Jun 1, 2018 9:00 AM
David Virelles Seeks Out a Certain Spirit
It was a “one-off” from New York. Pianist David Virelles’ ensemble was in Kalamazoo, Michigan, performing at…
Jun 1, 2018 9:00 AM
It was a “one-off” from New York. Pianist David Virelles’ ensemble was in Kalamazoo, Michigan, performing at…
The Last Poets return 48 years after their debut with Understand What Black Is.
May 30, 2018 2:50 PM
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 9:50 AM
Pianist Ben Markley has quietly been making waves in the jazz world from his home base in Denver, Colorado. That was…
Jason Stein’s Locksmith Isidore is issuing its fourth album, After Caroline, on Northern Spy Records.
May 25, 2018 9:00 AM
Jason Stein finally has reached his comfort zone.
Creatively, the Chicago bass clarinetist is a willing sideman,…
Kaspar Rast (left), Nik Bärtsch, Sha and Thomy Jordi recorded Awase for the ECM imprint.
May 24, 2018 9:00 AM
The Swiss pianist and composer Nik Bärtsch is best known for Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin, an electric group that plays what…
Maria Pia De Vito’s embrace of the Portuguese language has resulted in the singer making connections between seemingly disparate musical traditions.
May 23, 2018 9:00 AM
Singer Maria Pia De Vito folds her facility for more than a dozen languages into her recordings.
Her latest album,…
During the 1960s and 1970s, multi-instrumentalist Hailu Mergia was a star in Ethiopia as a member of the Walias Band.
May 21, 2018 9:10 AM
Hailu Mergia is hardly a household name. Still, he’s making one of the grandest and most inspiring comebacks in…
Simba Baumgartner performs May 5 at Town Hall in New York during the 12th Django A GoGo.
May 18, 2018 11:01 AM
In the span of five days in May, two major Django Reinhardt tributes took place in Manhattan, drawing hordes of…
Chicago pianist Charles Joseph Smith says War Of The Martian Ghosts, which he began composing in the ’90s, was inspired by saxophonist Caroline Davis, the film Mars Attacks! and techniques of minimalist composers.
May 18, 2018 9:24 AM
Pianist Charles Joseph Smith always has used music to challenge limitations. When this world offered him only scant…
Emma-Jean Thackray began her life as a musician in a Yorkshire brass band.
May 17, 2018 9:20 AM
Emma-Jean Thackray built her new record, Ley Lines, in the upstairs studio of her cozy and colorful South London flat,…
