Tag Archives: Jazz music

A late 2023 jazz omnibus review: Ahmad Jamal’s Emerald City Nights, Cal Tjader’s Catch The Groove, Chet Baker’s Blue Room, Lafayette Gilchrist’s Undaunted, and Espen Berg’s Water Fabric

The end of every year brings a flurry of music releases that’s hard to keep up with. To the usual year-end releases designed to appeal to holiday gift buyers has now been added the new tradition of archival sets being … Continue reading

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Trond Kallevåg’s Amerikabåten

Norwegian guitarist and composer Trond Kallevåg’s Amerikabåten is one of my favorite albums of 2023 – and of this still young though momentous decade. It’s his third as a leader on Hubro, following his acclaimed 2019 debut Bedehus & Hawaii, … Continue reading

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Benet McLean’s Green Park

Way back in the ’90s I started listening to Django Reinhardt because Richard Thompson named him as an influence. The more I listened to Django the more enamored I became of the playing of Stephane Grappelli, his fiddling compatriot in … Continue reading

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Jennifer Wharton’s Bonegasm’s Grit & Grace

Because it’s Halloween time, I feel bound to lead this review of the third album by Jennifer Wharton’s trombone-forward ensemble Bonegasm with her arrangement of the Mexican folk song “La Bruja” (the witch). It’s as good a place as any … Continue reading

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Chien Chien Lu’s Built In System (Live from New York)

I haven’t enjoyed any album of straight-ahead jazz this year more than I’ve enjoyed Chien Chien Lu’s Built In System. It’s an astonishingly assured sophomore release from a rising star of jazz and the vibraphone in particular. She’s one of … Continue reading

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Frank Zappa’s Zappa Picks – By Jon Fishman of Phish

Frank Zappa was an iconoclastic American musician. He surfaced in the ’60s but was decidedly non-hippie and anti-drug, and his music drew more on jazz and cabaret than the folk and acid-rock of that decade. If I had to pick … Continue reading

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Frank Zappa’s Zappa Picks – by Larry LaLonde of Primus

Frank Zappa has become legendary in death. He must be laughing as he looks down, or up, from wherever he is spending eternity. His music is still available in beautifully packaged editions, just the way he always wanted it to … Continue reading

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Wolfgang Muthspiel’s Dance of the Elders

Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel returns with the same trio that recorded the critically acclaimed Angular Blues, for another outing that seamlessly blends folk, classical and jazz. Drawing on the quieter aspects of the repertoires of bassist Scott Colley and drummer … Continue reading

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Jesper Thorn’s Dragør

It’s not often that a musician, especially a jazz musician, reveals as much about themselves as Jesper Thorn does in conjunction with his new project Dragør. The Danish bassist and composer has previously released two critically acclaimed and well received … Continue reading

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Sinikka Langeland’s Wind And Sun

Magical. That’s the first word that came to mind as I listened to Sinikka Langeland’s Wind And Sun. This is Langeland’s 11th solo album and seventh on ECM (her work has also appeared on Grappa and Heilo labels). I first … Continue reading

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