ECM

Jazz Album Review: Guitarist John Scofield — Quality Time with “Uncle John’s Band”

October 22, 2023
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A stirring trio date featuring John Scofield on guitar with Vicente Archer on bass and Bill Stewart on drums.

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Jazz Album Reviews: Two Trios That Venture Far and Away

May 16, 2023
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Two new releases, led respectively by a saxophonist and a bassist, add to the growing mystique of trios in contemporary jazz.

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January Short Fuses — Materia Critica

January 3, 2023
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Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.

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Jazz Album Review: Keith Jarrett’s “Bordeaux Concert” — A Varied Masterpiece

September 28, 2022
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Given Keith Jarrett’s current disability, this new ECM recording is an unexpected gift to his fans.

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Jazz Album Review: Enrico Rava and Fred Hersch’s Winning “The Song Is You” — Suffused With Tact and Grace

August 29, 2022
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The sound of both musicians is indelible: trumpeter Enrico Rava is warm and rounded; pianist Fred Hersch, often icy, is fetching and detailed.

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Jazz Album Review: Barre Phillips and György Kurtág Jr. Go “Face à Face”

August 18, 2022
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To my ears, these beautifully recorded improvisations — with their unique sequences of tones and subtle interactions — are never less than intriguing.

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Jazz Album Review: Avishai Cohen’s “Naked Truth” — Meditating on the Last Things

February 18, 2022
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To this listener, the quartet generates a drama of gradual enlightenment, as if extroversion signified some sort of illumination.

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Jazz Album Reviews: Andrew Cyrille and Amir ElSaffar — Two Restless Spirits

September 3, 2021
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It might seem a stretch to pair drummer Andrew Cyrille’s disc with composer/trumpeter Amir ElSaffar’s. But both spent time under the tutelage of the redoubtable Cecil Taylor, and it shows.

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Jazz Album Reviews: James Brandon Lewis and Vijay Iyer — Discoveries and Searches

May 4, 2021
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New discs from James Brandon Lewis and Vijay Iyer merit serious attention from admirers of improvised music.

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Arts Remembrance: At 40, Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays’s “As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls” Still Enthralls

April 23, 2021
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Nothing that guitarist Pat Metheny had done previously hinted at this sprawling 1981 masterpiece.

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