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Pat Metheny & Brad Mehldau: Summer Day
by Geno Thackara
"Summer" is a frequent shorthand for “loud and bright," but the span of the day can include a whole lot of tones more subtle and colorful. This is the scene Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau paint on this highlight of their mostly-duo debut recording (Nonesuch Records, 2006), weaving a broad palette of tones like a sky ...
James Brandon Lewis: Ware
by Ludovico Granvassu
Here is a track from one of the year's most acclaimed musicians, James Brandon Lewis, who, as of late, doesn't just land in the best-of lists--he takes up multiple slots. From Abstraction Is Deliverance (Intakt Records) --featuring Lewis' tightly-knit quartet with Aruán Ortiz on piano, Brad Jones on bass and Chad Taylor on drums ...
Remembering Sheila Jordan: Sheila's Blues
by Ian Patterson
NEA Jazz Master Sheila Jordan, who passed away on August 11, 2025, at the age of 96, will be remembered as one of the great improvising jazz vocalists--imitated by many, bettered by none. Born in Detroit in 1928, Jordan's life-long love affair with jazz began in the 1940s when she heard Charlie Parker. “After ...
Olga Amelchenko: Walking Shadows
by Ludovico Granvassu
Howling Silence is Olga Amelchenko's new album, a project that explores the tension between the urge to speak out and the weight of silence... “howling silence" indeed. That may be the reason why even though her saxophone shimmers throughout the album, it a shimmering that comes with gravitas, as you can hear here in the compelling ...
Jimmy Herring: Hope
by Mike Jacobs
Some bands' repertoire is so iconic that it rarely gets covered in any meaningful, updated way. Though it falls squarely into this category, Jimmy Herring's expanded 2013 revamp of the Mahavishnu Orchestra's stalwart piece, “Hope" was said to have moved composer John McLaughlin himself and planted the seeds for their subsequent collaborative “Meeting of the Spirits" ...
Smooth Elevator: Walking through the Suburbs of Rome Late at Night
by Ludovico Granvassu
In the midst of Italian bassist Danilo Gallo's busy release schedule, Moving Target stands out. Released on the Norwegian label Losen Records, the album showcases Smooth Elevator, the trio Gallo co-leads with guitarist Will Bernard and drummer Gioele Pagliaccia since 2011. Together, they fuse a downtown New York edge with an unmistakably Italian cinematic ...
Peter Epstein Quartet: In Your Voice
by Mike Jacobs
It could be said that jazz, at its best, is a confluence of musical personalities that form a unified collective spirit, brought forth with immediacy. Peter Epstein's “In Your Voice" epitomizes this ethos with remarkably empathetic and stylized performances from the saxophonist, Jamie Saft, Chris Dahlgren and Jim Black. This is further amplified by the one-point, ...
Fabia Mantwill Orchestra: Whirl the Wheel
by Ludovico Granvassu
German saxophonist Fabia Mantwill is also an adventurous composer and arranger for large ensembles. Her new album, In.Sight, is her most ambitious to date--a wide-ranging and deeply imaginative project recorded with the Fabia Mantwill Orchestra, which features a vibrant mix of young players from Berlin's buzzing jazz scene. The album also marks Mantwill's debut ...
Jon Batiste & Randy Newman: Lonely Avenue
by Ludovico Granvassu
Enjoy this soulful take on Doc Pomus' “Lonely Avenue"--a song immortalized by Ray Charles, the patron saint of Jon Batiste's musical world. To make this single an even more compelling preview of his upcoming album Big Money, Batiste enlisted a fellow Ray Charles devotee, the legendary Randy Newman. Though Newman has kept a lower ...
