Steve Elman
2025 turned out to be a feast year for devotees of soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom. The music found on both of these releases could be thought of as exemplifying three areas Bloom has explored in depth and refined to purity.
Concerts in the past week by the Boston Symphony Orchestra with guest artist James Carter and the Orquesta Sinfónico de Puerto Rico with guest artist Luis Sanz were a cultural festival and a musical feast.
Each time I heard Sheila Jordan sing live, I remember being spellbound, embraced, dazzled, awestruck, and I know I’m not alone.
Getting to know the Composer Chair of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the first composer of color to have a comprehensive long-term relationship with the BSO.
With so many cooks, flaws were inevitable. But the effort was noble, and hearing Terence Blanchard’s beautiful trumpet sound in Symphony Hall was a transcendent experience.
In four (more) projects from 2024, jazz-oriented composers supply some of the decade’s best music so far.
Each of these four projects requires deep attention from a listener. Only two of them repay that attention with the musical rewards that bring a listener (this listener, at least) back for rehearings.
A belated appreciation of one of 2023’s most interesting releases – this Grammy-winning “compendium” may not be a strongly unified work, but its individual parts are eloquent residents of the Place Between classical and jazz.
Here is music of depth, music to hear and to think about in a Time of Troubles. But who will play it again? Who will listen? And who will buy?
Album Review/Commentary: John Scofield and Dave Holland — “Memories of Home,” and a Scofield Retrospective
If it is possible for people to express a deep personal regard for one another through musical collaboration, that is what happens between John Scofield and Dave Holland in their upcoming release.
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