Jazz
The 8-piece band Tuba Skinny is one of the most entertaining purveyors of traditional jazz around.
Given the age of the recordings and peculiarities of the venue, the sound quality is very good — certainly more than good enough given the historical value of the amazing music captured therein.
Here are two new and very different records from virtuosos of the jazz harmonica, both seasoned pros, and one of them deserving of much wider recognition.
Three guitarists — Bill Banfield, Ray Obiedo, and Lee Ritenour — release superb albums.
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.
Multi-instrumentalist Andrew Lamb, with his spiritual imperative, is clearly seeking, and achieving, incantatory power.
Despite the charges of some purists, jazz was alive in the hands of a few veterans at Newport Jazz 2024, as well as newcomers sharing their own voices in the tradition.
Made up of a Californian, a Palestinian, and a native of Cyprus, Ize Trio is about probing into the meaning of cultural differences as well as learning each other’s personal characteristics.
Any aficionado of Brazilian music and jazz will find plenty to be delighted by in these three discs.
“Popular music in America is already so formulated and dumbed-down that the fear of AI making it more trivial is probably beside the point.”
Arts Remembrance: Sonny Rollins, Jazz’s ‘Saxophone Colossus,’ Dies at 95