Michael Ullman

Jazz Album Review: “2 Blues for Cecil” — Beautifully Out of the Box

January 1, 2022
Posted in , , ,

The trio shares Cecil Taylor’s love of rational freedom and adventure, but it doesn’t try to reproduce the pianist’s rip-roaring intensity.

Read More

Jazz Album Review: Christian McBride & Inside Straight: Live at the Village Vanguard

November 25, 2021
Posted in , , ,

As serious a musician as he is, and as virtuosic as he can be, the naturally extroverted Christian McBride knows how to entertain, a talent generously evident in this live performance.

Read More

Jazz Album Review: Adam O’Farrill’s “Visions of Your Other” — Humanizing the Mechanical

November 8, 2021
Posted in , , ,

I find Visions of Your Other exciting. It is beautifully recorded: these are four musicians who care about their sound.

Read More

Jazz Album Review: A Solo Excursion by Master Pianist Edward Simon

October 28, 2021
Posted in , ,

One of pianist Edward Simon’s strengths is his ability to be simultaneously romantic and clear-headed, precise and suggestive. 

Read More

Jazz Album Review: “Chick Corea Akoustic Band Live” — A High-Spirited Reunion

September 15, 2021
Posted in , , ,

A judicious mix of jazz classics, standards, and Corea compositions, Live is a blast.

Read More

Jazz Album Review: “Relief: A Benefit for the Jazz Foundation of America’s Musicians’ Emergency Fund”

August 18, 2021
Posted in , ,

There’s a pleasing variety in this collection, which serves up valuable music that might not have otherwise been heard.

Read More

Jazz Album Review: Vince Mendoza’s “Freedom Over Everything”

July 14, 2021
Posted in , , ,

There’s a contrast here, an understandable impatience with current events placed alongside belief in MLK’s vision of the long arc of the moral universe. Neither cancels the other.

Read More

Jazz Album Review: Sarah Wilson’s “Kaleidoscope” — Unrelievedly Optimistic

July 12, 2021
Posted in , , ,

On this disc, trumpeter, singer, and composer Sarah Wilson serves up music that is warm, a little funny at times, and very well played in an unassuming manner.

Read More

Jazz Album Review: John McLaughlin’s “Liberation Time” — Driven by the Spirit

July 4, 2021
Posted in , , ,

To my ears, veteran guitarist John McLaughlin is both a jazz and a rock player, and more besides.

Read More

Jazz Album Review: Barry Altschul’s 3Dom Factor — “Long Tall Sunshine”

June 25, 2021
Posted in , , ,

Long Tall Sunshine pulls off a delightful paradox: it combines in-your-face vigor with subtlety, probing free improvisations with appealing compositions.

Read More

Recent Posts