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Alex Chadsey: Invocation
by Paul Rauch
The fourth album from the trio Duende Libre is entitled Invocation, the act of summoning a deity or the supernatural. The band's name itself is rooted in flamenco culture, a term of great emotion that identifies a magical quality in an artist. The concept was famously theorized by Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, identifying elements that ...
The Afro-Caribbean Jazz Collective: Cortadito
by Jack Bowers
The Afro-Caribbean Collective is a high-energy nonet led by Puerto Rican-born guitarist Jose Guzman. On Cortadito, the ensemble's fourth album, the accent as always is on the lively rhythms and charming melodies of Guzman's home country and nearby equatorial locales. There is one immediate problem, as Guzman writes that his composition Orchard Downs" is ...
Marcin Bożek & Danny Kamins: Ignorantka
by Mark Corroto
Even if you do not speak Polish--and I count myself among those who do not--you can still grasp the meaning behind Ignorantka, the 2025 collaboration between bassist Marcin Boźek and saxophonist Danny Kamins. The word translates roughly to ignorant," but here it carries a more nuanced meaning: not simply uneducated, but unaware--blind to what lies beyond ...
Patricia Brennan: Of the Near and Far
by Angelo Leonardi
In un paio d'anni, Patricia Brennan è balzata ai vertici del jazz più innovativo. Se già il magistrale e pluripremiato Breaking Stretch (Pyroclastic Records, 2024) era un salto avanti rispetto ai precedenti More Touch (Pyroclastic Records, 2022) e Maquishti, stavolta la vibrafonista d'origine messicana presenta un'opera ancor più sorprendente, cambiando organico in un'esplorazione ambiziosa e audace. ...
Esmeralda Sella: Magma
by Neri Pollastri
Primo disco a proprio nome per Esmeralda Sella, giovane e interessante pianista di origini siciliane, cresciuta a Ravenna e attualmente residente a Siena, dove si è perfezionata a Siena Jazz dopo gli studi classici (clicca qui per leggere l'intervista nella quale ci racconta il suo percorso). Il lavoro è in piano trio assieme ad ...
Grant Stewart: Next Spring
by Jack Bowers
There aren't many jazz saxophonists who can hold the floor and the listener's ear through an entire album without ever sounding banal or redundant. Here is one who can. Next Spring is renowned tenor saxophonist Grant Stewart's fifth recording for Cory Weeds' Cellar Music Group, and if it includes any moments that are less than engaging, ...
Rasmus Kjær: Underlake
by Troy Dostert
Although he is based in Copenhagen, pianist/keyboardist Rasmus Kjær's travel to Lake Geneva in Switzerland in 2023 inspired Underlake. The set is a series of pieces united in their evocation of water in its various manifestations. For a restless musician whose many projects include Orgelimprovisationer (Lydhør, 2015), a solo organ recording, and Turist (Wetwear, 2019), a ...
Pepper Adams: Pepper Adams Quintet
by Joshua Weiner
Formed in 2025, the Gammaut label has upped the ante on deluxe audiophile reissues of classic jazz with their debut release, Pepper Adams Quintet (Mode Records, 1957). Original master tapes used? Check. Careful lacquer cutting at 45 RPM by Bernie Grundman? Check. Top-notch heavy vinyl pressing by Gotta Groove Records housed in a sturdy Stoughton gatefold? ...
Joe Magnarelli: Concord
by David A. Orthmann
Throughout a career spanning over four decades, much of it spent in the trenches of New York City's notoriously competitive jazz scene, trumpeter/flugelhornist Joe Magnarelli has established a distinct identity within the broad parameters of the bop and hard bop idioms. Concord, Magnarelli's third release for the venerable SteepleChase Productions imprint, arguably his finest work in ...
Jan Bang & Arve Henriksen: After The Wildfire
by Nenad Georgievski
Commissioned by the Skopje Jazz Festival and premiered at its 42nd edition in 2023, After the Wildfire was performed live in an evening marked by the dim glow of the stage, an orchestra breathing with the electronics, the wealth of sounds conjured by sampler Jan Bang, and Arve Henriksen's trumpet cutting through the hall like a ...


