Michael Ullman
To my ears, veteran guitarist John McLaughlin is both a jazz and a rock player, and more besides.
Long Tall Sunshine pulls off a delightful paradox: it combines in-your-face vigor with subtlety, probing free improvisations with appealing compositions.
Vocalist Anaïs Reno and Mark Masters and his big band supply compelling homages to the brilliance of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.
Ivo Perelman and Matthew Shipp’s duets will draw in and fascinate listeners who are open to intelligent, virtuosic, and intimate improvisations, simultaneously logical and free.
Descriptions of Anna Webber’s music might make it seem intimidating. It is not — her compositions are stirring, amusing, and delightful, particularly in the shell games they play with variety and coherence.
To my ears, the pieces in Entendre are fascinating, if not particularly funky.
It’s easy to single out each of these musicians, but listeners will hear the three as nearly one, which is surely what this trinity intended.
So Miguel Zenón, who on saxophone has the facility of a bebopper, which he uses discreetly, is here a singer as well as an instrumentalist.
This set proves Monty Alexander a more varied pianist than one might have thought. The Ellis Marsalis album is a final gift from one of America’s treasures.
Three recordings that testify to the chameleonic power of the (usually) avant-garde pianist Matthew Shipp.
Classical Music Commentary: Boston’s Lost Opportunity — How the BSO Board Chose Charles Munch over Leonard Bernstein