When Chicago drummer Makaya McCraven released his album In the Moment a decade ago few could have foreseen its prescience, not just as a grand statement representing the aesthetic tendencies of International Anthem, the influential label that released it, but as a sonic blueprint for the leader. That album was famously culled from 48 hours of recordings made during a weekly residency at a club in Chicago in 2013, with the drummer subsequently building compositions in the studio from groove-oriented live improvisations played by an ever-changing cast of local heavies, including guitarist Jeff Parker, trumpeter Marquis Hill, and bassist Junius Paul, all of whom remain frequent collaborators. Although McCraven’s last studio album—the orchestrally sumptuous…
Category: jazz
Jeff Goldblum together with his long-time band, The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, returns to deliver sheer joy with his idiosyncratic take on a collection of standards that, for Jeff, are amongst the best songs ever written.
Here, the actor yet again brings his on-screen charisma and eccentricities to the keys, with a groove that is totally unique. With all tracks newly arranged by The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra themselves, Jeff is, as the EP title suggests, joined by an array of talented, and unexpected, guest singers, all as thrilled to be accompanied by Jeff as he is to accompany them. Jeff and the band are joined by Kelly Clarkson, Mattiel Brown (of indie-rock duo Mattiel), Brazilian singer-songwriter Rodrigo Amarante and Freda Payne.
Strangely, Red Record’s 2025 remastered reissue of Bobby Watson’s Perpetual Groove omits the “Live in Europe” designation included in the 1984 release’s title. Perhaps it’s because one can tell from the first few notes that the set doesn’t take place in a studio – this is jazz meant to excite an audience with each musician’s spellbinding technique. With three Italian musicians (Attilio Zanchi – bass, Piero Bassini – piano, and Giampiero Prina – drums), saxophonist Watson tears it up on five tracks taken from two 1983 concert recordings. Though it’s certainly impressive to hear Kansas City, Kansas native Watson wail, some tracks fare better than others. More importantly, the quartet seems more focused on proving themselves, rather than creating memorable jazz.
Anyone who’s studied meditation or watched a Formula 1 race knows you can travel great distances without going anywhere at all — and enjoy the process of not getting there. There’s pleasure in following a circuit so frequently and so closely that everyday bits of the landscape become landmarks (we always pass that bullet-holed stop sign on this route) and a pang when those landmarks change (they replaced the stop sign!). Natural Information Society’s music operates on similar principles, drawing together the thrum of Moroccan gnawa, the austere profundity of Philip Glass, and the circular structures of John Coltrane at his most spiritual into a sound that doesn’t progress so much as it rotates. Its pleasures come from the steady accumulation…
It’s hard to believe it’s been almost fourteen years since Paul Motian’s passing, but the substantial amount of music he produced as both sideman and leader stays with us as a reminder of his pivotal contributions. Among those keeping the Motian flame alive is pianist Anat Fort, who was first exposed to the drummer through his tenure with pianist Bill Evans and was fortunate to eventually perform and record with him.
After moving to New York, she caught as many Motian gigs as possible and eventually began playing with a longtime associate of his, bassist Ed Schuller. Through him contact with Motian was made, which led in turn to Fort’s 2007 recording, A Long Story.
Of course his name will always be tied to…
As a resourceful sound alchemist and idiosyncratic sound architect with multi-layered and often floating guitar sounds that can pile up into a wall of sound, Swiss guitarist Dave Gisler enlivens contemporary jazz. Since 2017, he has been working continuously with his congenial trio partners Raffaele Bossard and Lionel Friedli.
After collaborations with the Chicago trumpeter jaimie branch, who sadly passed away before her time, and the luminary of modern jazz David Murray, the trio decided to continue without guests and focus on the essence and energy of their distinctive trio sound. This live album is another milestone for this promising trio, which is guided by style-independent factors such as density, contrasts, and energy.
There are so many reasons that trumpeter Theo Croker graces the June 2025 cover of DownBeat. For starters, he’s been steadily building a loyal fandom with his beautiful tone and creative mind — from 2019’s Star People Nation to 2021’s BLK2LIFE // A FUTURE PAST to 2022’s LOVE QUANTUM. His live shows are mesmerizing, danceable joyfests. Moreover, he does all of this while refusing to be boxed neatly into any specific musical genre, as deftly displayed by his latest release, Dream Manifest. Jazz? Yep. Soul? For days. Hip-hop? No doubt. R&B? Yes, siree. All of that and some trippy melodies and beats to glide over. The album, which brings together members of Croker’s past and current bands, has a true party feel. It’s a group that transcends generations,…
Pianist Horace Silver leads his mid-’60s quintet through a combustible, hard swinging evening on the superb 2025 archival recording Silver in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse. Recorded by KING-FM radio host and engineer Jim Wilke, the concert was one of many Wilke captured for later broadcast on his show. Thankfully, he saved the tapes, and they are presented here in a vivid restored quality. Joining Silver on tour was his then-main quintet featuring trumpeter Woody Shaw, tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, bassist Teddy Smith, and drummer Roger Humphries. Taking into consideration the minor line-up shifts in Silver’s group from 1964 to 1966, including Shaw taking over for Carmell Jones and Smith being replaced by Bob Cranshaw in studio, this is essentially…
The fourth album by pianist Fergus McCreadie‘s trio is titled after a Gaelic word referring to a homemade shelter of stone and earth that protects shepherds during the summer pasturing season. Here, it’s an extended metaphor for the intimate cottage in Lochmaddy, in North Uist, in the Scottish Outer Hebrides where the band ferried from their Isle of Skye homes to record this set in five days with producer Laura Jurd.
Since releasing 2021’s Cairn, the trio — with bassist Dave Bowden and drummer Stephen Henderson — has delivered a nearly trademark sound that draws equally on contemporary jazz, spectral post-bop, and Scottish folk traditions. The later nature-themed outings — 2022’s Forest Floor and 2024’s Stream — further integrated…
Setting the tenor for his career as a world music pioneer, Yusef Lateef mingles Islamic sounds with jazz aesthetic on this, his first album. After touring with Dizzy Gillespie, he went on to release this hard-bop masterpiece in 1957, backed by bassist Ernest Farrow (Alice Coltrane’s sibling) and trombonist Curtis Fuller. Here, Lateef plays everything from tenor saxophone to the lute-like rabat (on the mercurial meditation, “Morning”) and the flute-like argol (on the bright, punctuated sonic excursion, “Metaphor”). Ultimately, his mingling of East and West feels as intriguing as it is effortless. Upon its release, DownBeat praised that “Almost without exception the tracks give a feeling of warmth, a mood of relaxation, and good feeling, an uncomplicated emotional propulsion.”
To record their fourth album Krok, the members of Soyuz went to Brazil to record at the invitation of like-minded musician Sessa, taking full advantage of the atmosphere in one of the countries whose music influenced their sound to such a large degree. They finished the record back in their adopted home of Poland and the result is a magical version of the jazz-meets-MPB-meets soundtrack music style they had been working on for years. This time around they dig more deeply into the smooth side of the equation with several songs powered by soft strings, bubbling electric piano, and wordless vocal choruses. A track like “P7 Blues” is a prefect encapsulation of their approach. bopping along like incidental music in a very stylish film while also captivating thanks…
Mon Laferte is one of Latin music’s great shape- shifters. The 14 tracks on FEMME FATALE, her followup to the experimental rhythm collision of 2023’s Autopoiética, take on the male myth of the femme fatale (Laferte has often been referred to as “the femme fatale of Latin Music”) and her own relationship to the term, and valiantly redeems it as feminist manifesto reflecting her intelligence, style, self-determined sexuality, and fiery heart. Her songs journey through introspection and darkness before cultural history loses authority to her self-determination, using metaphor, symbolism, and even mysticism in her lyrics. In late 2024 and in July 2025, Laferte played the femme fatale Sally Bowles in a Teatro Insurgentes production of Cabaret in Mexico City. For this recording…
With Minnesota, guitarist and composer Trond Kallevåg deepens his image-rich sound – a warm, wistful universe where the atmosphere of Norway’s rugged west coast drifts seamlessly into the wide horizons of the American Midwest.
Drawing inspiration from traditional music, jazz, ambient folk, emigration stories, and rare photographs unearthed during an artist residency on the unique and remote island of Træna in Northern Norway , Kallevåg weaves a sound world rooted in the Norwegian Coast – yet forever gazing westward.
Minnesota marks Kallevåg’s fourth album on the acclaimed Hubro label, following Bedehus & Hawaii (2019), Fengselsfugl (2021), and Amerikabåten (2023). As on his previous…
Bassist Melvin Gibbs‘ sprawling, multi-genre résumé covers so much ground that it’s almost impossible to find common factors between everything he’s touched. He’s led groups with Bill Frisell, Elliott Sharp, and Vernon Reid; played in Defunkt and Rollins Band; recorded with Dead Prez, Caetano Veloso, Eddie Palmieri, and Femi Kuti; and somehow has credits on both Vitamin C albums. This is all apart from his solo works, which have included a hip-hop/funk album in the late ’80s, a vastly different 2021 hip-hop EP featuring Kokayi, and a minimal drone record on Editions Mego, 2022’s Anamibia Sessions 1: The Wave. While that album fit in with the type of austere experimentation that seems more at home on the Viennese label, the second volume of…
The heady mix of styles Yazmin Lacey served with Voice Notes earned the singer and songwriter a 2023 MOBO nomination for Best Jazz Act. Ezra Collective won the award, which Lacey evidently took in stride, as she then co-wrote and fronted the quartet’s “God Gave Me Feet for Dancing” — it fast became her most popular song and then an ecstatic highlight of Glastonbury 2025. Lacey didn’t perform at the festival — the former youth worker’s role was appropriately filled by a member of North London’s Jubilee Youth Club — but she maintained the celebratory spirit the next night in Paris, where she previewed material from Teal Dreams with backing from BadBadNotGood. While neither that band nor most of the crew that assisted on Voice Notes was involved in its making,…
Vibraphonist Patricia Brennan spent a decade developing her chops as an improviser and composer with John Hollenbeck, Michael Formanek, Matt Mitchell, and Tomas Fujiwara. After her acclaimed 2021 solo album Maquishti she released 2022’s More Touch with drummer Marcus Gilmore, bassist Kim Cass, and percussionist Mauricio Herrera. Brennan had joined Mary Halvorson’s band and also worked with drummer Dan Weiss. 2024’s Breaking Stretch employed the quartet and trumpeter/electronicist Adam O’Farrill, revealing intricate compositions and deft collective improvisation. Of the Near and Far‘s lineup offers a sextet and string quartet. The band is made up of Cass, who plays alongside drummer Hollenbeck, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier…