This Craft reissue is welcome for the presence and distinctness of its sound, and for the state-of-the-art playing. Art Pepper will be going through my head for days.
Michael Ullman
Music Feature: The Best Jazz Albums of 2022
The magazine’s jazz critics look back over the past year and highlight their favorite albums.
Jazz/Film Review: “An Evening of Jazz Healing” — A Thing of Beauty and Sharing
Jazz, in particular, seemed to not merely satisfy Justin Freed’s inner cravings for beauty, but it led him outwards, to others, eventually inspiring some of the key relationships in his life.
Jazz Album Review: Jussi Reijonen’s “Three Seconds/ Kolme Toista” — “One Hell of a Journey”
The music comes out of an extended personal crisis; the compositions found here are a testament to a musician regaining his voice.
Jazz Album Review: Pianist Jason Yeager’s “Unstuck in Time: The Kurt Vonnegut Suite” — So It Goes
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.
Jazz Album Review: The Vince Guaraldi Trio — “Peanuts” and Beyond
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.
Jazz Album Review: Newvelle Records’ Renewal Collection — A Beautifully Compact Clarity
This collection, Newvelle Records’ first series release in two years, features original compositions by Elan Mehler, Michael Blake, Dave Liebman, and Nadje Noordhuis.
Jazz Album Review: Keith Jarrett’s “Bordeaux Concert” — A Varied Masterpiece
Given Keith Jarrett’s current disability, this new ECM recording is an unexpected gift to his fans.
Jazz Album Review: Enrico Rava and Fred Hersch’s Winning “The Song Is You” — Suffused With Tact and Grace
The sound of both musicians is indelible: trumpeter Enrico Rava is warm and rounded; pianist Fred Hersch, often icy, is fetching and detailed.
Jazz Album Review: “Hampton Hawes Four!” — Evidence of a Remarkable Talent
Four! is one of Hampton Hawes’ most satisfying sessions, for the variety of the repertoire and the quality of the performances.