Jazz Articles
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A Farewell to Madrid's Café Central
by Artur Moral
It happened to Chicago with The London House and The Velvet Lounge; it happened to San Francisco with the Black Hawk Club and the Keystone Corner; and, of course, it happened to New York City with Cafe Society, Sweet Basil, Village Gate and Jazz Standard. It has also happened in many other places and cities around the world. Now, it is happening in Madrid: the emblematic Café Central of the Spanish capital closes its doors on October 12, 2025, and ...
Continue ReadingJacob Chung: Live At Frankie's Jazz Club
by Jack Bowers
Boss tenor Jacob Chung is back, performing Live at Frankie's Jazz Club in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is the reed master's second recording for Cory Weeds' Cellar Music Group (following 2024's The Sage), this time leading a quartet rather than a quintet as he did on that earlier album. Chung, who moved from Toronto to New York City to study with saxophonist Vincent Herring, his front- line partner on The Sage, learned his lessons well and puts ...
Continue ReadingHyperlynx: Rest Energy
by Neil Duggan
Hyperlynx operates at the fringes of contemporary jazz, where preparation meets improvisation. This Swiss-Irish trio has assembled an eclectic instrumental arsenal: Rhodes piano, prepared zither, electric guitar, synthesizers and drums. This allows them to sculpt soundscapes both alien and familiar. On their album Rest Energy, these elements coalesce into something firmly rooted in the avant-garde, where each instrument's voice contributes to a series of unusual soundscapes. The collaboration brings together Irish musician Matthew Jacobson (who recently made a ...
Continue ReadingSarah Hanahan Quartet At Joe Henderson Lab
by Steven Roby
Sarah Hanahan Quartet Joe Henderson Lab / SFJAZZ Center San Francisco, CA September 20, 2025 A knockout. No hedging, no warmup lap--impact from the first bar and the room knew it. Sold-out first set at the Joe Henderson Lab--Sarah Hanahan's SFJAZZ debut. Outside, faces pressed close to the glass, the Lab was alive with that tight-room voltage you could taste. She walked out in a black-and-white patterned jacket, grinning like someone who came ...
Continue ReadingPhillip Greenlief: Citta Di Vitti
by Max Kutner
An exponent of the Bay Area music community, saxophonist Philip Greenlief has few equals in terms of his prolific output and diverse list of collaborative projects since the late 1970s. His Citta di Vitti is a tribute to the films of Michelangelo Antonioni and the director's main actor and muse, Monica Vitti. Taken as a whole, the album showcases a facile and dialed trio with fellow Bay Area stalwarts, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa and drummer Jason Levis, who display a perfect ...
Continue ReadingMid Century Modern Jazz
by David Brown
This week, the show kicks off with recent releases form Anat Fort, Matthew Shipp and Sumi Tonooka We then jump back to the 1950s for some mid-century modern recordings from Benny Golson, Gerry Mulligan, Roy and Diz, Louis Armstrong, Al Haig, Milt Jackson, June Christy The Four Brothers, Dorothy Donegan, The Joe Newman Octet, Terry Gibbs, Don Fagerquist, Warne Marsh, Bob Brookmeyer, Jimmy Giuffre, Ray Charles, Ornette Coleman and Charlie Parker's then 5-year-old son Charles Baird Parker. Old, new, in, ...
Continue ReadingAmbrose Akinmusire, Chet Baker, and Bill Dixon
by Jerome Wilson
This program goes into the far realms with Ambrose Akinmusire and Bill Dixon as well as sailing to quieter shores with Ahmad Jamal and Chet Baker. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 Anais Reno “Gravy Waltz" from Lady of the Lavender Mist (Club 44) 00:52 Rob Koral & Sue Hawker “It's Alright to be Blue" from It's Alright to ...
Continue ReadingMatthieu Chazarenc Evokes Bel Canto, Singing and Celebration
by Dean Nardi
The music has its source in Matthieu Chazarenc's natal southwest of France. The Paris-based drummer has offered his unique blend of jazz, classical and multi-rhythmic versatility on Canto III (Bonsai Music, 2024), linked to his first two albums as a leader--Canto II (Cristal Records, 2021) and Canto I (Jazz Family, 2018). “I like to be able to work over time," he said. “Things take time to build."The colorful jazz emanates from the fruits of encounters with his core ...
Continue ReadingWilliam Hill III: Keep it Movin'
by Paul Rauch
The story surrounding the young Detroit pianist William Hill III reads like many in today's jazz world--raised in the fertile ground of a dynamic local jazz scene and then on to New York to pursue the music. This is the case even when that local scene is one of the most prolific in the history of jazz in Detroit--the best tend to move on, in Hill's case, to the acclaimed Manhattan School of Music. While steering steadily through that modern ...
Continue ReadingAnouar Brahem: After the Last Sky
by Scott Gudell
Although ECM Records has released straight-ahead jazz, free form and more, many of their recordings sweep over listeners with mysterious, ethereal and hypnotic sounds creating alluring siren calls. When those sessions are taking place with an ECM release on the horizon, it is easy to imagine the artists are thinking about 'where's the mystery?'--which is what Anouar Brahem seemed to focus on this time around. Brahem, a revered Tunisian-born master of the oud (the fretless stringed instrument with ...
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