Jazz Articles
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Michael Buckley: Ebb And Flow
by Ian Patterson
Given his world-class chops, tenor saxophonist Michael Buckley's albums have been too infrequent. This is a man who has played with George Coleman when he was still in shorts (Buckley that is), backed Jerry Lee Lewis, collaborated with Dave Liebman and Kenny Wheeler, and toured with The Mingus Big Band. His talents as a composer for television and film, and as a producer--Buckley runs his own Dublin studio--also impose demands on his time, so a new album from the Dubliner ...
Continue ReadingDayna Stephens: Closer Than We Think
by Jack Bowers
A few brief observations: first, New York-based Dayna Stephens is an excellent saxophonist. Second, the other members of his quartet on Closer Than We Think, Stephens' twelfth album as a leader, are similarly proficient. Third, Stephens clearly had a specific plan in mind before entering GB's Juke Joint to record the album in May 2023, one whose purpose, he writes, was to nurture a spirit of togetherness as an answer to today's divisive and fractured landscape. While ...
Continue Reading2013 Says "Hi"
by Patrick Burnette
The venerable bastards have made it to their twelfth anniversary, so time to dress us in silk and pearls (if you weren't already in your fantasies). While you attempt to scrub that hideous image from your minds, we'll mention that today's episode looks back to 2013, the origin year of the podcast, covering five releases from that epochal year we missed. Can you guess who appears for the first time on the 'cast and exactly which ways he's oriented?
Continue ReadingSylvie Courvoisier and Mary Halvorson: Bone Bells
by John Ephland
Tonally, these two artists offer what feels and sounds like an ideal fit. Pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and guitarist Mary Halvorson are in no hurry with , their third collaboration as a duo, the title coming from a passage in the novel Trust, by Herman Diaz. There is gentleness mixed with a kind of dreaminess, interspersed with what feel like spasms of either delight or some sudden fury of exposition that must find an outlet. And like all duo ...
Continue ReadingLaMP: The Three Of Me Blend Into One Of Us
by Dean Nardi
LaMP's rousing albums have a knack for keeping you listening, whether it is Russ Lawton propelling the trio along through punchy, substantial snare, Ray Paczkowski indulging in the inner point-of-view of melody and harmony on both organ and clavinet, or Scott Metzger inserting reveal after reveal in a twist-laden odyssey of gleeful, darting notes. But there is more to LaMP than all-out propulsion. Yes, at times the songs groove like there is rocket fuel baked into the amps, but the ...
Continue ReadingFelix Henkelhausen, Ochs / Morris / Downs & German Jazz Prize Nominees
by Maurice Hogue
Listening to a tune by German bassist Felix Henkelhausen while traveling in the car led me to check out what he was up to; I discovered he's been nominated for a 2025 German Jazz Prize in the Album of the Year category for Deranged Particles. Soon I was exploring other nominees and that led to incorporating a few other nominees into this playlist. Besides Henkelhausen's quintet, you'll hear the international quartet Økse (International Album of the Year), clarinetist Federico Calcagno ...
Continue ReadingFreddie Hubbard: On Fire: Live At The Blue Morocco
by Dan McClenaghan
Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard (1938 -2008) began his professional jazz journey in 1960 as a full-blooded hard bopper, recording his first album in that year for Blue Note Records, Open Sesame. Much of the ensuing decade saw him in several Blue Note outings under his own name and as a side man. He also recorded sets for Atlantic Records and Impulse!. His output ran at about two albums a year through the 1960s. The 1970s saw Hubbard rise from ...
Continue ReadingECM Records: Austerity as Aesthetic
by Doug Collette
ECM Records may boast the most readily-recognizable style of any record label extant, jazz-wise or otherwise. And the austere aesthetic of the label, as originated by founder Manfred Eicher in 1969, remains consistent (predictable?) to this day, not just in terms of the music but in the packaging too: slipcases enclosing jewel boxes belie inserts including photos of the artists and the attendant credits in designs as unadorned as the settings for the recordings (and the technical aspects thereof). All ...
Continue ReadingJoe Syrian: Secret Message
by Richard J Salvucci
A title like Secret Message does make a listener wonder what it might be. Is it deeply subversive, like the Zimmerman Telegram, or apocalyptic, like Fatima? Of course, as someone is reputed to have said, 'Sometimes, a cigar is just a smoke.' So it is possible to over-interpret a title, which may, in the final analysis, simply be a title. Joe Syrian is a Detroit-based drummer, a city that can claim Brian Blade, J. C. Heard, ...
Continue ReadingJazz Foremothers, Women Who Impact West Coast Latin Jazz by Salsa de la Bahia, Jeffrey Gimble, Ashley Jackson Usher In Jazz Appreciation Month
by Mary Foster Conklin
This broadcast morphs gracefully from Women's History to Jazz Appreciation Month with new releases from Salsa de la Bahia, Jeffrey Gimble and Ashley Jackson, with birthday shoutouts to Dorothy Donegan, Alberta Hunter, Jean Fineberg, Vanessa Perica, Allan Harris, Evgenia Karlafti, Christine Jensen and Tessa Souter, among others. Happy listening and please support the artists you hear--see them live, buy their music so they can continue to comfort, distract, provoke and remind the world that A Woman's Place is in the ...
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