Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
In Memoriam: John Hammond Jr., 1942–2026
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
On Cuong Vu 4Tet’s Change In The Air (RareNoise), its namesake trumpeter ditches electronic effects.
(Photo: Peter Purgar)Two tracks carry latent Latin rhythms, though they were not intended as nods to any genre. Bergman’s intimate “Must Concentrate” suggests a bossa nova, reinforced by Frisell’s at-first brushed, barely amplified strings and Vu’s passionately elegant solo. A tango lurks beneath the cagey melody of Poor’s “Lately,” which has a yearning folk feel.
But the mood here and elsewhere on the album is less romantic than it is curiously unsettling. Petulia Mattioli’s jacket art—irregularly shaped, unidentified particles floating under a microscopic lens—reinforces the feeling that whatever the “Change In The Air” might be, it probably isn’t good for you.
“Right now, there are so many pockets of hate,” Vu said of the current political climate, which inevitably seeped in to his consideration of the music. “People aren’t really thinking things through.”
So, maybe it’s not such a bad time to be staying home, after all. Though the 4-Tet probably will jump out a few times for live gigs, Vu mostly will be sticking around Seattle—practicing, composing, teaching and bringing up his daughter.
“I want to be a great musician,” he said. “I tell my students, it’s a lifelong process. There’s always something to learn.” DB
Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
Lettuce, from left: Eric Coomes, Adam Deitch, Ryan Zoidis, Eric Bloom, Adam Smirnoff and Nigel Hall
Feb 17, 2026 11:05 AM
They were Berklee misfits. Neither jazzy enough for the straightahead crowd at Boston’s highly prestigious College of…
“Cerebral and academic thought is a different way to approach music,” Flea says of his continuing dive into jazz. “I’ve always relied on emotion and intuition and physicality.”
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In the relatively small pantheon of certifiable rock stars venturing into the intersection of pop music and jazz, the…
New Orleans Trad Jazz Camp
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Jazz camps have exploded around the globe as a summertime tradition for working on your chops and making new friends.…
Lovers of the big band experience, clockwise from top left, John Clayton, Leigh Pilzer, Ted Nash, David Pietro and Christine Jensen.
Feb 10, 2026 11:00 AM
The popularity of big band music might have peaked in the 1930s and ’40s, but despite the many changes on the jazz…
