Ten years ago, Esperanza Spalding reached for greater creative accomplishment while still holding an audience on Radio Music Society. It was a jazz record that got popular without pandering.
JazzMatters is a new monthly round-up of the best new jazz and creative music. March 2022 features Cécile McLorin Salvant, Melissa Aldana, and Ryan Keberle.
Rising star alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins pushes into revelation with his quartet and guests, making modern jazz at a peak of drama on The 7th Hand.
More than 50 years since the Grateful Dead’s debut, how is it imaginable that they are still touring and the “jam band” scene has mushroomed? This is where it started.
OGJB are four out-jazz OGs get together for a sophomore outing, sounding a little like “O” (Ornette Coleman) and a whole lot like themselves.
Jazz pranksters Mostly Other People Do the Killing return as an acoustic piano trio with electronics, peddling tuneful tales of destruction on Disasters Vol. 1.
The sweet-and-sour combinations of sounds and personalities on John Hébert’s Sounds of Love are of the moment and reach back a half-century to remind of a treasure.
On Live at the Village Vanguard Volume II, Steve Coleman and Five Elements blend New Jazz and hip-hop. The sound is liquid and flowing, tidal and a tidal wave.
For the second time, one of the best jazz trombonists, Joe Fiedler tackles one of our great treasures troves of tunes: the Sesame Street catalog.
Johnathon Blake’s Blue Note debut, Homeward Bound, takes soulful jazz from the past, adds the complexity of the present with intelligence and adventure.
The second in a series of four, Good Time Music finds Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra having fun with music that makes you feel great.
A culture that digs the surface level in art is understandable. But a culture that prizes schtick and stunt and a pretty face over substance is problematic.
