Jazz Articles
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Confronting the Questions: Race, Anonymity, and the American Experience
by David Bixler
In the early 1900s, James Weldon Johnson explored the complex life of a bi-racial man who chose to disappear into white society in The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. Now, saxophonist Mark Turner uses this powerful novel as the foundation for his latest project. Join us as we listen to and discuss Turner's powerful compositions--a musical meditation on race, anonymity, and heritage--performed by his stellar quintet featuring Jason Palmer, David Virelles, Matt Brewer, and Nasheet Waits. Discover how this music ...
Continue ReadingCamila Nebbia, Jacopo Fagioli, Lena Bloch & Erin Rogers/Kelsey Mines
by Maurice Hogue
The focus in this episode is on Argentine saxophonist Camila Nebbia who's quickly becoming a very important voice in the avant-garde/free jazz world. Other saxophonists heard on new releases are Lena Bloch, Erin Rogers (with bassist Kelsey Mines), and Rick Countryman from Manila. If you like trumpet players, track down Italy's Jacopo Fagioli. His new Dialogue is very good. Other new music from French guitarist David Chevallier, pianist Denman Maroney and the Polish trio Product May Contain. Playlist ...
Continue ReadingRemembering Phil Upchurch
by Leo Sidran
Phil Upchurch was a musician's musician. Those who knew, knew. He played on over a thousand recordings, including some of the most iconic popular music ever made including Michael Jackson's Off The Wall, Donny Hathaway Live, Chaka Khan's “I'm Every Woman," Curtis Mayfield's Superfly, and George Benson's Breezin' to name only a few. He was there in the rooms where the sound of a generation was being created. As my dad, Ben Sidran, tells me in this conversation, “He went ...
Continue ReadingYe Olde 2: Ye Olde 2: At the End of Time
by Glenn Astarita
Ten years after the first Ye Olde (Yestereve Records, 2015) was framed around a fantasy quest into a riotous Brooklyn guitar summit, trombonist extraordinaire Jacob Garchik returns with Ye Olde 2: At the End of Time, a 48-minute sci-fi prog jazz odyssey stretching from the heat death of the universe to the resurrection of consciousness itself. The original crew--Mary Halvorson, Brandon Seabrook, and Jonathan Goldberger on guitars, Vinnie Sperrazza on drums--anchors six of the eight tracks plus the ...
Continue ReadingMark Sherman: Bop Contest
by Pierre Giroux
Vibraphonist and composer Mark Sherman has long been recognized as one of the music's most articulate advocates for straight-ahead values, grounding his virtuosity in the clarity and craftsmanship that define the bop lineage. Bop Contest, his 2025 release, continues that tradition with poise and conviction. Surrounded by a top-tier rhythm section comprising pianist Donald Vega, the legendary bassist Ron Carter, the exuberant drummer Carl Allen, and guest trumpeter Joe Magnarelli, Sherman delivers a program that balances reverence for ...
Continue ReadingDan Rosenboom: Coordinates
by Max Kutner
Coordinates is a fully realized mature statement from composer, arranger, and trumpet virtuoso, Dan Rosenboom. It is a massive effort in multiple senses. Through an immersive concept centered dually around sound as character and the abstract relationships between numerical structures as they apply to time and groove, Rosenboom has crafted a self portrait that bridges many unique aspects of his musical personality. The album features 28 of Los Angeles' finest musical artists, employed in a series of unorthodox combinations that ...
Continue ReadingDon Ball’s Favorite Jazz Albums of 2025
by Don Ball
Whether these are best releases in 2025 or not, they are the ones that resonated most with me. And 2025 seemed a good year for guitarists; they were often a driving force on many of these recordings and an important element in the mood and atmosphere of the songs. There's Anthony Pirog on Skullcap's Snakes of Albuquerque, Radomir Milojkovic on Muriel Grossmann's Breakthrough, Marvin Sewell on NEA Jazz Master Charles Lloyd's Figure in Blue, Nels Cline leading his Consentrik Quartet ...
Continue ReadingBill Evans Trio: Haunted Heart: The Legendary Riverside Studio Recordings (Remastered 2025)
by Mark Corroto
On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile, a barrier many believed human beings could never break. Today, any elite miler can run that time, which makes Bannister's accomplishment harder for modern sports fans to fully appreciate. Something similar happens when listening to pianist Bill Evans' two Riverside studio sessions, Portrait in Jazz (1959) and Explorations (1961), recorded some 65 years ago. Because contemporary pianists like Brad Mehldau, Fred Hersch, Denny Zeitlin and Bill Charlap have absorbed ...
Continue ReadingBeauty in Loss
by Geno Thackara
Saying goodbye to loved ones is never easy, but putting it into art helps in a way nothing else does and often leads to something beautiful. Even between two very different musicians and very different sounds, there is a recognizable emotional thread that stays the same from Moldova to midwest America. Brian EatonLike a Root Out of Dry Ground Eatin' Records 2025 As the old philosophical saying goes, you can never step into ...
Continue ReadingChristian Marien Quartett: Beyond the Fingertips
by Troy Dostert
For the follow-up to its 2024 release, How Long is Now (MarMade Records), the Christian Marien Quartett has chosen an adventurous approach in keeping with the leader's anything-goes aesthetic: a direct-to-disc recording process, done in one take directly to lacquer. With the spirit of risk and experimentation the maverick drummer has always brought to his ensembles, whether with saxophonist Silke Eberhard and trumpeter Nikolas Neuser in I Am Three or with trombonist Matthias Müller in Superimpose, Beyond the Fingertips possesses ...
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