Jazz Video of the Day

Colin Vallon Trio

Colin Vallon
Duration: 1:37

Much of [Vallon's] music exemplifies tranquility, even in the quirkier numbers, but there is always a restive quality, a tension that holds one's consideration and makes this more than a minimal experience. Danse has moments of unsurpassed beauty, offset by inventive, searching passages that portend the unexpected paths Vallon journeys down. --All About Jazz

Theo Bleckmann – Elegy

Theo Bleckmann
Duration: 1:06

Beyond being a vocalist of rare purity and daring, Theo Bleckmann is a sound painter who creates what JazzTimes has described aptly as “luminous webs” in music. The German-born New Yorker – after appearing on two ECM albums by Meredith Monk and another by Julia Hülsmann – makes his striking label debut as a leader with 'Elegy'. This album showcases Bleckmann as a composer as much as a singer, with several instrumental pieces voiced by what he calls his “ambient” band of kindred-spirit guitarist Ben Monder, keyboardist Shai Maestro and the subtle rhythm team of Chris Tordini and John Hollenbeck. Highlights include Bleckmann’s sublime rendition of Stephen Sondheim’s “Comedy Tonight” (“tragedy tomorrow… comedy tonight”), as well as the mellifluous vocalise of “Elegy (var.)” and achingly poetic “To Be Shown to Monks at a Certain Temple.”

Craig Taborn – Daylight Ghosts

Craig Taborn
Duration: 1:33

eyboardist Craig Taborn’s Daylight Ghosts is the Minneapolis-bred New Yorker’s third ECM release as a leader, a quartet album following the solo Avenging Angel and trio disc Chants. Both projects earned wide acclaim, with The Guardian saying that Taborn’s “musicality and his attention to detail are hypnotic, as is his remarkable sense of compositional narrative within an improvised performance.” Along with the questing Taborn on piano and electronic keyboards, the quartet of Daylight Ghosts features two other luminaries from the New York scene – reed player Chris Speed and bassist Chris Lightcap – plus drummer Dave King, the leader’s fellow Minnesota native and one-third of alt-jazz trio The Bad Plus. Each player draws from a broad artistic background, as informed by rock, electronica and diverse strains of world music as they are the various permutations of jazz improvisation. Dynamism and spectral ambience, acoustic and electric sounds, groove and lingering melody – all come together to animate Daylight Ghosts.

Julia Hülsmann Trio – Sooner And Later

Julia Hulsmann
Duration: 6:32

Berlin-based pianist Julia Hülsmann returns to the trio format for Sooner And Later, an album which distils the experience of journeys to distant destinations. In the last couple of years Hülsmann, bassist Marc Muellbauer and drummer Heinrich Köbberling have taken their music around the world, from Europe to the US, Canada, Peru, Central Asia and China, “where something special developed. It helped to open up new sonic territory for us”. The Central-Asian weeks find their most explicit echo in the form of “Biz Joluktuk”, a tune the band heard in performance from a 12 year old violinist in Kyrgyzstan and which was later re-harmonized by Julia. Once again all three members of the trio have contributed compositions to the album. The title of Hulsmann’s “Thatpujai” is an anagram of “Jutta Hipp”, and its theme is comprised of phrases from the late German jazz pianist’s solos. The program is rounded out by a cover of Radiohead’s “All I Need” which, like the Hülsmann-penned tracks “J.J.”, “Soon” or “Mond” with their sometimes almost clubby grooves, emphasizes the subtle rhythmic aspects of the trio’s music. Sooner And Later was recorded in September 2016 in Oslo’s Rainbow Studio, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Chroma

Petros Klampanis
Duration: 8:06

On Chroma, his third album as a leader and Motéma Music debut, Klampanis explores the colors of human character, inspired by world events and personal experience. Chroma, the Greek word for “color,” masterfully employs a full spectrum of sonic colors to paint an introspective and emotionally daring artistic statement. His first large ensemble project melds the animated expressions of the composer’s jazz quintet (piano, bass, drums, guitar and percussion) complemented by lush, classically-arranged strings to create a near symphonic work of modern jazz.

Delaunay's Dilemma - JLCO with Wynton Marsalis featuring Jon Batiste

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
Duration: 5:23

Watch Wynton Marsalis, Jon Batiste, and several members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra perform “Delaunay's Dilemma" off their new album “The Music of John Lewis."

Bossa Brasil at Blue Note - Vera Cruz

Mauricio de Souza
Duration: 12:58

Bossa Brasil live at Blue Note in New York, performing Milton Nascimento's, “Vera Cruz". Mauricio de Souza (drums), Adrian Cunningham (tenor sax), Jerry Weir (vibes), Bob Rodriguez (piano), Joonsam Lee (bass). Solos by Rodriguez, Weir, Cunningham, and de Souza.