Jazz
This documentary about John Coltrane serves up skillful, sensitive storytelling and an appropriate sense of reverence.
You could sometimes be halfway into a Bad Plus show before hearing anything like a jazz chord from pianist Ethan Iverson.
Toninho Horta’s musical signature is distinctive: complex harmonies, subtle but masterful guitar work, and gentle, plaintive vocals.
Chase’s iconoclastic genre-crossing oratorio proceeds from dark to light, and wins its struggle for transcendence.
That’s why Wadada Leo Smith’s musical visions are so miraculous: there’s an impression of drift, yet they rarely meander.
Both Cowboys and Frenchmen and Mark Zaleski Band “groove, interact, and emote.”
In two new releases, Jane Ira Bloom and Brian Carpenter complete their work on self-defined projects that are tonics for a time of trouble.
The disc’s assemblage of young and old pianists pays off — Handful of Keys is one of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s better efforts.
Commentary: Best Jazz (and Other) Recordings of 2017
The range of recordings issued this year was remarkable, both in terms of their instrumentation and their artistic inspiration.
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