Pianist Harold Mabern (1936-2019) was talented beyond measure. Though he never received the honor and distinction of the prestigious NEA Jazz Master designation, his music and the musicians who knew him tell a different story. That story unfolds beautifully throughout the 10th anniversary reissue of Mabern’s 2015 recording, Afro Blue. The newly remixed and remastered recording features performances from some of the most celebrated names in vocal jazz, including Gregory Porter, Norah Jones, Kurt Elling, Jane Monheit, and Alexis Cole. The recording also features contributions from an all-star band, including longtime bandmates Joe Farnsworth (drums), Eric Alexander (sax), and John Webber (bass), alongside Steve Turre (trombone), Jeremy Pelt…
Tag Archive: Smoke Sessions
Live at Smoke is the last of the living birthday celebrations for the late, great drummer, Al Foster. These celebrations had been ongoing for more than a decade, and fortunately, the 2025 session was recorded on January 18 and 19, 2025. Foster passed away on May 28, 2025, before the music could be released, but Foster did hear the final mixes. Foster leads a top-shelf quartet for this last celebration. Saxophonist Chris Potter, who was very close to Foster, was a regular at these celebrations. Joining him were the acclaimed pianist Brad Mehldau and renowned bassist Joe Martin.
Foster has a history with many of the greats, from Sonny Rollins to Miles Davis. Accordingly, the set list includes compositions from Rollins and Wayne Shorter as well as a piece each…
Drummer and Nea Jazz Master Billy Hart releases first live album, Multidirectional, with his longtime all-star quartet featuring saxophonist Mark Turner, pianist Ethan Iverson, and bassist Ben Street.
Legendary drummer Billy Hart credits the great Rashied Ali for introducing him to the term “multidirectional” – a descriptor for the elusive, daring approach to the kit that Hart and others of his generation had developed intuitively in response to the increasing freedom and exploration of the era’s jazz experimentation.
“Rashied Ali told me that ‘multidirectional’ was what John Coltrane called this freeform feel, where conventional structure was abandoned and the rhythms could cut in any direction,” he writes in Oceans of Time: The Musical Autobiography…
The multi-hyphenate Nicholas Payton premieres a new trio, recording alongside eccentric bassist Esperanza Spalding and straight-ahead luminary Karriem Riggins, a roster enough to whet any forward-thinking listener’s appetites. Payton, beyond his wildly successful sideman stints with Oscar Peterson, Mulgrew Miller and Milt Jackson, has also made great strides to define his own worldly, idiosyncratic style as leader and solo artist, drawing from both his bopping lineage and the moodier, atmospheric ambitions of his peers. He parades confidently through no-nonsense bop and funk alike, contemporary fusion and hip-hop—nothing fazes him. Payton is insatiable, varied, defined only by a cohesive formalism, a workmanlike approach to performance…
Up until recently, the consummate drummer Joe Farnsworth was primarily known as a traditionalist. Yet, he has expanded his palette to include younger musicians with a bent toward the contemporary and improvisation.
His latest, and arguably his best album as a leader, The Big Room, deftly balances both of these tendencies with an intergenerational group of players/composers. They are trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, saxophonist Sarah Hanrahan, vibraphonist Joel Ross, pianist Emmett Cohen, and bassist Yasushi Nakamura, with all but Nakamura contributing compositions at Farnsworth’s request.
Farnsworth boasts a resume the envy of many, having played with numerous greats, including Harold Mabern, McCoy Tyner, and…