Jazz

Book Review: Toxic Completism — Rescuing Jazz from the Algorithm in “Listening to Prestige”

March 15, 2026
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“Listening to Prestige” can be read as a kind of post-literate anti-Spotify. And, lo and behold, it’s true jazz history.

Jazz Concert Reviews: Jamie Baum Quintet and Miguel Zenón Quartet

March 11, 2026
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Reviews of live performances by bands led by flutist and composer Jamie Baum and saxophonist Miguel Zenón.

Jazz Concert Review: Kris Davis Trio at Arrow Street Arts — Bold, Inventive, and Fearlessly Fluid

March 9, 2026
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Kris Davis appeared with her current trio of acoustic bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Johnathan Blake, a simpatico unit that clearly responds to both the pianist’s genre-pushing forms and spontaneous sense of adventure. 

Jazz Album Reviews: A Roundup of Recent Recordings

March 7, 2026
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Looks at new music from Joel Ross, Al Foster, John Vanore & Abstract Truth, Tomeka Reid Quartet, and John Ellis & Double Wide.

Book Review: The Look of the Sound — The Album Art of Prestige Records

February 19, 2026
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Along with its slew of images — photos, sketches, and ephemera as well as album covers — WAIL offers what amounts to a compelling oral history of the mid-century explosion, not only of recorded jazz but of graphic design and, by extension, a burgeoning New York cultural scene.

Jazz Album Review: “American Crow” — Maria Schneider’s Urgent Jazz EP Crows Against Big Tech

February 17, 2026
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Composer and bandleader Maria Schneider is a storyteller, and that’s the best way to approach her music for the first time. You listen like you read a short story, with your full attention, and your imagination synced with all of your senses.

Musician Interview: George Steel on Launching a New Thursday-night Series at the Gardner Museum with Steve Reich’s landmark “Music for 18 Musicians”

February 17, 2026
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“I would say Music for 18  Musicians was probably the most influential piece of American concert music of the last quarter of the 20th century. You could conceivably stretch that to the most influential piece of American concert music since it was written.”

Jazz Album Review: Freedom Within Structure — Dave Douglas’s Bold and Playful “Four Freedoms”

February 6, 2026
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The members of Dave Douglas’ quartet members are alertly sensitive to each other and unfailingly intelligent in their choices, which makes them fun to hear.

Music Feature: A Folk Music Business Convention — “An Antidote To America”

February 5, 2026
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The Folk Alliance International Conference is a business conference. But because the business is folk music, the event has become nothing less than a cultural celebration.

Jazz Album Reviews: A Big Band Bonanza from Canada’s Cellar Music Group

February 3, 2026
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Two debut big band albums, one traditional and one progressive, are blowing in hot in the dead of winter.

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