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Max Johnson Trio: Orbit of Sound
by Mike Jurkovic
Whereas Sketches (Fresh Sounds Records, 2022) could be considered a more traditional big bop trio recording with pianist/vibraphonist Karl Berger and drummer Billy MIntz, Orbit of Sound, NY bassist Max Johnson's second heady release of 2022 finds him in the instigative company of the ever undefinable Anna Webber on tenor saxophone and flute and drummer Michael ...
Tyler Mitchell: Sun Ra's Journey Featuring Marshall Allen
by Mike Jurkovic
Along with elder alum, alto saxophonist Marshall Allen, Sun Ra's Journey Featuring Marshall Allen, the second of bassist Tyler Mitchell's deep dives into Sun Ra's master playbook, breaks glorious from the start. As an entry into the Smalls Live Living Masters Series, this octane-infused set was recorded live in 2022 at Smalls in NYC ...
Lakecia Benjamin: Phoenix
by Mike Jurkovic
True to her nature, saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin keeps the flame to the dynamite on her smoking follow-up to the wildfire of Pursuance (Ropeadope, 2020), her still hot-to-the-touch dedication to the music and spirituality of John Coltrane and Alice Coltrane. Co-produced with maximum female power by Benjamin and Terri Lyne Carrington, the torrential riptide “Amerikkan ...
Ahmad Jamal: Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse (1963-1964) and (1965-1966)
by Mike Jurkovic
Let's entertain the undisputed truth that Ahmad Jamal, all ninety-two years of him, is quite possibly the coolest cat on a warming planet and these companion double sets Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse (1963-1964), and Emerald City Nights: Live at the Penthouse (1965-1966) take on a rather folklorish, must-have status. With ...
Karl Berger, Max Johnson, Billy Mintz: Sketches
by Mike Jurkovic
An exquisitely palatable sense of dance permeates the gregarious music bassist Max Johnson brings to the fore on Sketches, the second of two heady 2022 releases. Whereas the first, Orbit of Sound (Unbroken Sounds), teams him up with the rule-elusive sax and flute of Anna Weber and drummer Michael Sarin, Sketches presents a slightly more straight ...
Esbjörn Svensson: HOME.S.
by Mike Jurkovic
Akin to when people first sat in elegant staterooms listening to Chopin, Mendelssohn, Mahler, or Erik Satie seek the muse, HOME.S stands as the first solo performance by the late Swedish pianist Esbjörn Svensson and will quite possibly be considered the grandest moment of any other forthcoming posthumous releases. Recorded mere weeks before the ...
Donald Byrd: Donald Byrd Live: Cookin' With Blue Note at Montreux
by Mike Jurkovic
With the release of his chart-topping, funk-fueled Black Byrd in 1973, Donald Byrd found himself in a volatile place in jazz circles. He was being hailed as having finally stepped out of Miles Davis' considerable shadow, while simultaneously many found the album to be Byrd's selling out his bop legacy for chart success. As most defining ...
Ben Freidkin: Trial & Error
by Mike Jurkovic
He may not have the extra-long, arm's length CV just yet, but at 28, Israeli born, Brooklyn-based drummer Ben Freidkin delivers the goods on this briskly charged, live debut recording. Curated from three individual gigs in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv with a host of different players, Freidkin nimbly, knowingly and kinetically explores the myriad shapes the ...
Mike Jurkovic's Best Jazz Albums Of 2022
by Mike Jurkovic
Jazz continues to evolve and win swaths of converts despite what Tik-Tok and a chaotic, crumbling music industry (and world order) might render. These discs, in no particular order and representing no particular form, (ie: bop, free, nu-jazz, house jazz, whatever) are just a small gathering of the many great discs and great ideas the music ...
Tim Berne & Matt Mitchell: One More Please
by Mike Jurkovic
If the word accessible is even a thing in the vast musical vernacular of alto saxophonist Tim Berne and the ever willing collaborator pianist Matt Mitchell, they take full advantage of it on One More Please, their fourth duo date. Berne's music, more akin to an alien abduction than tangible through-lines, has its Gordian ...
