January 2025

Volume 92, Number 1

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Cover

Renee Rosnes

Takes On Brazil!

By Allen Morrison

For her latest album, Crossing Paths (Smoke Sessions), pianist/composer/bandleader Renee Rosnes has put aside composition, temporarily, to focus on an early and abiding love — Brazilian music.

Features

Steve Coleman's
Complicated Soul
By Ted Panken
Emily Remler
The Essence of Emily
By Bill Milkowski
SPECIAL SECTION
Best Albums of 2024
By DownBeat Staff

Blindfold Test

“I’ve looked to be global for a long time,” Alfredo Rodriguez told DownBeat in 2020. “I like to explore music from every part of the world.” The namesake son of, and pianist-arranger for, one of Cuba’s most popular singers, the Miami-based pianist-composer, at 38, has pre- sented his special mixture of studio precision and improvisational intu- ition on five Mack Avenue albums featuring primarily his original music.
His most recent release is Coral Way. This is his first Blindfold Test.

Keith Jarrett : “Answer Me” from Budapest Concert 2016 (ECM, 2020 )
Gonzalo Rubalcaba/Aimee Nuviola : “Besame Mucho” from Live in Marciac (5Pasion, 2022)
Sullivan Fortner : “Congolese Children” from Solo Game (Artwork, 2023)
Justin Kauflin/Thomas Fonnesbæk : “Cakewalk” from Danish Rain (Storyville, 2023)
Hank Jones : “What Did I Do To Be So Black And Blue” from Handful Of Keys (Verve, 1992)
Robert Glasper/Q-Tip/esperanza spalding : “Why We Speak” from Black Radio III (Loma Vista, 2022)