Jazz Articles
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Dave Anderson: Plays with Gusto
by Dean Nardi
Gusto! Vigorous and enthusiastic. Implies doing something with great spirit and energy. From the Spanish, gusto indicates taste, pleasure or liking, and that, friends, wraps and puts a bow around what you hear from New York-based soprano and tenor saxophonist Dave Anderson on his uplifting In Lieu of Flowers album (Label1, 2025). Anderson needed no warmup for the record, launching immediately into “Outer Circle," displaying the tight harmonic camaraderie between the leader and the rest of the quartet. ...
Continue ReadingJoe Hertenstein, Mikko Pettinen, Igor Lumpert & Abbey Rader
by Maurice Hogue
If you like quartets, there's some great music from these foursomes: German & NYC drummer Joe Hertenstein with trombonist Ray Anderson, saxophonist Michael Moore & bassist Michael Formanek documented a European tour last year and set a high bar on The 7th Dinner Live. Also recorded live, French drummer Raphael Pannier fulfilled a dream of playing with Senegalese “sabar" musicians when he and his quartet joined N'Diaye Rose's group at the Saint Louis International Jazz Festival. It's a percussion feast! ...
Continue ReadingHeirloom: Familiar Beginnings
by Kyle Simpler
New music often serves a dual purpose. While it usually introduces fresh sounds, the music's structure generally contains a degree of familiarity, combining recognition with discovery. This idea of exploring new musical territory without abandoning its roots seems to be the guiding concept for the Milwaukee-based quartet Heirloom. With their debut album, Familiar Beginnings, they introduce a refreshing new sound grounded in jazz tradition. The album's title hints at the intersection between discovery and remembrance, and Heirloom delivers ...
Continue ReadingDino Betti van der Noot: Brahm Dreams Still
by Thomas Conrad
In 2023 I signed on to write the liner notes for an album by someone I had never heard of. He was Dino Betti van der Noot, and the album was Let Us Recount Our Dreams. I approached the project with some trepidation. But Dino turned out to be a revelation. His music, in its sweep and richness and sense of dominion, reminded me of Gil Evans. Yet Dino's orchestral language was his own. His pieces were more volatile, more ...
Continue ReadingRuss Lossing: Proximity Alert
by Mark Corroto
Is Russ Lossing's Proximity Alert more like football or baseball? The analogy works like this: Baseball is fathers and sons tossing a ball in the backyard, measured and casual; Football is a scrimmage, brothers running, grappling and tackling in the same yard. Throughout his career, Lossing has captained several exceptional trios. With bassist Ed Schuller, he had the rare honor of performing and recording alongside the legendary drummer Paul Motian. In the years that followed, he formed groups ...
Continue ReadingEdgefest 2025
by Frank Rubolino
The 29th annual Edgefest 2025 showcased an international cast of creative musicians performing in 18 October concerts. Kerrytown Concert House in Ann Arbor, Michigan has consistently provided adventurous listeners with challenging music in a friendly environment. Here are photos from the most recent event. ...
Continue ReadingRavita Jazz: Alice Blue
by Jack Bowers
Alice Blue is a pleasant, no-frills session neatly performed by Ravita Jazz, a co-op sextet (or quintet plus vocalist) from Maryland whose presumed overseer is bassist Phil Ravita, as his is the only name that coincides with the name of the group as a whole. Ravita also wrote half of the studio date's 10 numbers, all of which are original compositions save for Deirdre Jennings's vocal renditon of the standard “On the Sunny Side of the Street." ...
Continue ReadingAshley Maher, Thom Rotella, Anne Mette Iversen, Jerry Weldon, La Tanya Hall, Kate Wyatt & More
by Mary Foster Conklin
This broadcast includes new releases from Ashley Maher, Thom Rotella, Anne Mette Iversen, Jerry Weldon, LaTanya Hall and Kate Wyatt, with birthday shoutouts to Anita O'Day, Nellie Lutcher (Hurry On Down), Victoria Spivey, Esperanza Spalding, Bobby Troup, Amy London, Barbara Fasano and Laura Nyro, 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 Groove. ...
Continue ReadingHenry Threadgill: Listen Ship
by Giuseppe Segala
As in other recent works, on Listen Ship Henry Threadgill appears solely as composer and conductor. No surprise there: his works vividly showcase a quest for a personal compositional dimension, one that reflects his drive for authenticity while engaging in dialogue, proposing a possible intersection between Black American musical traditions and other musical realms. This is eloquently detailed in his 2023 autobiography, Easily Slip into Another World. A Life in Music, a gem in the realm of autobiographies, where he ...
Continue ReadingEdgefest 2024
by Frank Rubolino
The 28th annual October Edgefest of 2024 in Ann Arbor, Michigan featured 18 performances of creative music by musicians from the USA, Canada, Europe and Japan. Here is a collection of photos highlighting these artists in action at the intimate, acoustically balanced Kerrytown Concert House. ...
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