Oct 21, 2019 11:34 AM
With Smart Bookings, Angrajazz Challenges Audiences
The small consortium behind Angrajazz—the jazz festival that has been taking place on Terceira Island in the Azores…
Miguel Zenón steered past his most recent release, a lovely tribute to the work of Ismael Rivera, and headed right into muscular post-bop territory during the Angrajazz festival, which ran Oct 3-5 on Terceira Island in the Azores.
Oct 21, 2019 11:34 AM
The small consortium behind Angrajazz—the jazz festival that has been taking place on Terceira Island in the Azores…
Barrett Martin’s recent creative endeavors include a book and a related album.
Sep 26, 2019 9:25 AM
Many musicians who thrived during the alternative-rock gold rush of the 1990s have, by now, hopped onto the nostalgia…
Guitarist Nels Cline (left), composer/reedist Anthony Braxton, drummer Greg Saunier and multi-instrumentalist Taylor Ho Bynum recorded Quartet (New Haven) 2014 five years ago. The work only now is being released on Firehouse 12, an imprint based in New Haven, Connecticut.
Sep 30, 2019 2:58 PM
Speaking with Anthony Braxton is much like trying to improvise alongside the 74-year-old reedist: You need to stay on…
Israeli pianist Anat Fort has issued a pair of new recordings—and has more in store.
May 29, 2019 9:19 AM
For a jazz musician known internationally for her remarkable and picturesque piano playing, Anat Fort has a…
Drummer Kendrick Scott wrestles with self-doubt on his latest album, A Wall Becomes A Bridge (Blue Note).
May 28, 2019 7:14 AM
On an unseasonably warm May night in Portland, Oregon, members of Oracle, the post-bop quintet led by drummer Kendrick…
The entirety of Solo provides a deluxe reminder of Michael Rother’s impact on modern music.
Mar 27, 2019 9:28 AM
Though his résumé includes a long and varied solo career, Michael Rother’s work often has been discussed in…
Pharoah Sanders perform during the first weekend of the Biamp PDX Jazz Festival, which ran Feb. 20–March 3 in Portland, Oregon.
Mar 8, 2019 10:04 AM
With both Blue Note and ECM records celebrating anniversaries this year, booking the lineup for any major jazz festival…
McCaslin’s Blow. features vocalists on a number of tracks, a marked departure from his earlier recordings.
Jan 23, 2019 9:42 PM
Onstage at the Star Theater in Portland, Oregon, Donny McCaslin and his band are whipping themselves—and the passel…
Rubén Blades collaborates with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on a recent album, Una Noche Con Rubén Blades.
Feb 4, 2019 4:18 PM
The cover art for Una Noche Con Rubén Blades, a live recording featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra backing…
Omara Portuondo performs at the Dominican Republic Jazz Festival.
Nov 26, 2018 5:07 PM
It’s not uncommon for contemporary jazz players to express the need for jazz to be taken to a new, younger generation…
Eddie Arkin (left) and Lorraine Feather frequently have collaborated on her albums, including Math Camp.
Nov 5, 2018 9:36 AM
Inspiration truly can come from anywhere. For proof of that, look no further than vocalist Lorraine Feather’s…
Vocalist Johnaye Kendrick performs and teaches in the U.S. Northwest.
Oct 24, 2018 9:33 AM
Although Johnaye Kendrick says she’s tired, there’s little sign of it to be found in her bubbly demeanor and highly…
Saxophonist Ben Wendel has released The Seasons, a cache of music initially dispensed through YouTube, and also is amid another series of videos, Standards With Friends.
Nov 2, 2018 10:52 AM
Modern musicians are faced with an interesting dilemma these days, as they struggle to be heard in a world of myriad…
Ural Thomas and The Pain are set to issue The Right Time (Tender Loving Empire), an album of all-original material, on Sept. 28.
Sep 14, 2018 10:58 AM
The timeline of soul and r&b in America has followed some interesting byways during the past decade, as the once-quiet…
Pianist Randy Weston (1926–2018) performs at the 2013 Chicago Jazz Festival.
Sep 12, 2018 4:07 PM
In 2016, when pianist Randy Weston was inducted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame, he said that he viewed his life’s…
Tomasz Stańko (1942-2018)
Aug 20, 2018 10:54 AM
Growing up in post-World War II Poland, trumpeter Tomasz Stańko’s first experienced jazz music as a kind of outsider…
New York multi-instrumentalist Ben Goldberg likes Steve Lacy as much as Steve Lacy liked baseball.
Aug 15, 2018 9:56 AM
All it took was one note for Ben Goldberg to fall in love with the music of saxophonist Steve Lacy.
At the time,…
Dan Wilensky plays tenor and soprano saxophones on his new self-released album, Good Music.
Jul 30, 2018 1:32 PM
To say that Dan Wilensky has had a diverse career is an understatement. The multi-instrumentalist has a resume that…
Gregory Agid is based in New Orleans.
Jun 14, 2018 4:56 PM
After recording spirited takes on jazz standards like “Caravan” and “In A Sentimental Mood,” as well as some…
Arturo Sandoval’s Ultimate Duets (Universal) features contributions from 13 guests across 11 tracks.
Jun 20, 2018 10:10 AM
While many other jazz artists of his age and caliber are settling into a comfortable groove as they head into their…
The Last Poets return 48 years after their debut with Understand What Black Is.
Jun 5, 2018 7:31 AM
Abiodun Oyewole and Umar bin Hassan, two of the founding members of Afrocentric jazz collective The Last Poets,…
Pianist Ben Markley’s most recent release is Basic Economy on OA2.
May 29, 2018 10:14 AM
Pianist Ben Markley has quietly been making waves in the jazz world from his home base in Denver, Colorado. That was…
Cecil Taylor—shown here performing in Cologne, Germany, in 1987—died April 5. He was 89.
Apr 13, 2018 1:44 PM
Trumpeter Eddie Gale only made one album—the legendary 1966 Unit Structures on Blue Note—with pianist Cecil Taylor,…
Anthony Braxton performs at a 1993 gig that yielded some of the material on Sextet (Parker) 1993.
Mar 29, 2018 10:28 AM
In the early ’90s, not long after he joined the faculty of Connecticut’s Wesleyan University, Anthony Braxton…
Guitarist Ryan Meagher seems to be settling into his adopted hometown, Portland, Oregon.
Mar 22, 2018 10:39 AM
Finding a few minutes in Ryan Meagher’s increasingly busy schedule to talk about his new album is a unique challenge.…
Pianist Ethan Iverson played Geri Allen’s “For John Malachi” at Portland’s Winningstad Theatre during the Biamp PDX Jazz Festival.
Feb 28, 2018 9:34 AM
In the past, the folks behind the Biamp PDX Jazz Festival have booked their annual event around a theme. In 2009, it…
Born in South Africa in 1939, Hugh Masekela spent 30 years living in exile, before returning in 1990. He lived there for the remainder of his life, maintaining a busy career.
Feb 6, 2018 1:19 PM
Hugh Masekela, a beloved multi-instrumentalist and activist from South Africa whose long career included a surprise pop…
Alicia Hall Moran and Thomas Flippin perform at Gavin Brown’s enterprise in New York.
Jan 5, 2018 10:18 AM
Almost nothing on Here Today, the second full-length from vocalist Alicia Hall Moran, comes as expected. The opening…
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