Jazz Articles about Steve Cardenas

About Steve Cardenas

Album Review

While it is true that much of the modern jazz landscape thrives on the burning fire of the avant-garde, albums like Steve Swallow's Winter Songs operate on an entirely different frequency. This is a classic ECM Records slow burner--an album that does not flash like lightning, but instead radiates a calm, late-night glow. It evokes the quiet stillness of sitting by a fireplace after the rest of the house has gone to sleep, where the music demands a deep couch, a ...

Album Review

Steve Swallow: Winter Songs

Read "Winter Songs" reviewed by Jack Kenny

by Jack Kenny
July 1, 2026

To create his first new music since the death of his partner, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow gathered a circle of close friends and longtime collaborators: saxophonist Chris Cheek, trumpeter Mike Rodriguez, drummer Adam Nussbaum, guitarist Steve Cardenas, and pianist Gil Goldstein. The result, Winter Songs-- Swallow's first outing as a leader in over a decade was recorded at Sear Sound studio in New York during September 2024. About the music, Swallow wrote: “I was there when this music ...

Album Review

Viktorija Gečytė & Gene Perla: Mother

Read "Mother" reviewed by Ieva Pakalniškytė

by Ieva Pakalniškytė
March 31, 2026

Sometimes the music does not so much ask to be heard as it quietly draws you in. Listening to Viktorija Gečytė and Gene Perla's album Mother feels like slipping into a warm, half-remembered moment. The atmosphere is unhurried, softly lit, unfolding somewhere between memory and the present. Structured as a six-composition album, it echoes the aesthetic world of the Great American Songbook. Carried by voice, swing, and the pleasure of listening, it remains firmly rooted in tradition without feeling merely retrospective or ...

Album Review

Anat Fort: The Dreamworld of Paul Motian

Read "The Dreamworld of Paul Motian" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
November 25, 2025

Pescando nel vasto songbook di Paul Motian, certo uno dei più ricchi (nelle molteplici accezioni del termine) che un batterista abbia saputo regalare al grande serbatoio del jazz, Anat Fort e compagni confezionano un album prezioso, muovendosi nelle trame tematiche create dal grande musicista di Filadelfia (notoriamente di origini armene, retaggio talora coglibile nelle pieghe della sua musica) con leggerezza e pertinenza. Un'operazione certo molto rispettosa che tuttavia non impedisce ai quattro musicisti (notare il raddoppio armonico pianoforte-chitarra) di dire ...

Album Review

Hillai Govreen: Every Other Now

Read "Every Other Now" reviewed by Kyle Simpler

by Kyle Simpler
October 21, 2025

Many musicians are content to write and perform songs, while others continuously explore deeper territory. Clarinetist, saxophonist, and composer Hillai Govreen belongs firmly to the latter camp. At heart, she is a storyteller, and with Every Other Now, her debut solo release, she creates music that invites not only listening but also imagination. Govreen first drew notice with Allusions (Starr Street, 2021), a duo with pianist Nitsan Kolko, where her sensitivity and command of dialogue came to the ...

Album Review

Anat Fort: The Dreamworld of Paul Motian

Read "The Dreamworld of Paul Motian" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 1, 2025

Borrowing a sentiment from the title of the 1959 Riverside Records album Everybody Digs Bill Evans, it is safe to say that pianist Anat Fort digs Paul Motian. Her The Dreamworld of Paul Motian says so. We can attribute a big part of Motian's career success to pianist Bill Evans (1929 -1980). Portrait In Jazz (Riverside, 1960) was the first Evans album that included Motian in the drummer's chair. More followed, including the groundbreaking Sunday At the Village ...

Album Review

Anat Fort: The Dreamworld of Paul Motian

Read "The Dreamworld of Paul Motian" reviewed by Kyle Simpler

by Kyle Simpler
September 18, 2025

Other performers inspire every musician to some extent, but for Anat Fort, the influence of drummer Paul Motian altered her approach to performing and thinking about music. Although Motian passed away in 2011, his presence remains a motivating force in Fort's work. With The Dreamworld of Paul Motian, she pays homage not just to the man but to the mystery, lyricism, and true spirit of his music. Motian elevated the role of drumming in modern jazz. ...