Future modal jazz dub, heard thru a Y2K lens by legendary blowers Pharaoh Sanders & Graham Haynes, and diffused in Bill Laswell’s illbient dub style & pattern. A slept-on, cross-generational ace sure to pique interest FFO Jon Hassell to Talvin Singh, Lászlo Hortobágyi to Material.
Cooked up in NYC’s jazz crucible in 2003 as a duo of Sanders & Haynes – now re-mantled as a Sanders x Laswell session for its first vinyl cut – With a Heartbeat speaks to the rich confluence of deeply rooted, forward-thinking jazz with ambient dub that tilted from the late C.20th into this century. Centred on the human heartbeat, it unfurls at a rested systolic throb in two landscaped-scale works which bookend deeper dives into Indian raga and tabla actions, the latter of which…
Category: jazz
There are collaborations that feel inevitable, as if they had been waiting to happen in some shadowed corner of culture. The union between Italian cinematic funk visionaries Calibro 35 and internationally acclaimed master of noir fiction and New York Times bestselling author James Ellroy (The Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential, American Tabloid) is undoubtedly one of them.
The opportunity arose through filmmaker Francesco Zippel and his documentary Ellroy vs L.A. produced by Quoiat Films, which received the Nastro d’Argento, Italy’s Critics’ Choice Award. The film is an immersive portrait of both the writer and the city of Los Angeles: Ellroy reflects on his relationship with L.A. as his words intertwine with archival footage of the city and scenes…
…features four additional tracks, including brand-new renditions of the classic blues song ‘Nobody Knows the Way I Feel This Morning’ and the traditional jazz standard ‘Ill Wind (You’re Blowing Me No Good).’ Other bonus tracks include a special Village Studios session recording of Washington’s iconic hit ‘What a Difference a Day Made’ and the recently released single ‘Teach Me Tonight.’
Ledisi‘s second album of 2025, For Dinah can also be seen as a follow-up to Ledisi Sings Nina, her Grammy-nominated homage to Nina Simone. The singer’s bond with the music of Dinah Washington began to form when she heard it through her mother. It was strengthened through her jazz studies at UC Berkeley and has continued throughout her career, culminating…
I Should Have Stayed Dead: The Death and Life of Allen Lowe is the three-disc soundtrack to a documentary film about the life, career, skills, death and rebirth of saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist and writer. Lowe, a cancer survivor, endured 25 operations post remission. The film, produced by Jonathan Scheuer, discusses Lowe’s compositional and playing approaches, and offers performance clips, Lowe’s surgeries and recovery, and offers interviews with his surgeon and music historian Greil Marcus. This three-disc, 55-track package contains recordings between 2025 and 2026, and music between the 1990s and early 2000’s. Lowe’s ensemble includes bassist Colson Jimenez and drummer Ethan Kogan; his range of occasionbal collaborators…
The eponymously titled second Blue Note album from South African saxophonist and bandleader Linda Sikhakhane is his fifth overall and follows 2024’s masterful iLadi. The first two, 2017’s Two Sides, One Mirror, and 2020’s An Open Dialogue (Live in New York), were independently issued, while 2022’s Isambulo appeared from Ropeadope. The saxophonist performs with American pianist Cameron Campbell, bassist brother Conway Campbell, Jr. and South African drummer/New York City transplant Kabelo Mokhatla. The rhythm section has been playing together in a trio, In Exile, since attending the Manhattan School of Music together. L I N D A was produced by mentor and collaborator Nduduzo Makhathini. Sikhakhane also features guests including…
Koen Holtkamp is a master of creating spacious sonic environments, both with his long-running instrumental duo Mountains, on many collaborative works, and with solo albums of electro-acoustic beauty. With Nightlife, Holtkamp centers his compositions around modular synth patches he designed to mirror the plucked sounds of stringed instruments (often looking especially to the sounds of chordophone instruments like the kora or the harp), and invites interplay from drummer Greg Fox and sax/flute player Matt Bauder on many of the pieces. As with so much of Holtkamp’s body of work, the sounds here are slow moving and thoughtful, built on subtlety and gradual evolution. Informed in part by a relocation from urban Brooklyn to the relatively woodsy…
If the name Greg Chako is unfamiliar to you, perhaps it is because the veteran Cincinnati-bred guitarist, composer, and arranger has spent much of his career performing and recording in Asia, including years abroad in Hong Kong, Singapore, China, and Japan.
After recovering from a near-fatal case of sepsis, Chako took full advantage of his new lease on life, returning home to lead a piano-less quintet on Hard Bop: For the Record, whose second track, “Second Chance,” salutes his return to good health and his ability to resume playing the guitar. Chako’s happiness and gratitude to be back on the jazz scene are evident on every theme, all of which he wrote and arranged.
The group’s two-horn front line consists of…
It might be a touch of hyperbole to say the world wasn’t ready for Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer‘s 1986 recording Piano Solo: Prelude to a Kiss and More. Yet listening to it some 40 years later, that may well be your first thought. Schweizer (1941—2024) had already established herself as a formidable improviser through recordings such as Wilde Señoritas (1977) and Hexensabbat (1978), both later remastered and reissued as a double CD by Intakt Records in 2002.
She also recorded several solo projects, although most appeared after she had achieved the international recognition she deserved. Had listeners heard this live performance, recorded in Zürich on February 1, 1986, that recognition might have arrived much sooner.
Timothy Digba Ogunbiyi is a Nigerian-born pianist, composer, and educator. Growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, Ogunbiyi began his musical journey playing drums in church before eventually pivoting from engineering to pursue music. His musical foundation and Nigerian heritage are reflected throughout this project, where Yoruba traditions, African rhythms, jazz improvisation, and contemporary influences come together to create a deeply expressive musical journey.
“Extinct Man” — Extinct: a practice or a way of life is no longer in use. Ogunbiyi opens the piece with a piano introduction, followed by interplay between Ogunbiyi and tenor saxophonist Adam Aronesty. A piano solo picks up the tempo against the saxophone’s slower-paced melody.
The listener is easily startled by Wadada Leo Smith. The man has an aura about him that emanates from some other place, some other time, when the rule of law was set in stone. A time not too long ago when collective aspiration held us all enthralled. And the man who carried that stone is none other than the trumpeter himself.
Smith’s presence also has a mythical essence that, in and of itself, is hardly breaking news. But it is that sense of now that news delivers, breaking or not, that empowers the kick-off “Dark Energy” — a piece of music so rightly titled and performed — coiling through the hardest memory of when music stood bare. A time when fellow daredevils, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and drummer Marcus Gilmore cut their own paths alongside him,…
A Simple Man is album number 20 for American contemporary jazz saxophonist Boney James. It’s been an illustrious career for the saxophonist, producer, and composer who has received four Grammy nominations, a Soul Train Award, four gold-certified albums and, in 2024, he became the first artist to attain 20 number one singles on the smooth jazz charts. This is a back-to-basics set that maintains the seamless meld of jazz, R&B, and neo-soul that is his trademark. James produced the record and composed nine of its ten tracks. His guest list is also impressive.
Set opener “Dreams” finds him playing flute, tenor, and piano. He twins reeds and winds on the melodic vamp, illuminated by his sensual piano, an economical bassline, and a slippery…
Kris Davis returns to her boldly progressive, yet deeply swinging trio on 2026’s Lost in Geneva. The follow-up to 2024’s Run the Gauntlet, the album finds the daring New York pianist once again joined by bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Johnathan Blake. All three bring a deep wealth of experience to bear on the proceedings which largely find them interpreting a handful of Davis’ originals. That said, when Davis first introduced the trio it was a somewhat unexpected combination, especially given her close ties to the avant-garde and contemporary music scene. Both Hurst and Blake are widely celebrated for their hard-hitting post-bop and straight-ahead work, both as leaders and with icons like Wynton Marsalis, Diana Krall, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and Kenny Barron,…
Over the course of twenty recordings as a leader, JD Allen has consistently pursued new avenues of musical exploration. For his fifteenth release for Savant, he has chosen a path that is at once new and ancient. Inspired by NEA Jazz Master pianist-composer Randy Weston’s explorations, JD has immersed his artistry in the musical culture of the Gnawa, the vibrant spirit-music brotherhood of North Africa. About the Gnawa, Weston told this writer for his autobiography, AFRICAN RHYTHMS (2010, Duke University Press), “The Gnawa people and their music represent one of the strongest spiritual connections I’ve ever experienced. The Gnawa actually have a close kinship with African Americans; they’re our brothers and sisters. Their ancestors came from the same…
Though still in her twenties, Caged Bird by New York-based vocalist, songwriter, and bandleader Ekep Nkwelle‘s (Eh-kep In-kweh-leh) — her Mack Avenue debut album — has been a long time coming. Her startling multi-octave range has appeared with a range of artists including the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Kenny Barron, Joel Ross, and New Jazz Underground.
The title references Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, but also Abbey Lincoln’s “Caged Bird” that’s interpreted here. Throughout, the music crosses jazz, gospel, and blues, connecting standards and other material through distinctive phrasing. Nkwelle is accompanied by her touring band that includes pianists Luther S. Allison (tracks one and two only) and…
“After a highly successful string of 7 albums in 16 years – including two with prominent UK sax player Andy Sheppard – Almost There is yet another melodic masterclass from pianist and composer Espen Eriksen. Captivating and lyrical, always melodic and often melancholic and uplifting at the same time, these are all real tunes, whether instantly catchy or needing a couple of spins to grow.
“Music with a rich sense of melody coupled with a poignant lyricism that is infectious”.All About Jazz “A wonderfully plaintive jazz record, abandoned to the lost art of melodic minimalism, stripped back and beautifully near bare. No smoke and mirrors, just the graceful chemistry of superb musicians at the top of their game”.
Los Angeles-based pianist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Kiefer Shackleford has appeared on the Blue Note label twice in 2026. In July, he was part of the eponymous debut by FATHERS, a jazz quartet that also includes drummer Nate Smith, bassist CARRTOONS, and producer Kenneth Blume (aka Kenny Beats). Memory Bomb is his 13-track leader debut for the label. It presents a sound he calls “Over the Breaks,” after a J Dilla concept balancing modern jazz warmth with the rhythmic pull of hip-hop, improvisation, and neo-soul. Memory Bomb showcases many collaborators, but there isn’t a moment where Kiefer doesn’t shine through and hold everything together. He shares production duties with best friends and creative partners CARRTOONS…
Two jazz titans conjure the golden spirit of two earlier jazz titans on 2026’s Dedicated to You. Recorded in honor of John Coltrane’s centennial celebration, the album finds saxophonist Branford Marsalis and vocalist Dianne Reeves sharing the spotlight, backed by Marsalis’ quartet with pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis, and drummer Justin Faulkner. Together, they interpret songs from 1963’s John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, a classic ballads album that paired the legendary saxophonist with the beloved singer. Here, they tackle all six tracks from that 1963 date, offering burnished readings of “Autumn Serenade,” “Lush Life,” and “They Say It’s Wonderful.” A long-avowed Coltrane acolyte, Marsalis is the perfect improviser for this project, but one who…
Not all of us can afford beachfront property with a convertible Bugatti to match, but thanks to the new album by Argento, we no longer need to. Inspired by the riches of the Tuscan coast, Miraggi is as sultry as music tagged ‘Balearic’ gets. Breathy flutes wisp up and down, casting their ocean spray as they pass. Lithe basslines sway against windswept chimes, beckoning you to leave it all behind. New age, downtempo, and jazz fusion shimmer and swirl together like crisp white wine.
…If this all seems like fantasy, it’s just as much of one for Argento. The side project was conceived by German-Italian producer David August, who spends most of his time hovering…