Jazz Articles about Matt Mitchell

About Matt Mitchell

Album Review

Sara Serpa & Matt Mitchell: End of Something

Read "End of Something" reviewed by Katchie Cartwright

by Katchie Cartwright
July 1, 2026

Recorded in 2023, Sara Serpa and Matt Mitchell's End of Something launched in 2025, splashing down late in the year, landing softly on select best-of-year lists. It had been a slow process, Serpa reported. There was a feeling “that it was OK to wait and take time, to come back to it a few months later and do some work over it and come back again." The ripples continue to radiate in 2026. The sound is uncommonly stark ...

Album Review

Quinsin Nachoff: Patterns from Nature

Read "Patterns from Nature" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
June 14, 2026

Quinsin Nachoff, a Canadian-born saxophonist and composer now based in New York, has long pursued deep connections between music, science, and visual form. Patterns from Nature grew from an extended collaboration with physicist Dr. Stephen Morris of the University of Toronto, drawing on concepts of emergent order in natural systems. The project spread itself across several formats--a recorded suite, a film with contributions from four filmmakers, and live multimedia performances--and assembles an exceptional cast: pianist Matt Mitchell, clarinetist François Houle, ...

Album Review

Jon Irabagon: Focus Out

Read "Focus Out" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
June 1, 2026

Focus Out è la seconda uscita discografica di Rising Sun, ennesima formazione partorita dalla mente vulcanica del sassofonista Jon Irabagon, da diversi anni figura centrale nella scena più vivace, creativa e imprevedibile del jazz statunitense. Un quartetto acustico/elettrico con i fiocchi che si avvale dell'apporto di musicisti altrettanto creativi e già coinvolti in passati progetti del sassofonista di origini filippine. Come la maggior parte delle incisioni di Irabagon, Focus Out sorprende per la sua organicità a dispetto della varietà di ...

Album Review

Jon Irabagon: Focus Out

Read "Focus Out" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 6, 2026

Jon Irabagon remains among the most uncompromising voices in contemporary jazz. A first-generation Filipino American from Chicago, he draws deeply from the AACM legacy--Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, Muhal Richard Abrams--and his home city's tradition of bold, searching saxophone work. Since his 2008 Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition win, Irabagon has used his Irabbagast Records imprint to sustain a commitment to fierce originality and collective dialogue. Focus Out serves as a formidable statement from his working quartet, featuring Irabagon ...

Album Review

Yuhan Su: OVER the MOONs

Read "OVER the MOONs" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
February 16, 2026

Originaria di Taiwan, da sedici anni residente a New York, Yuhan Su confessa nelle brevi note di copertina di correre su due binari culturali distinti, di sognare in due lingue, di usare due distinte forme di logica, di avere due differenti standard di gusto per il cibo... Quinto album da leader, OVER the MOONs cerca di catturare queste “due lune" presenti nella sua mente, le sensazioni e i sentimenti delle due identità, traducendole in una scrittura che abbracci il dolce ...

Album Review

Yuhan Su: OVER the MOONs

Read "OVER the MOONs" reviewed by Jerome Wilson

by Jerome Wilson
January 13, 2026

It turns out that Patricia Brennan is not the only vibraphonist exploring ambitious concepts these days. On this album, Yuhan Su brings the idea of dual consciousness into music, with the musicians in her group often playing along two separate paths simultaneously. Su was born in Taiwan and is now based in New York. Living in both those cultures at once gave her the idea to explore that concept musically. There is constant motion and activity in ...

Album Review

Ingrid Laubrock: Purposing the Air

Read "Purposing the Air" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero

by Vincenzo Roggero
July 29, 2025

Avventuroso e ambizioso Purposing the Air, nuovo progetto di Ingrid Laubrock, notevole sassofonista di origini tedesche qui nelle vesti di compositrice. Dal poema “Mood Librarian -a poem in koan" di Erica Hunt, ha estratto sessanta frammenti, trenta nel primo CD e trenta nel secondo, affidandoli a quattro duo dove l'elemento fisso è la voce mentre la strumentazione si distribuisce tra violoncello, pianoforte, chitarra elettrica e violino. I sessanta frammenti-miniature-koan, alcuni di due sole parole, riportati nel dettagliato libretto interno, risuonano ...