Andy Robson, Avishai Cohen (t) and Yonathan Avishai (p). Universal Music Group said it removed music by Drake, Pop Smoke and others from the streaming app Triller after the company stopped paying UMG artists. Harmony in music, harmony of the soul, harmony in community: Frisell evokes it all on his Blue Note debut. Rec. She’s backed by a band that at various points includes turntablist Val Jeanty, guitarist Nels Cline, bassist Esperanza Spalding (heard only as a vocalist) and drummer Terri Lynn Carrington, who provides a steady yet supple anchor to a record that’s as unpredictable as it is approachable. By Carl Wilson. Supreme Court rules California churches may open despite the pandemic. Andy Robson, ➜ Read our Yazz Ahmed interview: “Music has helped me identify who I am”, Matana Roberts (as, cl, v), Hannah Marcus (g, acc, fiddle, v), Sam Shalabi (g, oud, v), Nicholas Coloia (b, v), Ryan Sawyer (d, vib, jaw harp, bells, v), Steve Swell (tb, v), Ryan White (vib), Thierry Amar, Nadia Moss, Jessica Moss and Ian Haysksy (v). The Best Jazz Albums of 2019. If you played this spaciously exploratory album without investigating its origins, you might disrespectfully ponder if Joe Lovano had moved into sound-of-silence ECM territory as an audience-building variant on his more familiar avant-bop and world-musical agendas. 30-31 October 2018. Antonio Sánchez, Lines in the Sand (Cam Jazz) Release date: January 25. Somewhat of a follow-up to his acclaimed 1991 album, Heart of the Bass, which featured acoustic bass and 6-string in an orchestral setting, Soul of the Bass is centered around solo melodic and … Kevin Le Gendre, ➜ Read our Michael Janisch interview: “People have become so tribal, which is what humans do anyway. Here we take a look at 10 favorite jazz vocals albums in 2019 that stood out: Tierney Sutton Band – ScreenPlay. Enrico Rava, the 80-year-old Italian trumpet star whose expeditions include Miles-infused post-bop, free-jazz with Steve Lacy, and a few personal takes on Italian opera besides, toured with Joe Lovano in November 2018 – this terrific live recording catches their Rome concert. St. Judes Church, Grenfell Tower’s stubborn symbol of murderous social schism stands accusingly at the record’s heart, as ‘Wake (for Grenfell)’ turns a Langston Hughes line into a mournful work-song chant, pointedly soured by Kinoshi’s tart alto tone. Here, he proves himself as a singular voice in his own right, teaming with a nimble quartet on a lushly drawn record full of empathetic interplay that carries echoes of vibes master Bobby Hutcherson while still reaching toward new ground. But you can bet he’ll be telling a story. Resulting in their 9th Grammy Nomination for Best Jazz Vocals. Mike Flynn As well as singularly beautiful versions of the Ivan Lins classic, ‘Love Dance’, vibist Joe Locke’s Bobby Hutcherson tribute ‘A Little More Each Day’ and the Gordon Jenkins/Johnny Mercer standard, ‘P.S I Love You’, there are deeply swinging takes on Curtis Lewis’s ‘The Great City’ and Roc Hillman’s ‘Come Runnin’ (Martin’s own homages to Shirley Horn and Lena Horne respectively), there are stellar re-imaginings of Joni Mitchell’s ‘You Dream Flat Tires’, Michael Franks’ ‘Rainy Night in Tokyo’, plus John Surman and Karin Krog’s enchantingly folk-like ‘Cherry Tree Song’. Drawing on material old and new, the group makes a strong, uplifting statement for artistic conviction as well as social and political justice, as made explicitly clear by Moor Mother’s impassioned, rabble-rousing call for resistance and victory on the title-track. ) 2021 A cornucopia of delights. Photo illustration by Slate. Classic indeed: but nary a note of nostalgia. When Roberts confides that “memory is a most unusual thing”, she is really homing in on the heart and soul of the project, and it is to her credit that the complexity of the subject matter has been matched by the intricacy of the composing and arranging. Regardless of the inspiration that Roberts has drawn from the location, her treatment of the subject maintains the high standards set by the previous work. But Finding Gabriel revolves around the human ‘voice’: whether sampled, spoken usually by Mehldau, or as wordless vocal, in which the chorus effect is haunting, ethereal but also from a lighter, easy-listening background, informed by Metheny and Bacharach. This follow-up to Simcock’s Mercury Prize-shortlisted 2011 ACT debut, the brilliant Good Days At Schloss Elmau, was penned primarily on the road while the pianist was touring the world as part of the Pat Metheny Quartet. Though Cassie Kinoshi is fully aware of 1960s American civil rights suites such as her alto icon Jackie McLean’s It’s Time!, they didn’t directly influence this debut, with its distinctly British roots and concerns. London-based singer, violinist and pianist Alice Zawadzki gifts us a second album both tender in spirit and defiantly anti-genre, hooking her all-embracing vision to a questing musical curiosity and the freedom inherent in jazz. “Abuse of any kind has no place in any relationship,” Dita Von Teese, burlesque entertainer and Marilyn Manson’s ex-wife, wrote in a statement Wednesday. If ‘Before The Elegant Hour’ (for Brad Mehldau) possesses a rough-hewn grandeur, the brief ‘You’re My You’ (dedicated to Simcock’s first jazz piano teacher, Les Chisnall) is a touching jazz chorale, while ‘Inveraray Air’ (for Russell Ferrante) is marked by a profound lyricism and a dramatic textural stripping away at the close. French band Phoenix finds all the right grooves for ‘On the Rocks’. ... David Torn’s on-and-off discography for the eclectic German imprint ECM goes back some 35 years, with his 1984 solo album Best Laid Plans setting the stage for a fairly lengthy career in music and film. Nor is this all Frisell: ‘Red River Valley’ is done a capella; some treatments are straightahead, and are the more emotionally direct for that: ‘God’s Wing’ed Horse’ is breathtakingly beautiful, while others, like the climactic ‘Where Have All the Flowers Gone’ is re-visioned deep, dead and blue, with no escape from the minimalist chording. The composer Steve Lehman at Zankel Hall on April 6, 2018. After all, last year revealed the first set of unheard John Coltrane music in decades. June/July 2016. Well, as you ask, it’s rich, sonorous, big, melodic, puts a kick in your heels and a smile on your face. Dec. 11, 2019 … Kevin Le Gendre, Alice Zawadzki (v, vn, p, ky), Fred Thomas (p, d, ky, perc, clo, db), Rob Luft (g), Misha Mullov-Abbado (db), Hyelim Kim (taegum), Simmy Singh (vn), Laura Senior, Lucy Nolan (vla) and Peggy Nolan (clo). Rava’s ‘Interiors’ is a slowly swaying, film-noirish opener in which the trumpeter accelerates from a pure-toned theme to fast improv ascents paced by long turning notes – shadowed by Lovano’s plaintively eloquent tenor – before the band begins veering between punchy grooves and free-floating passages. The best ballad playing on the album is in Revis’s composition ‘Nilaste’ which seems to evoke heartbreak and beauty at the same time. In these recordings, familiar instruments extended their capacity for taking listeners to unexpected places while providing a timeless reminder that the boldest creative expression sounds like freedom — and, as such, resistance. If your back catalogue with Ekaya includes such essential albums as The Mountain and Water From An Ancient Well, then the excellence of your own work makes you a hard act to follow. And the high point is a return to another piece from the earlier days of Ekaya, ‘Song for Sathima’. How it’s thriving amid Trump’s attempted ban, Even as COVID-19 surges, Triller planned a red carpet party in a Hollywood Hills mansion. Joe Pesci, Etienne Charles, and Michele Rosewoman. Nicole Mitchell (f, piccolo, b f), Tomeka Reid (c), Dudu Kouaté, Enoch Williams, Tito Sompa (perc), Moor Mother, Christina Wheeler (v, poetry) and Stephen Rush (cond). Rec. Dedicated to Egberto Gismonti, the concluding three-movement, ‘Many Worlds Away’, ranges from the hieratic to the rhapsodic to the ecstatic. Nérija masterfully weaves early Blue Note era-inspired horn section lines with complex dance rhythms and newcomer Shirley Tetteh’s absolutely stunning guitar work. Dulwich Road, There are some fine solos on offer, particularly from Abassi and O’Gallagher, but this is first and foremost an ensemble offering impressively helmed by a bandleader who is in the ascendant. With 10 points awarded to No.1 and one point awarded to No.10 in each writer’s chart – we’ve done the maths so you can just enjoy the music! Tomeka Reid Quartet, from left: Tomeka Reid, Tomas Fujiwara, Mary Halvorson and Jason Roebke. Rec. But on ‘Barbara’, dedicated to Barbara Thompson’s ongoing creativity despite her chronic illness, there are jazz rock themes, a playing with tempo and rhythms that echo yet develop Thompson’s work over the decades. ‘Gilmore Girls’ creator Amy Sherman-Palladino on Carole King: ‘I’m grateful to her forever’. ‘Drivers License’ singer Olivia Rodrigo performed her hit debut single live for the first time on ‘The Tonight Show.’ Try not to get chills. As with those projects, Rymden also takes its cue more from rock than jazz, even though it retains a jazz sensibility. THE BEST 30 JAZZ ALBUMS OF 2019. Rec. With Terrill’s drums and special British guest Alec Dankworth’s bass setting out the introductory pattern for ‘Jabula’, followed by piano interjections and then a conversation with the horns, this is music as joyous and extrovert as anything in Ibrahim’s long list of recordings. November 2018. A highlight is ‘Make It All Go Away’, an evocative nod to rock psychedelia and dominated by two exceptional guest vocalists: Kurt Elling improvises gliding horn-like lines and in-demand singer-songwriter Becca Stevens’ soaring vocal is not unlike Cocteau Twins’ Liz Frazer. Mark Allen Group Naturally, it helps to have Petra Haden on board. The three of them (plus producer Manfred Eicher) have boldly adopted a repertoire rooted in 12-tone serial forms, to produce what the saxophonist calls, “some of the most intimate and personal music I’ve recorded so far”. Jazzwise Magazine, Experimental; Jazz; by: Daniel Felsenthal; January 19 2021. Avishai Cohen’s ballad ‘The Opening’ has a Bill-Evans-meets-Abdullah-Ibrahim piano intro and a wistful, tone-shifting melody, and Coltrane’s ‘Crescent’ is a trumpet soliloquy of soft ascents, octave-hopping strides and airy top notes. It’s quite scary at times, and that’s what Worlds Collide is about”, Alice Zawadzki: “This pain of Spring often comes from the way we lay ourselves on the line again and again, especially in love”, Yazz Ahmed interview: “Music has helped me identify who I am”, Abdullah Ibrahim interview: "In our music there’s no such thing as a mistake and, actually, maybe in life itself there’s no such thing as a mistake either ", Double-bassist Thomas Morgan: “For me music has always been the most natural and the deepest way to share something with people”, Gwilym Simcock: “I want to have an emotional experience when I listen to music. Matana Roberts, “Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis” (Constellation)“I am a child of the wind,” Roberts intones at various points on the latest installment of her exploration of personal and social history began in 2011. date not stated. The rebirth of cool has seen a massive spike in young jazz audiences, with Spotify revealing that 40% of jazz listening is done by people under 30.This is all thanks to the daring, urgent, and often politically minded genius of the artists below. Universal Music Group removes music from streaming app Triller over pay dispute. Ten original, wildly different tunes are buoyed by a band of young London Turks including guitarist Rob Luft and double-bassist Misha Mullov-Abbado, who play, tease and solo their way through the likes of the eponymous opener, in which Zawadzki’s clarion voice tells of regeneration and rebirth; a bittersweet, time-bending ballad, ‘Keeper’, and a long psychedelic instrumental suitably titled ‘Twisty Moon’. Stop signs! If anything, Martin’s reworking of Pat Metheny’s ‘Timeline’, for which she has penned new lyrics, is even more spectacular, with her control of the rapid-fire melodic line a thing of wonder. So he avoids facile problem-solving or jumping on knee-jerk political bandwagons. 5. Daily reviews of every important album in music. Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised that Frisell takes this fresh start as an opportunity to bring together his love of American folk and the Great American Songbook, but rarely has even he harmonised them so profoundly. helped give hip-hop a visual presence, dies at 59. 1. Alyn Shipton, Chick Corea (p), Christian McBride (b) and Brian Blade (d). One t… Browse through and check out what music our editors have been listening to this year. Elsewhere, to hear Martin’s fine re-workings of 1970s and 1980s UK/US pop rock, head straight for ‘I’m Not In Love’ and ‘Broken Wings’, the latter lit up by a coruscating solo from Sjöstedt. 2018. Weather reports were a jazz … 6. The year in entertainment: 2019’s best movies, music, TV shows, games and more. “If this isn’t a candidate for record of the year from many reviewers, I’ll be very surprised…” so began Alyn Shipton’s prescient five-star review of the Branford Marsalis Quartet's The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul in the April issue of Jazzwise, and what do you know, as the scores rolled in, so it proved to be. Tired of “Blinding Lights”? 2019’s best funk albums are here! And the record is in some ways more satisfying than the band can occasionally be in concert, where Ibrahim sometimes cuts off tunes too soon, or if there’s not enough feedback from the crowd, seem slightly sterile. Grant Green. I want it to move me”, Abdullah Ibrahim (p), Andrae Murchison (tb), Cleave Guyton, Lance Bryant, Marshall McDonald (reeds), Adam Glasser (hca), Noah Jackson, (v, b), Alec Dankworth (b) and Will Terrill (d). But space must be made for Lehman’s taut, immediately recognizable sound, regardless of its source material, which here takes on new dimension with the addition of like-minded pianist Craig Taborn. Rec. With her core quintet, in which guitarist-fiddler Hannah Marcus stands out, being joined by an array of guests that also includes four vocalists, the music, in lesser hands, could easily have become overblown if not diffuse. In a rebuke to Newsom, Supreme Court says California’s ban on indoor worship violates the Constitution’s protection of the free exercise of religion. Here are the 25 best contemporary jazz albums of the 2010s. Roberts’ ability to treat such demanding, multi-layered material with a clear focus is a testament to the strength of her original vision and skill as a narrator. to DaBaby's 'Baby on Baby.' This L.A.-based app aims to be the new TikTok. But Mehldau tackles it from an interesting alternative perspective, honed from several years absorbing religious texts. We’ll all tip our hat to that: but what’s the music like? to its predecessor—on the surface it seems hard to compete with 12 months of obvious ringers. Diatom Ribbons, by Kris Davis (center) was selected as the No. A slow cook of a release, its roots deep in a 2015 concert piece commissioned by Tomorrow’s Warriors with support from PRS Women Make Music, Polyhymnia is a celebratory paean to the brave, the gentle, those that won’t back down. ‘Pitter Patter’ has echoes of Chick Corea’s Return to Forever, but with none of the pyrotechnics, while the farewell ballad ‘Homegrown’ flickers out with a melancholic earworm worthy of EST. There’s no sterility here, and no sense of anything being curtailed. How a Southern Californian punk rock song became an Orange County hockey anthem. ‘Cianna’, also by Calderazzo, is slowish, but has one of those themes you feel you’ve heard before, it so insidiously becomes an earworm, with Branford on tenor this time. date not stated. Kevin Le Gendre, Brad Mehldau (p, OB-6 Polyphonic syn, Therevox, Moog little Phatty syn, v, d, celeste, mellotron, B-3, perc), Mark Guiliana (d, el d), Becca Stevens, Gabriel Kahane, Kurt Elling (v), Ambrose Akinmusire (t), Michael Thomas (fl, as), Charles Pillow (ss, as, bcl), Joel Frahm (ts), Chris Cheek (ts, bs), Sara Caswell (vn), Lois Martin (vla, d, glock, prog), Noah Hoffeld (clo) and Aaron Nevezie (Korg Kaoss pad). John Fordham, Bugge Wesseltoft (p, ky), Dan Berglund (b) and Magnus Öström (d). Neither are we, so to prep for The Weeknd’s Super Bowl halftime show, we offer this ranked list of every song from his new best-of. Castaldi’s bells-and-gongs soundscape for Lovano’s echoing first tenor entry on ‘One Time In’ presents the saxophonist with a wealth of tonal temptations. Chicago Tribune | Dec 03, 2019 at 8:00 AM . It’s grounded, harks back to the tradition, looks forward to new ideas, yet has a confident perfection that is extremely rare. Dedicated to Billy Childs, the three-movement album opener ‘Beautiful Is Our Moment’ features some of Simcock’s most exuberant, joyous writing, with its elegiac coda providing the final surprise. Rec. Harrison’s ‘Float, Flitter, Flutter’ allows Collins to show his Hubbard-like inclinations and Gillard to solo affectingly, the hauntingly, hymn-like ‘Look Ahead’ written by Collins for his son quite sublime. Now comes the much-requested second, a double-album which discreetly sidesteps mentioning recording dates but which appears to have been drawn from various performances with the same partners in the US and Europe since late 2010. If this isn’t a candidate for record of the year from many reviewers, I’ll be very surprised. Selwyn Harris, ➜ Read our Brad Mehldau interview: “Playing written music, even my own, is completely not in my comfort zone, and might never be”, Claire Martin (v), Martin Sjöstedt (p), Niklas Fernqvist (b) and Daniel Fredriksson (d). Rec. 2019. ‘Conversation Among The Ruins’ (written by Calderazzo) has not only a dazzling piano solo but some delicately poised playing from Marsalis on soprano that isn’t afraid to explore beauty and melodic richness. ... Albums Best New Albums Best New Reissues 8.0 ... Patricia Brennan; Maquishti. Year in review: 10 of the best jazz albums of 2019. AllMusic has assembled our Best of 2019. Producer Toussaint adds his sinuous tenor to two tracks. County by county, here’s how to get a COVID-19 vaccine in Southern California. Come to hear a celebration of a timeless, genre-defying legacy that has shaped many of the musicians listed here (and elsewhere); stay to hear that legacy in vibrant motion. Music that’s so studio based, so long in the pot, can grow fussy, over-egged: but, helped by partner and producer Noel Langley, Ahmed has kept a light touch, mixing large ensemble themes with threads of electronics, a little anarchy from her Kaoss Pad, and an array of soloists, notably women, who contribute spark and edge. It’s an object lesson in how an established group can dig deeper into musical and emotional resources than many a short-lived ensemble, however starry the personnel. Fox News cancels Lou Dobbs’ show; pro-Trump host not expected to be back on air. Dec 05, 2019 5:45 AM. But whether recent or current, nothing stops Corea’s irrepressible musicality and pleasure in jamming with kindred spirits from exerting its melodiously laidback charm. It’s an ambitious proposition and it’s not that everyone’s not knocking Trump. As this duo session’s title implies, the warm acoustic of the studio in Lugano in which it was recorded is an active participant too. It’s quite scary at times, and that’s what Worlds Collide is about”, Bill Frisell (g), Luke Bergman (g, b), Hank Roberts (clo, v) and Petra Haden (v). Here’s what you need to know. But the real stars remain Almazan and a rhythm section of Linda May Han Oh and Henry Cole, who shift through styles and standout turns with grace. Alyn Shipton, ➜ Read our Abdullah Ibrahim interview: "In our music there’s no such thing as a mistake and, actually, maybe in life itself there’s no such thing as a mistake either ", Quentin Collins (t, flhn), Meilana Gillard (as), Leo Richardson, Jean Toussaint (ts), Dan Nimmer (p, ky), Joe Sanders (b) and Willie Jones III (d). Delivering a feverish mix of jazz, gospel and hip-hop that at various points evokes Pharaoh Sanders and Public Enemy, Locks clearly has his eye on the future but in harnessing a swirling sound of uplift and activism has created an album that feels engineered for this moment. Ricky Powell, a quintessential New Yorker whose point-and-shoot photos of the Beastie Boys and Run-D.M.C. Andy Robson, ➜ Read our Thomas Morgan interview: “For me music has always been the most natural and the deepest way to share something with people”, Joe Lovano (ts, tarogato, perc), Marilyn Crispell (p) and Carmen Castaldi (d, perc). Start your journey and discover the very best music from around the world. Lovano plays a shapely tenor break of soft split-tones and rumbling bell-notes on Rava’s steady-swinging ‘Secrets’, and the latter accompanies Giovanni Guidi’s superb Hancock-to-Jarrett solo in deep exhalations, like a trombone. MATANA ROBERTS COIN COIN CHAPTER FOUR: MEMPHIS. As we await this week's Fridays at Five streaming concert with guitarist John Scofield and the funk superband Lettuce, we take a look back at one of our most popular and controversial posts, originally posted in August 2016, which includes a landmark album for Scofield. Rec. Yet Croker also has a more marked Afro-house sensibility in some of his writing and arranging, which puts the onus as much on soaring unison lines with saxophonist Irwin Hall as it does on the leader’s solos, which blend radiant timbres with spinning phrases. Another year of great music is in the books. This is more about composition and Mehldau’s analogue synth sounds, which this time largely take on a more understated, ambient role. There is a similarly intelligent blend of soulful melodies and hard-edged rhythms, finessed by the engineering of Bob Power, who worked with Hargrove’s star collaborators, Erykah Badu and D’Angelo. The best jazz albums on vinyl is deserving of its own gallery but here's one album you don't see as often. On the closing title-track Mehldau’s speaking voice asks the Archangel Gabriel for a sign, a way out of the bedlam. Branch is a New York trumpet player and sometime-singer out of the free-jazz … March 2017-October 2018. Her grandparents hosted the Korn’s A Krackin’ radio show which meant the Carter family or Chet Atkins could be found chilling and strumming in the family front room. By Fred Kaplan. 2018. 7. There’s also a diversity of styles that keeps the listener curious and surprised. Social engagement has again inspired ambitious black American music in these fractious, urgent times, but local racial oppression and liberation animate these songs. Trumpeter Croker has always been vocal about the substantial influence the late Roy Hargrove exerted on him, and this interesting new offering takes him close to his spirit in ways that are obvious and not so obvious. Moreover, he is in the producer’s chair and his programming and effects bring additional nuance to the mix, filtering and thinning out a vocal to make it a touch more wistful, or drawing a sensual digital muffle over some of the synthesizer parts.