JazzMatters: The Best New Jazz of Winter 2024
PopMatters presents the best new jazz recordings from the winter of 2024 and reflects on the relationship of the Grammys to jazz.
mary halvorson
Mary Halvorson’s ‘Cloudward’ Is a Sophisticated Ensemble Composition
Mary Halvorson’s Cloudward is a shimmering, deeply satisfying example of a jazz sextet firing on all cylinders. Prepare to be astonished.
The 20 Best Jazz Albums for Beginners
If you’ve always wanted to get interested in jazz, jump in. Don’t approach it with fear or a sense that you don’t know enough about it. It’s just a smorgasbord of stuff to enjoy.
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The 20 Best Jazz Albums of 2022
Jazz, born of the creative brilliance of Black American culture and now wonderfully global, is passionately alive in 2022. These are the year’s best jazz albums.
JazzMatters: The Best New Jazz of Autumn 2022
PopMatters jazz critic Will Layman rounds up the best new jazz albums of recent vintage, including some thoughts about the US festival season and the undersung virtuoso Warren Wolf.
JazzMatters: The Best New Jazz of June 2022
PopMatters jazz critic Will Layman rounds up the best new jazz albums of recent vintage, including some thoughts on Paul McCartney and Ron Carter.
The 13 Best Jazz Albums of 2021
Creative, improvised music in the Black American tradition remains in a state of wonder and genre-crossing excitement in the best jazz albums of 2021.
Mary Halvorson Creates Cacophony to Aestheticize on ‘Artlessly Falling’
Mary Halvorson's Artlessly Falling is a challenging album with tracks comprised of improvisational fragments more than based on compositional theory. Halvorson uses the various elements to aestheticize the confusing world around her.
Nate Wooley Explores a Frozen Interior on ‘Columbia Icefield’
Jazz trumpeter Nate Wooley's quartet tackles a big landscape, a big reaction, and a big chill on the complex and patient new album, Columbia Icefield.
The Best Jazz of 2018
The definition of "jazz" has never been broader, and the music has never been brighter. Two PopMatters critics pick their favorites in four modern jazz categories.
Robbie Lee and Mary Halvorson Find an Old, New Weirdness on ‘Seed Triangular’
Nearly every track on Robbie Lee and Mary Halvorson's Seed Triangular surprises, and if the disc fails to cohere, the pleasure of hearing the two artists figure out what they're doing remains.
Thumbscrew Prove They Are Bigger Than Any One Star-Player on ‘Ours / Theirs’
The cooperative "new jazz" trio Thumbscrew featuring the postmodern guitar of Mary Halvorson releases two discs, one of originals and another covering jazz standards. The result is revelation. What a band.