Articles by Troy Dostert

Album Review

Ran Blake: Voices

by Troy Dostert
October 8, 2026

Following closely upon another of his beguiling efforts with vocalist Dominique Eade, Roots & Byways (Sunnyside, 2026), Ran Blake proves he remains just as invested in his solo piano work on Voices. The 19 pieces, which possess Blake's distinctive blend of oblique lyricism and generous breadth, are gorgeous reflections that incorporate broad swaths of twentieth-century music and serve as another vivid reminder of Blake's longstanding dedication to transcending category. From Puccini's “My Name is Mimi" to Fats Waller's ...

Album Review

Nick Mazzarella: Siena Sessions

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by Troy Dostert
August 19, 2026

With a fruitful partnership extending back to 2016, Chicago mainstay Nick Mazzarella has played in a variety of contexts with bassist Silvia Bolognesi and drummer Cristiano Calcagnile, but they chose Italy for their first recorded encounter. Mazzarella's tart alto saxophone seems particularly energized by the change of scenery, and his obvious chemistry with his superb partners is evident from start to finish. Mazzarella is one of the most versatile musicians on the scene, equally adept at riding a ...

Album Review

Michael Marcus Quartet: Next Stop Down!

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by Troy Dostert
August 16, 2026

A fixture in the avant-garde jazz community since the early 1990s, multi-instrumentalist Michael Marcus has done notable work with his own ensembles and alongside other prominent improvisers such as William Parker, Sonny Simmons, Andrew Cyrille and Joe McPhee. His first release with ESP-Disk in 2022, Abstractions in Lime Caverns, featured the leader on no fewer than five separate horns, including the tarogato, an instrument which takes center stage on Next Stop Down!, Marcus' first effort with a top-shelf quartet which ...

Album Review

Clark Sommers: WaBaSH

by Troy Dostert
July 30, 2026

An integral component of the Chicago-based jazz community, bassist Clark Sommers has honed his craft as a sideman with everyone from Kurt Elling to Jon Irabagon, with a multifaceted fluency that extends from mainstream jazz to more adventurous projects. And from time to time he also gets to flex as a leader, starting with his debut effort in 2013, Ba(SH) (Origin Records), a recording which documented his long-standing trio with fellow Chicago stalwarts Geof Bradfield on saxophone and Dana Hall ...

Album Review

Lisa Rich: I Still Rise

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by Troy Dostert
July 22, 2026

Building on a comeback that began with 2024's Long as You're Living (Tritone Records), vocalist Lisa Rich once again offers artful renderings of well-chosen material, sung with conviction and the wisdom that comes from a career re-forged through dogged resilience. And like its predecessor, I Still Rise features the exemplary talents of a fine supporting cast, with pianist Marc Copland, bassist Drew Gress and trumpeter Dave Ballou adroitly enhancing Rich's seasoned vocal stylings. After presenting her formidable abilities ...

Album Review

Ran Blake & Dominique Eade: Roots & Byways

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by Troy Dostert
July 12, 2026

For a pianist whose prodigious recorded legacy goes back to the 1960s, Ran Blake has only rarely deviated from his preferred settings: solo albums and duos with vocalists. While his Short Life of Barbara Monk (Soul Note, 1987) is arguably one of the finest quartet records of the 1980s, and his Sonic Temples (GM Recordings, 2001) is a superb later trio effort, he has for the most part been largely content to limit himself to more intimate contexts, especially with ...

Album Review

Columbia Icefield: A Silence Opens

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by Troy Dostert
July 5, 2026

While grief is universal to the human experience, its specific manifestations can vary widely within each person who mourns. One of the challenges of the grieving process involves the difficulty of sharing exactly what one is feeling, and it can thus be an isolating experience--ironically, and painfully, at a time when human connection is most needed. Nate Wooley's latest iteration of his Columbia Icefield project involves his own attempt to come to terms with profound loss, both in the passing ...

Album Review

Tyshawn Sorey: Members... Don't!

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by Troy Dostert
June 24, 2026

One of the most welcome developments in twenty-first century jazz has been drummer Tyshawn Sorey's enthusiastic turn toward the jazz canon. While he had already established himself convincingly as one of the premier figures in creative music on immersive, challenging works such as The Inner Spectrum of Variables (Pi Recordings, 2016) and Verisimilitude (Pi Recordings, 2017), when Sorey decided to begin his idiosyncratic interrogations of classic jazz repertoire it opened up new facets of his musical identity, especially as an ...

Album Review

Paul Silbergleit Trio: The Stillness of July

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by Troy Dostert
June 11, 2026

With four previous releases under his belt, guitarist Paul Silbergleit has been a steady presence in the Milwaukee jazz scene since his debut record, Silberglicity, appeared in 1996. But The Stillness of July is his first outing complemented by bassist Clay Schaub and drummer Devin Drobka. This fine trio provides a lithe treatment of several Silbergleit originals and a few well-chosen standards, giving Silbergleit his best opportunity yet to showcase his talents. With a commitment to technical precision ...

Album Review

Yusef Lateef: Alight Upon the Lake: Live at the Jazz Showcase

Read "Alight Upon the Lake: Live at the Jazz Showcase" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
May 12, 2026

One of the legendary figures of Detroit jazz, Yusef Lateef experienced a truly distinctive path of artistic development, with a trajectory which took him from swing, bebop and R&B in the 1940s and 1950s through a deep immersion in world music, funk and classical idioms during the 1960s and beyond. Somehow incorporating all of these disparate strands and more, Resonance Records' three-disc extravaganza, Alight Upon the Lake, gives us a thorough glimpse of Lateef's multifaceted identity in the company of ...