Jazz Articles about Myra Melford

About Myra Melford

Album Review

Geof Bradfield, Myra Melford, Ben Goldberg, Dana Hall: Open Or Close

Read "Open Or Close" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 21, 2026

A quartet of notable jazz artists--two from Midwestern Illinois, the others imported from the West Coast--venture far out on a limb to spruce up Open or Close, recorded in November 2025 at Chicago's popular Green Mill Cocktail Lounge. The foursome obviously had a game plan, and the audience at the Green Mill seems to have been on board with that. But when said plan consists for the most part of drab and disorderly melodies and unwieldy ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii - Myra Melford: Katarahi

by John Sharpe
October 17, 2026

On Katarahi, pianists Satoko Fujii and Myra Melford revel not in contrasts but in empathy. Although no longer the novelty they once were, piano duets exist in a rarefied plain. For a start, few venues or studios possess two high-quality grand pianos. Then the widescreen potential of the piano, with its possibilities for voices in each hand, throws down a challenge to would-be collaborators: can you do something more worthwhile together than you could do individually? Fujii and Melford answer ...

Radio & Podcasts

Myra Melford, Threadgill/Iyer/Prieto & Jonathan Delazer

by Maurice Hogue
September 22, 2026

Two of the creative scene's most heralded artists are back with exciting new music: pianist Myra Melford's Fire & Water Quintet have released their third album Sure Grand Out with Mary Halvorson, Ingrid Laubrock, Tomeka Reid & Lesley Mok and the master, Henry Threadgill's parallel release to Cut Your Where You Was--Fifteen--which celebrates the fifteenth year of existence of the trio with Threadgill, Vijay Iyer & Dafnis Prieto. Swiss drummer Jonathan Delazer's Gottliche Skizzen, Argentinean guitarist Gon Muruaga and the ...

Album Review

Geof Bradfield / Myra Melford / Ben Goldberg / Dana Hall: Open Or Close

Read "Open Or Close" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
September 5, 2026

Ornette Coleman may come to mind at the beginning of the spin of Open Or Close. This is understandable. The title song, which opens the set, is from Coleman's pen. Additionally, the jazz collective at work here--reedmen Geof Bradfield and Ben Goldberg, pianist Myra Melford and drummer Dana Hall play loose and free, à la Ornette, with a lot of seat-of-the-pants energy. The sound has a common thread strung out between Coleman's 1968 Blue Note Records album New York Is ...

Album Review

Satoko Fujii-Myra Melford: Katarahi

Read "Katarahi" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
June 4, 2026

The connection(s) between pianist-composers Satoko Fujii and Myra Melford transcend the usual truisms. Not kindred spirits in creativity or even mirror images in technique, the pair are more like twin sisters of different artistic mothers, distinctly their own individuals in style yet complementary as such in almost ineffable ways. Hence this album title, a Japanese term referring to a heart-to-heart conversation between intimate friends, fittingly suggests a deep, meaningful dialogue. Katarahi is the duo's second collaboration, but as ...

Album Review

Myra Melford - Satoko Fujii: Katarahi

Read "Katarahi" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
May 20, 2026

When four hands meet across 176 keys, is it even possible for pianists to check their egos at the stage door? Piano duets, by their very nature, often invite comparison--even confrontation. Consider the 1977 encounter between Mary Lou Williams and Cecil Taylor, the high-profile 1978 concerts by Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, or Kris Davis and Craig Taborn's Octopus (Pyroclastic, 2018). Each of these pairings carried the tension of a musical grappling match. Even Bill Evans' overdubbed Conversations with Myself ...

Radio & Podcasts

Satoko Fujii/Myra Melford Together Again + John Hollenbeck and Abate Beirhun

by Hobart Taylor
April 22, 2026

Satoko Fujii with Myra Melford, Tomeka Reid, Robert Glasper and Abbey Lincoln singing A Cappella.Playlist Host Speaks 00:00 Satoko Fujii /Myra Melford “Signpost" from Katahari (Rouge Arts) 00:21 Brian Dickenson “October Songs Pt. 1" from October Songs (Cellar) 6:45 Abbey Lincoln “Tender as a Rose" from That's Him (Craft) 14:30 Host Speaks 17:29 Abate Beirhun “Des Des" from Adis Ken (Origin) 18:54 Allison Au “You Ordinary Stranger" from Forest Grove (AA 15) 22:30 Blue Moods “Agitation" from Directions ...