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Jonathan Reisin: Too Good X Unreality
by Dan McClenaghan
Saxophonist Jonathan Reisin says of the tunes presented on his Too Good X Unreality: “These pieces are especially fragile." They are. They are like butterflies in their fragility, vignettes of space and delicacy possessed of an underlying tensile strength. A complexity/simplicity dynamic is there.His trio consists of his tenor and soprano saxophones, Shinya Lin's ...
Satoko Fujii: Dream a Dream
by John Sharpe
Japanese pianist and composer Satoko Fujii has long demonstrated her ability to marshal ensembles of varying size--from intimate duos to sprawling orchestras--with an ear attuned to both spontaneity and design. On Dream A Dream, the second release from her Tokyo Trio, she reaffirms that a small group can still conjure orchestral breadth when agency and imagination ...
Susan Hinkson: Just in Time
by Katchie Cartwright
In 2025, radio programmers are apt to carp about singers who continue to cover the Great American Songbook. There are new songs and songwriters to explore, they say, and it is true. But for lovers of mainstream jazz, the mellow sound of a sensitive balladeer like Susan Hinkson singing a gem like Harold Arlen and Johnny ...
Chris Cheek: Keepers of the Eastern Door
by David Weiner
In Keepers of the Eastern Door, saxophonist Chris Cheek leads a beautifully played, richly melodic and creatively curated set of performances, which split the difference between enchantment and fun. Cheek and his bandmates--Bill Frisell on guitar, Tony Scherr on bass, and Rudy Royston on drums--offer a mix of distinctive Cheek originals and unexpected takes on works ...
Helio Alves: Samba Of Sorts
by Kyle Simpler
It is not uncommon for people in the United States to discuss the British Invasion of the 1960s, when groups like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Yardbirds became staples of American radio. But alongside this, another invasion was becoming part of the American music scene: bossa nova. “The Girl from Ipanema" (Verve 1964) topped ...
Various Artists: A New Awakening: Adventures in British Jazz 1966-1971
by Peter Jones
Throughout the 1950s (and beyond), modernist British jazz musicians were in thrall to the American bebop stars they had been trying to emulate since the late 1940s. It was the pinnacle to which they aspired, and gradually their efforts lifted the overall standard of UK jazz. But by the early 1960s, the international success ...
Adrian Cunningham: It's About Time
by Jack Bowers
Australian-born, New York-based multi-instrumentalist (and vocalist) Adrian Cunningham brings impressive creds to his latest recording, It's About Time, raising the number of albums under his leadership well into double figures. And as if playing an array of instruments were not enough, Cunningham also writes, having composed nine of the album's songs and arranged all of them. ...
Jordan VanHemert: Survival of the Fittest
by Jack Bowers
Although the title of saxophonist Jordan VanHemert's fifth album, Survival of the Fittest, may elicit images of a crash course in self-defense, that is not at all what he had in mind. The music is thematic, he says, and represents the twin lodestars of adversity and resilience. Even that, however, becomes largely irrelevant once VanHemert and ...
Nick Hempton Cory Weeds: Horns Locked
by Pierre Giroux
The storied tradition of tenor saxophone battles has produced some of jazz's most thrilling moments, dating back to the classic duels of Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt or Johnny Griffin and Eddie Davis. Carrying that torch forward with equal measures of bravado and reverence are Nick Hempton and Cory Weeds on Horns Locked, a rollicking straight-ahead ...
Kevin Fort: Everything I Love
by Hrayr Attarian
Pianist Kevin Fort is a virtuoso improviser and an imaginative composer with a refreshingly novel style rooted firmly in the mainstream tradition. In addition to playing with several Chicago-area artists, Fort leads a cohesive trio that has created a unique, delightfully textured sound. It is mostly with this ensemble that he has recorded his four superb ...
