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Jussi Reijonen: Memory and Consciousness Not Visited Before
by Dean Nardi
In 2025, Finnish guitarist and oud player Jussi Reijonen launched sayr, his intimate series of recordings for solo string instrument with simultaneous release of two stunning albums. One is a fully improvised take at his home studio on steel-string acoustic guitar on an afternoon in March 2025, split into two contrasting arcs--"salt" and thirst"--as on two ...
Steve Swallow: Music Is Elemental
by Dean Nardi
For esteemed composer and bassist Steve Swallow, writing music is a long, sometimes arduous process that typically begins with only a cup of coffee in the morning before putting in hours, days, weeks--five months in fact, to complete the music for Winter Songs (ECM Records, 2026). For him, that is lightning fast. His idea of composition ...
Nadav Remez: At the Intersection of Modern Jazz and Jewish Folk
by Dean Nardi
Summit (self-released, 2025) is as moving and inventive as any of Nadav Remez' previous albums, either as a leader--So Far (Brooklyn Underground Jazz Records, 2011)--or with various sideman projects, all of which similarly test the limits of modern guitar music. Summit feels like a direct extension of a slippery sound he has been refining for at ...
Andrea Goretti and Sivan Arbel: Bazrima
by Dean Nardi
Andrea Goretti and Sivan Arbel met at a jazz festival in Israel. They got on well and had enough in common musically that Arbel would travel a few months later to join Goretti in northern Italy. She has always had a soft spot for Italy and its people, but still, this would be a step into ...
Emilio Solla y La Inestable de Brooklyn: Handmade
by Dean Nardi
Emilio Solla has a mischievous, playful side that often manifests itself in his music. For example, his album, Handmade (Club del Disco, 2025) was recorded with a nonet, La Inestable de Brooklyn. What does the unstable (or the instability) in the orchestra's name refer to? The compositions? The playing? Or the fact that Solla uses all ...
Rafael Enciso: Bassist Intends To Search, Remember And Evolve
by Dean Nardi
Turn your ears on jazz heads, and you'll hear Rafael Enciso and his quartet playing around New York City's five boroughs. And somewhere nearby, someone will surely be listening to his cooling and coiling debut record Crossfades (2025) on Dayna Stephens' Contagious Music label. It slithers down bowling alley lanes and soda pop convenience store aisles ...
Davidsson: A Lifeline from the Land of Fire and Ice
by Dean Nardi
Icelandic artist Thorleifur Gaukur Davidsson grew up on a volcanic island called Heimaey, four miles off the coast of Iceland. He records by his Swedish patronymic surname, meaning son of David." His debut album Lifelines (OPIA, 2024) is filled with memories and emotions culled from family and the natural beauty of his home island. Davidsson took ...
Lawson Rollins: Next Steps
by Dean Nardi
Next Steps is a mainstream but delightful mix of jaunty and splendid originals from gifted North Carolina acoustic guitarist Lawson Rollins, continuing his steady rise into the ranks of the finest contemporary musicians. These are ingenious transformations of his eleven heady compositions into rich improvisations in the company of fine musicians who have played with him ...
The Top 25 Songs Featuring Clarinet
by Dean Nardi
As Ian Dury might have sung had he played the clarinet, Hit me with your licorice stick." (That is rhythm stick" for those not fluent in punk rock.) From the intricacies of classical music to the smooth swing of jazz to Klezmer--the folk music of the Eastern European Jewish population--the instrument resonates throughout a good portion ...
Jo-Yu Chen: For Taiwanese Pianist Classical Jazz is a Gas
by Dean Nardi
It would be a mistake to say that a classical/jazz hybrid was devoid of interest with its reliance on centuries-old scores. Au contraire. Promise rewards outside of the normal range of expectations. On Rendezvous -Jazz Meets Beethoven, Tchaikovsky & More (Sony, 2025), Taiwanese pianist Jo-Yu Chen begins with a mash-up of two Beethoven classics: Symphony No. 5" ...



