Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.
Michael Ullman
Arts Feature: Significant Jazz Experiences, 2020
The magazine’s jazz critics look back over the past year and highlight their favorites — performances, recordings, and books.
Jazz Album Review: Keith Jarrett’s “Budapest Concert” — Crystalline Endgame
My guess is that Keith Jarrett probably wasn’t satisfied with this performance. I wouldn’t change a note, a gesture, or a shading.
Jazz Appreciation: A Celebration of Charlie Parker on His 100th Birthday
Arts Fuse jazz critics offer their favorite performances from the Bird.
Jazz Album Review: Dave Pietro’s “Hypersphere” — Complexity, Made Clear
Dave Pietro is a fine, distinctive composer, an agile, precise saxophonist, and a band leader to be trusted.
Jazz EP Review: Esperanza Spalding and Fred Hersch: Live at the Village Vanguard — A Divine Duo
Yes, purchasing this EP will help out a good cause, but the musical value of this fabulous duo’s performance is priceless.
Jazz CD Review: “Both Are True” — A Big Band Chock Full of the Unexpected
What strikes this listener most is the writing’s disjointedly distinctive — sometimes unfathomable — sounds and textures, as well as the music’s unpredictable flow.
Jazz Album Review: Christian McBride’s “The Movement Revisited” — Continuing the Struggle for Civil Rights
In this disc dedicated to black heroes of the Civil Rights Movement, Christian McBride insists that everyone must be free if any of us is going to be.
Best Jazz Recordings (and Live Concerts), 2019
Pianist Kris Davis’s Diatom Ribbons and the multi-disc set Nat King Cole’s Hittin’ the Ramp: The Early Years (1936-43) are among the albums that made more than one list.
Jazz Album Reviews: The Music of Lerner and Loewe — Back in the Jazz Limelight?
The two new Arbors discs are intended to bring Lerner and Loewe back into the jazz mainstream. We will see what happens. But what wonderful music these two groups have produced!