JazzMatters: The Best Jazz of March-May 2024
PopMatters presents the best new jazz recordings from March to May 2024 in the realm of piano jazz. We also reflect on the legacy of the late David Sanborn.
matthew shipp
JazzMatters: The Best New Jazz of Autumn 2023
Our jazz columnist chooses the best new jazz albums of Autumn 2023 while reflecting on a new documentary, Wayne Shorter: Zero Gravity.
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The 17 Best Jazz Albums of 2023
Some of it is conventionally beautiful and some thrills by rubbing against the edges of tonality. But all of the best jazz of 2023 serves a vision.
JazzMatters: The Best New Jazz of January 2023
Will Layman rounds up the best new jazz albums and cocoons with jazz documentaries, Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues and Ron Carter: Finding the Right Notes.
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.
As East Axis, Shipp, Lowe, Cleaver, and Ray Play Free Jazz Together
Matthew Shipp, Allen Lowe, Gerald Cleaver, and Kevin Ray are East Axis, a free improvising jazz band that never sound harsh or lost on Cool with That.
Pianist Matthew Shipp Accidentally Makes an Introspective Album with ‘Codebreaker’
Codebreaker is the sound of jazz pianist Matthew Shipp gliding on autopilot, letting his subconscious do the talking.
Whit Dickey Reunites Old Trio to Create Dizzyingly Modern Sounds
Whit Dickey, William Parker, and Matthew Shipp push, pull, and roll their weight around in equal measure, making Village Mothership as unique as it is difficult.
Unbounded Saxophone That Sings: The Ivo Perelman Trio
Free improvising saxophonist Ivo Perelman, pianist Matthew Shipp, and drummer Whit Dickey spin listenable joy out of thin air. Jazz originality doesn’t have to be forbidding.
20 Jazz Albums You Might Have Missed in 2020
During the new-year season of best-of-the-year lists, I find myself looking backward—even at a year as difficult as 2020. Time was dilated—I thought I had too much of it but, as usual, there was too little for all the great music.
The 20 Best Jazz Albums of 2020
Here are six of the key jazz trends of the last 20 years, defined by 20 of the best 2020 recordings that made us see, again, why this music is in midst of such a thrilling patch of creativity.
The 60 Best Albums of 2020
Despite a global pandemic, an economic crash, and the shut-down of international touring, 2020 bestowed an embarrassment of musical riches upon us.