Jazz isn’t an orthodoxy, a religion, a form of faith healing, or a tribal rite — you don’t have to be in the room with it the moment it happens to reap its benefits. When I had to scramble to …
Jazz isn’t an orthodoxy, a religion, a form of faith healing, or a tribal rite — you don’t have to be in the room with it the moment it happens to reap its benefits. When I had to scramble to …
Completing the top 10 were Ches Smith (leading a battalion of horns and fellow percussionists on the voodoo-inspired Path of Seven Colors); Artifacts, a lithe chamber group (Nicole Mitchell, flute; Tomeka Reid, cello; Mike Reed, drums) unafraid to fall into …
Ches Smith & We All Break, “Path of Seven Colors” (Pyroclastic Records): Given my comments above, it is fitting that my favorite jazz album of the year features top-flight instrumentalists and a terrific lead singer who, on some selections, performs …
Here’s a full accounting of nearly every album and box set title voted for by our contributors—listed here in descending alphabetical order by last name—as part of our 2021 Year in Review section. (About that “nearly”: A small percentage of …
Ches Smith, the New York drummer and composer equally devoted to avant-garde jazz and Haiti’s ancient drums-and-vocal-centred Vodou culture, set himself the fascinating challenge of intertwining those threads. The result was this thrilling mix of haunting folk vocals, conversational multi-instrumental …
Despite all the continuing crises in the world, great creative music flourished in 2021 as it always seems to do. There were some artists like Wadada Leo Smith and Vijay Iyer who continued their regular flow of excellent releases, other …
What caught my ear and held it in 2021? There’s no coherent formula to the dozen albums that constitute this answer — except that they all came from a place of fierce and abiding commitment. You can hear it plain …
What caught my ear and held it in 2021? There’s no coherent formula to the dozen albums that constitute this answer — except that they all came from a place of fierce and abiding commitment. You can hear it plain …
Sara Schoenbeck is one of the few improvising bassoonists of her pedigree, but she rarely makes music as a leader. When she decided a few years ago to make an album under her name, a duet format made sense: Hers …
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