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Dan McClenaghan's Best Jazz Albums Of 2023
by Dan McClenaghan
The top jazz recordings of the year in the order (more or less) that they came in the door. Concerning the recorded jazz offerings in in 2023, we could quote Frank Sinatra singing Ervin Drake's lyrics in the 1966 Grammy winner: “It was a very good year." It is difficult to pick a favorite. These are ...
Andrew Rathbun: The Speed Of Time
by Dan McClenaghan
Not one to avoid concepts and ambitious outings, Andrew Rathbun's to-date masterpiece, The Atwood Suites (Origin Records, 2018), explored the poetry of his countrywoman, writer Margaret Atwood. In 2023, he tackles time. Time is a funny thing. Its perceived speed is malleable. It tends toward an increasing velocity as one moves into middle age ...
Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio: A Shade Of Blue
by Dan McClenaghan
Japanese pianist Tsuyoshi Yamamoto's Shade Of Blue is a classic trio outing, old school style. It sounds as if the ghost of Red Garland is hanging around, and Erroll Garner and Wynton Kelly are keeping him company. Yamamoto's trio, which includes bassist Hiroshi Kagawa and drummer Toshio Osumi--venerable musicians all--lays down a flawless set of familiar ...
Philippe Cote / Francois Bourassa: Confluence
by Dan McClenaghan
Confluence, on its surface, may come off as a minor work of art. It is the juxtaposition of just two instruments--saxophone and piano--braiding sounds together in what seems an improvisational mode. Francois Bourassa stays in the piano chair. Philippe Cote's seating arrangement shifts between tenor and soprano saxophones, piano and prepared piano. But the limitation of ...
Trio San: Hibiki
by Dan McClenaghan
Put a vibraphone into a small ensemble, listen in and the label “exotica" might come up--that exotic music pioneered by Martin Denny and Juan Garcia Esquivel. The pairing of pianist Satoko Fujii and vibraphonist Taiko Saito--a duo they call Futari--on their two terrific albums, Beyond (2021) and Underground (2022), both on Libra Records, sounded like exotica ...
Kevin Sun: The Depths of Memory
by Dan McClenaghan
Saxophonist/composer Kevin Sun's 2 CD set, The Depths Of Memory, is said to be more suited to focused listening than to the “convivial distractions of a jazz club." That rings true. From CD 1's opener, “All This Stillness," subdivided into seven sections, the album finds the saxophonist and his bandmates sounding as if they have slipped ...
John Bishop / Bram Weijters / Piet Verbist: Antwerp
by Dan McClenaghan
Drummer John Bishop, the guy who runs Seattle's Origin Records, does not often put out records under his own name. There was Nothing If Not Something (Origin Records) in 2005, review here, and then nothing until the disc at hand, 2023's Antwerp. Not that Bishop has avoided the recording studio. He is, as a sideman, in ...
Allison Au: Migrations
by Dan McClenaghan
Canadian saxophonist Allison Au says she was drawn to the simplicity of a jazz quartet “as a vehicle for realizing the visions of my original compositions." Charlie Parker must have felt the same way; Art Pepper, too. And John Coltrane. Au stuck to this format for her Wander Wonder (Self Produced, 2018) and 2017's self-produced Forest ...
Ilios Steryannis: Babylonia Suite
by Dan McClenaghan
Canadian drummer Ilios Steryannis traces his family roots back 2,500 years to ancient Babylonia. With his Babylonia Suite, he explores the family tree and his maternal grandparents' diasporic journey from Baghdad to Mumbai to Manchester and finally to Canada with a world music selection of sunshine bright music, with eleven life-affirming compositions. The instruments include piano, ...
David Janeway: Interchange
by Dan McClenaghan
Unearthing and releasing old music--even sounds sourced from decades old tapes--has become common in jazz. Pianist Bill Evans (thank you. Zev Feldman) has enjoyed something of a twenty-first-century renaissance. Pianist Fred Hersch released @ The Village Vanguard (Palmetto Records, 2018), recorded in 1997; and 2021 saw the posthumous release from pianist Masabumi Kikuchi, Hanamichi (Red Hook), ...
