is brighter than the long frown of time. The album's framing naturally offers a wider spotlight to his bandmates, from Greg ...

Inside the Songs

Andrea Goretti and Sivan Arbel: Bazrima

by Dean Nardi
July 21, 2026

Andrea Goretti and Sivan Arbel met at a jazz festival in Israel. They got on well and had enough in common musically that Arbel would travel a few months later to join Goretti in northern Italy. She has always had a soft spot for Italy and its people, but still, this would be a step into the unknown. “I thought this was going to be either fantastic or really horrible," she revealed. Goretti graduated in classical piano and ...

Inside the Songs

Emilio Solla y La Inestable de Brooklyn: Handmade

by Dean Nardi
July 7, 2026

Emilio Solla has a mischievous, playful side that often manifests itself in his music. For example, his album, Handmade (Club del Disco, 2025) was recorded with a nonet, La Inestable de Brooklyn. What does the unstable (or the instability) in the orchestra's name refer to? The compositions? The playing? Or the fact that Solla uses all different players except for Tim Armacost from the previous record (Second Half) with this configuration more than 10 years ago on the Ficha Tecnica ...

Interview

Rafael Enciso: Bassist Intends To Search, Remember And Evolve

by Dean Nardi
June 16, 2026

Turn your ears on jazz heads, and you'll hear Rafael Enciso and his quartet playing around New York City's five boroughs. And somewhere nearby, someone will surely be listening to his cooling and coiling debut record Crossfades (2025) on Dayna Stephens' Contagious Music label. It slithers down bowling alley lanes and soda pop convenience store aisles and crawls up the back of the neck. The bass notes are sopping with Northeast nightshade. And trailing them are Nicola Caminiti's alto saxophone, ...

Interview

Davidsson: A Lifeline from the Land of Fire and Ice

by Dean Nardi
May 5, 2026

Icelandic artist Thorleifur Gaukur Davidsson grew up on a volcanic island called Heimaey, four miles off the coast of Iceland. He records by his Swedish patronymic surname, meaning “son of David." His debut album Lifelines (OPIA, 2024) is filled with memories and emotions culled from family and the natural beauty of his home island. Davidsson took up guitar and harmonica at age 15, playing blues and folk music then adding pedal steel to his tools. He joined the Icelandic blues ...

Album Review

Lawson Rollins: Next Steps

Read "Next Steps" reviewed by Dean Nardi

by Dean Nardi
April 29, 2026

Next Steps is a mainstream but delightful mix of jaunty and splendid originals from gifted North Carolina acoustic guitarist Lawson Rollins, continuing his steady rise into the ranks of the finest contemporary musicians. These are ingenious transformations of his eleven heady compositions into rich improvisations in the company of fine musicians who have played with him over the years. Listening to Rollins play guitar, one is struck by not only the sheer magnitude of his prowess, but how ...

Building a Jazz Library

The Top 25 Songs Featuring Clarinet

by Dean Nardi
April 21, 2026

As Ian Dury might have sung had he played the clarinet, “Hit me with your licorice stick." (That is “rhythm stick" for those not fluent in punk rock.) From the intricacies of classical music to the smooth swing of jazz to Klezmer--the folk music of the Eastern European Jewish population--the instrument resonates throughout a good portion of the civilized world. From slow and melancholy to gliding to blasting, to fingers flying and holes and valves opening and closing, this instrument ...

Interview

Jo-Yu Chen: For Taiwanese Pianist Classical Jazz is a Gas

by Dean Nardi
April 13, 2026

It would be a mistake to say that a classical/jazz hybrid was devoid of interest with its reliance on centuries-old scores. Au contraire. Promise rewards outside of the normal range of expectations. On Rendezvous -Jazz Meets Beethoven, Tchaikovsky & More (Sony, 2025), Taiwanese pianist Jo-Yu Chen begins with a mash-up of two Beethoven classics: “Symphony No. 5" and the “Moonlight Sonata." Together they meet on a grand, increasingly intense scale. “Beethoven was a rock star in his era, with his powerful ...