Jazz Articles about Sam Yahel

About Sam Yahel

Album Review

Seamus Blake: The Electrifying Seamus Blake Plays The Music Of Eddie Harris EH!

Read "The Electrifying Seamus Blake Plays The Music Of Eddie Harris EH!" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
July 3, 2026

Some musicians seem incapable of standing still, their curiosity drawing them towards unexplored corners of the music world. Seamus Blake may well be one of them. A formidable tenor saxophonist rooted in the post-bop tradition, Blake has spent much of his career quietly erasing stylistic borders. On The Electrifying Seamus Blake Plays The Music Of Eddie Harris EH!, he finds the perfect muse in Harris, another restless spirit who refused to recognize the fences others built around jazz.

Radio & Podcasts

Entre Amigos, Daggerboard The Skipper and Mike Clark, Sam Yahel, The Sistering and more

by Benjamin Boddie
March 19, 2026

Today's Music--Right Now! Fantastic music by Entre Amigos, Daggerboard, The Skipper And Mike Clark, Sam Yahel, The Sistering, Gilad Barakan, Chris Fagan, Julian Davis Reid, Flying High, Joel Ross, Eddie Allen & Push, Baltimore Jazz Collective, James Fernando, Alexa Tarantino, Gafieira Rio Miami, Eyal Vilner Big Band, Dave Slonaker Big Band, Michael Dease, Kurt Elling & WDR Big Band, Jeremy Pelt, Pat Bianchi, Monika Herzig, Nicole McCabe, Chris Parker Septet, Cynthia Scott, Kate Olson, John Clay, Bob Reynolds, Vance Thompson, ...

Album Review

Laila Biali: Wintersongs

Read "Wintersongs" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
November 10, 2024

Laila Biali is an award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter and pianist whose recording Wintersongs offers an immersive journey into the delicate beauty and serene power of winter all through the lens of her jazz and classical roots. With two exceptions, all tracks were composed by Biali in a cabin surrounded by snow-capped mountains in the heart of Canada's Rocky Mountains. Many of Biali's usual collaborators participated in this production, including drummer Ben Wittman, renowned flutist and soprano saxophonist Jane Bunnett, accomplished trumpeter ...

Liner Notes

Ralph Bowen: Five

by C. Andrew Hovan
September 1, 2024

Although he's better known in educational circles due to his solid commitment to jazz pedagogy as a member of the faculty at Rutgers University, Ralph Bowen has been a vital member of the jazz community since debuting with the group Out of the Blue back in the mid '80s. His adaptability to a diversity of musical situations has made him a valuable sideman over the years, although the opportunities for Bowen to call the shots as a leader have not ...

Liner Notes

Ryan Kisor: Awakening

by C. Andrew Hovan
June 24, 2023

A man of few words, Ryan Kisor chooses to let his horn do the speaking and obviously it has said volumes over the years when you consider that the trumpeter is one of a select few musicians who has managed to sustain a viable career past the heydays of the jazz renaissance of the '80s and early '90s. Even when given the opportunity to elaborate on his most recent musical endeavors, Kisor states quite simply, “I'm pretty much just doing ...

Album Review

Laila Biali: Your Requests

Read "Your Requests" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
May 16, 2023

While the jazz pipeline produces plenty of artists who pay no mind to an audience's interests, those types--figures with tunnel vision, in many if not most ways--rarely reach their full potential. Instead, it's the musicians who make it a point to communicate who tend to forge the strongest bonds with those on the receiving end. Laila Biali is one such figure. This JUNO-winning gem of a vocalist, pianist, arranger and songwriter always manages to connect. Biali has a keen awareness ...

Album Review

Will Bernard: Ancient Grains

Read "Ancient Grains" reviewed by Kyle Simpler

by Kyle Simpler
June 22, 2021

In the culinary world, ancient grains is a term used to describe grains that have been virtually unchanged for centuries but are often used in modern recipes. Will Bernard uses this idea as a metaphor in his album Ancient Grains. The basic concept is that the instruments used in this recording, such as guitars, organ, amplifiers and drums, are vintage in different ways. Some are actually vintage instruments while others are based on designs of vintage instruments. As with the ...