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Tomeka Reid Quartet: Dance! Skip! Hop!
by Don Ball
If the fourth album from the Tomeka Reid Quartet proves nothing else, it is that the group has shown a remarkable capacity for getting better with each release. Not just in the strength and quality of the compositions, but also through the tightness and cohesiveness of the band. The title Dance! Skip! Hop! is ...
Darren Litzie: On My Own Time
by Don Ball
Pianist Darren Litzie's sophomore release as a leader, On My Own Time, eschews the horns of his first release and takes a simpler approach, with bassist Chris DeAngelis and drummer John Riley providing the solid rhythm backing. Litzie also wrote two-thirds of the tunes and shows an imaginative approach to composition, writing in different beat-centric genres ...
Benjamin Boone: Dream Walking
by Don Ball
Integrating different cultural entities in music is always a difficult proposition; getting the right mix and balance so that one culture does not usurp others to make a new artistic product requires great skill and tact. The New Global Ensemble, made up of musicians from the U.S., Germany, Ghana, Mexico, and Ireland, pull from their respective ...
Christopher Hoffman: REX
by Don Ball
Musicians have been inspired by the visual arts for centuries, from Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition in 1874, depicting the works of the artist Viktor Hartmann, to Myra Melford's 2025 release Splash (Intakt Records, 2025), a homage to the visual artist Cy Twombly. The question always arises: Does the listener have to know the artwork ...
Alex Hitchcock: Letters From Afar
by Don Ball
Alex Hitchcock made his name as an emerging talent in London when he decided to move to New York City to, as he put it, “engage with the music being made here, because as a white British musician playing Black American music, engaging with the context in which that music is made is important." Letters from Afar ...
Don Ball’s Favorite Jazz Albums of 2025
by Don Ball
Whether these are best releases in 2025 or not, they are the ones that resonated most with me. And 2025 seemed a good year for guitarists; they were often a driving force on many of these recordings and an important element in the mood and atmosphere of the songs. There's Anthony Pirog on Skullcap's Snakes of ...
Luna Horns: Afro Space Hotel
by Don Ball
Listening to Luna Horns' Afro Space Hotel is like stepping into your neighborhood pub and being overwhelmed by the band playing there, with horns blazing like the Jamaica band The Skatalites and a bassist of the Bootsy Collins variety. This is the debut album by Luna Horns, which was formed in 2023 by Tim Lowerson in Oslo, ...
Benoit LeBlanc: Mô kouzin mô kouzinn
by Don Ball
If you were ever curious as to what pre-jazz music might have sounded like in the Louisiana area, then Benoît LeBlanc's Mô kouzin mô kouzinn is the album for you. LeBlanc presents 27 Creole songs that in many ways form the basis for the emergence of jazz in New Orleans in the late 19th century, songs ...
Presenting Great Music: Adam Hopkins and Scott Clark of Out of Your Head Records
by Don Ball
It is difficult to make a living as a musician, especially as a jazz musician, and even more so as an avant-garde/free jazz musician. Venues are hard to come by, especially outside of major cities. The COVID pandemic made things worse, closing many of the few places that were available for live jazz. Even putting out ...
Yazz Ahmed: A Paradise In The Hold
by Don Ball
Yazz Ahmed's music has focused on combining her love of jazz with her Bahrani heritage since her first recording in 2011, and with her release, A Paradise in the Hold (Night Time Stories, 2025), she adds a new component: voice. With lyrics in both English and Arabic, Ahmed uses stories and music from her childhood in ...
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