Jazz

Jazz Album Review: The Lynne Arriale Trio’s “Being Human” — An Expected Joy

March 11, 2024
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 The dynamics of this splendid trio album, “a response to the division and turmoil in our world,” are gracefully balanced.

Jazz Album Review: Gustavo Cortiñas’s “Live in Chicago” — The Culmination of a Decade’s Worth of Music

March 6, 2024
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Throughout this superb live album, percussionist Gustavo Cortiñas allows his fellow band members an enormous amount of space, and that is welcome because of their high level of musicianship.

Jazz Album Review: Abdullah Ibrahim’s “3” – Meditations on a Legacy

March 5, 2024
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A new release from Abdullah Ibrahim adds almost 100 minutes to a legacy of paramount importance to jazz, to world music, and to our understanding of a life lived in art.

Book Review: “Jazz With a Beat: Small Group Swing, 1940-1960” — Told With an Edge

February 27, 2024
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Shouting and honking saxes made visceral appeals to the emotions and the body. For jazz critics, this kind of theatricality degraded what should have been ‘Art.’

Concert Review: Jazz Vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant — Falling in Love Again

February 14, 2024
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Once again, here was the shock in Cécile McLorin Savant’s subversive conceptual daring.

Jazz Album Review: Richard Nelson and the Makrokosmos Orchestra — Excursions in Noir

February 2, 2024
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Composer/guitarist Richard Nelson’s followers can count on being surprised at how nimbly he can satisfy their appetites.

Film Review: The Swing Jazz of Eddie Durham — Credit Well Deserved

January 27, 2024
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I may not agree with some of the documentary’s spin, but the film gives the viewer a clear and entertaining picture of Eddie Durham’s long and important musical career.

Book Review / Jazz Essay: A Complicated Matter — Stephen Provizer’s “As Long as They Can Blow”

January 24, 2024
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This is a story about jazz that we only think we know: the book challenges our preconceptions with admirable restraint, and generously invites others to build on its work.

Jazz Album Review: The Complete Massey Hall Recordings — The Legendary Concert Never Sounded So Good

January 22, 2024
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I heartily recommend this Craft Recording, even if (perhaps especially if) you have owned the LP version from (almost) a half century ago.

Book Review: “The Soundies” — A Definitive Study of the Musical Film Shorts of the ’40s

January 13, 2024
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Author Mark Cantor has been the go-to guy for jazz film for decades: this authoritative book solidifies his position.

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