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Joshua Weiner's Best Jazz Albums Of 2025
by Joshua Weiner
As we approach the holidays and the end of the year, here are my favorite albums I reviewed for AAJ in 2025! McCoy TynerForces Of Nature: Live At Slugs' Blue Note Records Larry GoldingsI Will Sam First Records Posi-Tone SwingtetIn Jazz We Trust Posi-Tone Records ...
Continue ReadingThe Klezmatics: 40 Years of Revolutionary Joy
by Steven Roby
In this episode of Backstage Bay Area, host Steven Roby sits down with Frank London, trumpeter and founding member of the Grammy Award-winning band The Klezmatics. For four decades, The Klezmatics have been the world's leading voice in blending traditional Yiddish roots with the energy of punk, jazz, and gospel. Frank shares stories from the band's origins in New York's gritty East Village scene of the 1980s and discusses their landmark collaboration with the Woody Guthrie estate--a project ...
Continue ReadingMarkus Rutz: Many Moons
by Jack Bowers
Chicago-based trumpeter Markus Rutz traverses a largely straightforward path on Many Moons, the ninth recording as leader of his own ensembles--on this occasion, his Third Coast Sounds, a sturdy sextet with slightly shifting personnel. Tenor saxophonist Brice Winston shares the front line on five of the album's eleven engaging tracks, alto Sharel Cassity on four, with saxophonist and album producer Greg Ward sitting in on the colorful finale, “Time to Spare," which he also composed. Rutz wrote half ...
Continue ReadingTrond Kallevåg, Dave McMurray, Bill Laurance, John O'Gallagher & More
by Ludovico Granvassu
Whether born in the heart of Detroit, captured in the stillness of a London church at night, or inspired by cinematic visions of Norwegian immigration to Minnesota, the music in this playlist invites you into sound worlds that captivate and reward at every turn.Happy listening!Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Dave McMurray “The Jungaleers" I LOVE LIFE even when I'm hurting (Blue Note) 0:16 Host talks 5:45 Don Was ...
Continue ReadingImprovising the Classics: Interpreting Mozart
by Larry Slater
Mozart is one of those true musical geniuses revered as one the classical gods. Why are jazz musicians drawn to his music? The combination of his deceptively simple melodies and logical harmonic progressions allows jazz artists to mold these classic pieces into music that is recognizably jazz, yet still recognizably Mozart. Whether or not you listen to classical music, a great deal of Mozart's music is instantly recognizable when jazz musicians transform them into vehicles for ...
Continue ReadingVarious Artists: Swinging In The Holidays
by Jim Trageser
With a warm, wood-paneled vintage glow, a new Christmas collection inhabits the space formerly reserved for top-flight crooners like Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett: blending pop and jazz into comfort food for your ears. While few of the “next-gen" (as the album's publicity tag puts it) performers here will be known to those unfamiliar with the contemporary New York City scene, their chops are undeniable and the arrangements flattering to the performers' strengths.
Continue ReadingAretha Tillotson: Sad Junie (to Highway Jake)
by John Chacona
the average fan living south of the 49th Parallel knows anything about jazz in Canada, it might begin and end with Oscar Peterson and Diana Krall. Yes, Toronto is emerging as a great jazz city and there are all those players from Nanaimo, but in between, nothing, right? Bassist Aretha Tillotson is here to explode that notion (politely, of course; she's Canadian). Her second release, wryly entitled Kinda Out West, is a valentine to the prairie provinces by way of ...
Continue ReadingOre': Matter Antimatter
by Glenn Astarita
Ore,' led by bassist Pedro Ferreira, presents the conceptual work Matter Antimatter, which is a densely layered and challenging sonic experience that operates at the intersection of quantum physics and free-form excursions. This album is not merely a collection of tracks; it is an extended meditation on duality, stability and the volatile energy that shapes the universe's most fundamental structures. Ferreira, known for his rigorous approach to composition, maintains a disciplined framework throughout the program, yet the emotional ...
Continue ReadingTorben Westergaard: Feliz Navidad
by Geno Thackara
Beyond the usual holiday songs played to death all the time, and the endless gimmicky covers of same, it's too easy to forget the spirit of goodwill intended to be at the center of the season. Trust Torben Westergaard to (thankfully) throw away the tinsel and let that simple sentiment speak for itself... maybe with a dash of Brazilian sunshine to make the good wishes that bit more cheerful. ...
Continue ReadingTriosence: Stories Of life
by Neil Duggan
The German trio Triosence have been developing their highly distinctive sound since the release of First Enchantment, their debut in 2002 (Mons Records). Their combination of jazz and cinematic soundscapes puts melody first and foremost in a song-based approach that has broad appeal to jazz listeners and beyond. The trio, led by pianist and composer Bernhard Schuler, includes bassist Omar Rodriguez Calvo and drummer Tobias Schulte. Their egalitarian approach ensures the lead can be taken up by any ...
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