Jazz
The triple-threat, multi-genre members of the newly formed vocal trio Sonica are creating inspiring and engaging music across multiple musical boundaries.
The music comes out of an extended personal crisis; the compositions found here are a testament to a musician regaining his voice.
I put Joni Mitchell on a short list of the most remarkable pop music artists of the ’60s and early ’70s. Longevity of excellence isn’t the point here, just peak incandescence.
The advantage to listening to the recorded Unstuck in Time: The Kurt Vonnegut Suite is that on disc pianist Jason Yeager writes beautifully for septet: the textures he evokes in his arrangements are curiously varied and invariably moving.
Vince Guaraldi isn’t the heaviest of jazz pianists: he played at a time when McCoy Tyner and Bill Evans were omnipresent. But his tunes, his gently humanist approach to music, meant that he reached listeners that others couldn’t or didn’t.
This collection, Newvelle Records’ first series release in two years, features original compositions by Elan Mehler, Michael Blake, Dave Liebman, and Nadje Noordhuis.
Chant For Our Planet is a great recording full of exciting ensemble playing, with lots of tasty solos and, if you want to listen in that way, an important theme that expresses deep concern for the state of our environment.
This three-disc set provides a fascinating look behind the curtain at one of the great bandleaders in jazz history putting together his groups, seeing what they can do from multiple angles, and building a new musical concept from scratch.
Given Keith Jarrett’s current disability, this new ECM recording is an unexpected gift to his fans.
Get out there and hear some live music. It’s the best gift you can give to your ears.
Arts Remembrance: Sonny Rollins, Jazz’s ‘Saxophone Colossus,’ Dies at 95