Results for "Play This!"

Tim Garland: Sama'i For Peace

by Mike Jacobs
October 11, 2023

Ever completely miss an album that has a bunch of guys that you expressly keep an ear to the ground for? Well, it even happens to music writers. Just in case you missed out too, here's a fine track from Tim Garland's One (Edition, 2016) featuring Jason Rebello, Asaf Sirkis and Ant Law. ...

Grant Green: Idle Moments

by Geno Thackara
October 8, 2023

Idle moments can so often be the most inspiring ones--the kind that are not about doing nothing, exactly, but rather leaving space for who-knows-what to happen. In the case of this session, what happened was a slight chart-reading mixup that had everyone taking solos twice as long as planned. For such a patient and dreamy piece, ...

Adam Holzman and Brave New World: Iron Curtain

by Mike Jacobs
October 7, 2023

Keyboardist Adam Holzman may be known more these days for his work with the sometime Porcupine Tree progressive mastermind Steven Wilson but the biggest thing on AH's resume prior to his working with Wilson was his stint as keyman for one Miles Davis. Dropping the needle on “Iron Curtain," this all becomes crystal clear as it's ...

Eran Har Even: Rise

by Mike Jacobs
October 6, 2023

As the title might suggest, the music on guitarist Eran Har Even's album 20/21 sprang from the depths of the pandemic years, when musicians somehow found ways to live and express themselves in the absence of being able to perform live. The opening “Rise" as well as others from this album are indelibly marked by the ...

Naughty Professor: Kings

by Mike Jacobs
October 5, 2023

It seems that over the last few years, the New Orleans-based collective Naughty Professor has built up a reputation that has a lot of musicians ambling on down to the Crescent City to sit in with them. Their one/two punch of an ultra-tight rhythm section coupled with a sharper-than-a-tack horn section makes it easy to understand ...

Anthony Fung: Boo Boo's Birthday

by John Chacona
October 4, 2023

Show business savants know the power of a marquee name in the credits, and the lesson has not been lost on jazz musicians. So it's no surprise that Canadian-born drummer Anthony Fung invited fellow Angeleno Mark Turner to guest on Fo(u)rth (Self Produced, 2023). The risk of being upstaged is always present, even with an artist ...

Gretchen Parlato: Turning Into Blue

by Mike Jacobs
September 30, 2023

Gavin Harrison: Hatesong / Halo

by Geno Thackara
September 25, 2023

Folks who know the name Gavin Harrison know that it's synonymous with versatility, which he's shown through a career including more than one of the world's brainier heavy rock bands. Porcupine Tree probably has the lowest jazzy quotient of those, whch makes it perfectly perverse that Harrison and co-collaborator Laurence Cottle re-shaped a whole album's worth ...

Étienne Mbappé & The Prophets: Johnji

by Mike Jacobs
September 24, 2023

Dave Meder: Modern Gothic

by John Chacona
September 22, 2023

Hymn tunes are having a bit of a moment with players such as Dave Douglas and James Brandon Lewis calling on these sturdy old melodies for projects that often wander far from their plain, homespun source material. On New American Hymnal (Outside in Music, 2023), pianist Dave Meder goes a step further by making the communal ...