This is state-of-the-art modern jazz with an up-and-coming lead soloist, well-chosen guests, and a dream rhythm section.
Jazz
Jazz Album Review: Valuable Blasts from the Past — Bill Evans and Roy Hargrove & Mulgrew Miller
Two previously unreleased archival recordings take us on trips into the past well worth taking.
Jazz Album Review: “Mingus at Carnegie Hall” — A Deluxe Edition of a Wondrous Evening
This re-release features 72 minutes of unreleased music. Nearly every track on the two-hour set pushes the 20-minute range, with results more exhilarating than exhausting.
Arts Reconsideration: The 1971 Project — Celebrating a Great Year in Music (July Entry)
Arts Fuse writers continue their countdown of great music celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and this month’s list includes Little Feat, Jonathan Edwards, Hot Tuna, The Red Detachment of Women, and Jimmy Witherspoon & Eric Burdon.
Jazz Album Review: Vince Mendoza’s “Freedom Over Everything”
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.
Jazz Album Review: Sarah Wilson’s “Kaleidoscope” — Unrelievedly Optimistic
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.
Jazz Album Reviews: William Parker — Blowing Open the Doors of Perception
William Parker, the 69-year-old composer, multi-instrumentalist, author, and all-around presence on the progressive jazz scene churns out challenging music with prolific abandon.
Jazz Album Review: John McLaughlin’s “Liberation Time” — Driven by the Spirit
To my ears, veteran guitarist John McLaughlin is both a jazz and a rock player, and more besides.
Jazz Album Review: “Merci Miles! Live at Vienne” — Of Historic as well as Musical Value
Davis solos less on Merci Miles than I wish he had, but he plays with precision, taste, and expression.
Jazz Album Review: Barry Altschul’s 3Dom Factor — “Long Tall Sunshine”
Long Tall Sunshine pulls off a delightful paradox: it combines in-your-face vigor with subtlety, probing free improvisations with appealing compositions.