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. Soul of the Bass is John Patitucci’s 16th solo record and it may be his most intimate and revealing one yet. 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. The Best Jazz of 2019 ... Our list of the best for 2019 ripples with variety and diversity. Roberts has kept her conceptual focus and creative engine finely tuned to deliver work that has structural invention and a deep poignancy that should move anybody interested in real lives. Thursday, November 21, 2019, The ultimate guide to the year's best new jazz albums as voted for by Jazzwise's peerless panel of reviewers – including the complete original Jazzwise reviews. Rec. ... Albums Best New Albums Best New Reissues 8.0 ... Patricia Brennan; Maquishti. 2018. Peter Quinn, Enrico Rava (t), Joe Lovano (ts, tarogato), Giovanni Guidi (p), Dezron Douglas (b) and Gerald Cleaver (d). 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). Rec. 7. December 17, 2019 It is impossible to give a single, descriptive name to the modern jazz sound, because it’s still evolving—and 2019 is the best evidence of that to date. As the culture continued to sag in 2019, music soared. to DaBaby's 'Baby on Baby.' 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. 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. And within its catchy, funky setting, this track manages to combine moments of improvisational freedom, perfectly demonstrating why this is one of the most compelling live bands on the planet. Rec. Tired of “Blinding Lights”? Dec. 11, 2019 … 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. 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. Lacking the obvious thematic baggage elsewhere, that tune floats free into its own atmosphere. John Fordham, Bugge Wesseltoft (p, ky), Dan Berglund (b) and Magnus Öström (d). View reviews, ratings, news & more regarding your favorite band. Mike Flynn Amy Sherman-Palladino grew up in the Valley obsessively listening to “Tapestry.” When she needed a theme song for “Gilmore Girls,” she had one song in mind. Take a peek inside the latest issue of Songlines magazine. The process for getting a COVID-19 vaccine varies county to county. November 2018. 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. 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). This L.A.-based app aims to be the new TikTok. Producer Toussaint adds his sinuous tenor to two tracks. Photos by … John Fordham, Cassie Kinoshi (as), Miguel Gorodi, Sheila Maurice-Grey (t), Chelsea Carmichael (ts, f), Joe Bristow (tb), Theon Cross (tba), Joe Armon-Jones, Sarah Tandy (p, Fender Rhodes), Shirley Tetteh (g), Xana, Cherise Adams-Burnett, Mr. Ekow (v), Rio Kai (b) and Patrick Boyle (d). to its predecessor—on the surface it seems hard to compete with 12 months of obvious ringers. Trumpeter Collins assembled a spectacular line-up for this very impressive album, balancing an all-American rhythm section with a strong UK frontline. On December 11th 2019 » By Gary Suarez. 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. 2018. Standouts are many: more poetry recital than spoken word, ‘The Woods’ is a crisp but warmly annunciated ode to feeling at one with nature, augmented by on-the-fly-melodies from Hyelim Kim on the taegum (a large wooden Japanese flute) and textures gleaned from flourishes on prepared piano (variously sparked by the effects of a hand-fan on paper tacked to strings). Other surprises abound: bet you don’t see ‘Men of Harlech’ coming on the Suffragette-inspired ‘Deeds Not Words,’ or the brass spikes that crunch against the Mardi Gras piano rolls of ‘Ruby Bridges’. John Patitucci, Soul of the Bass (self-released) Release date: April 5. September 2018. Worthily dull it’s not. The programming is well thought through, with a sumptuously romantic ‘Save The Last Dance For Me’, followed by the freest cut of the set, a gnarly but not alienating ‘Mumbo Jumbo’, before we revel in the dramatics of ‘You Only Live Twice’ and a melancholic but life-affirming ‘Lush Life’. With new ideas continuing to burst at the seams connecting genres and artists, jazz enjoyed a fertile, far-reaching renaissance in 2019. Duke Ellington’s ‘Azalea’ is a standard-song stroll sprung off Yonathan Avishai’s inventive comping, Abdullah Ibrahim’s ‘Kofifi Blue’ gets some Armstrong-like end-note shakes, while ‘Sir Duke’ has its famous melody burnished with an almost baroque courtliness. His three solo improvisations offer a very different level of emotional depth, being introvert and involving. 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. The music, as well as the struggle, continues. But this captivating project has been smouldering for a long time – Lovano has known and admired adventurous pianist and Anthony Braxton collaborator Marilyn Crispell since the mid-1980s, and versatile percussionist Carmen Castaldi since they played together as Ohio teenagers. Weather reports were a jazz … 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 … March 2016. Mark Allen Group Olivia Rodrigo sings ‘Drivers License’ live for first time. Rec. Jazzmeia Horn. 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. Best jazz albums of 2019: A year rife with invention and resistance Best jazz albums of 2019. If Dawid’s album … The band, featuring jazz vocalist Tierney Sutton, has been together for twenty plus years. Branch is a New York trumpet player and sometime-singer out of the free-jazz … 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. Jane Cornwell, ➜ Read our Alice Zawadzki interview: “This pain of Spring often comes from the way we lay ourselves on the line again and again, especially in love”, Bill Frisell (g) and Thomas Morgan (b). Well, as you ask, it’s rich, sonorous, big, melodic, puts a kick in your heels and a smile on your face. 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). 2018. While a grand scale of ideas has become one of AEC’s signes particuliers the group also excels on folk-like laments, such as the popular ‘Odwalla’, the reprise of which is as affecting as ever. Why you won’t see any special guests at the Weeknd’s Super Bowl halftime show. 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. The best jazz albums on vinyl is deserving of its own gallery but here's one album you don't see as often. But whether recent or current, nothing stops Corea’s irrepressible musicality and pleasure in jamming with kindred spirits from exerting its melodiously laidback charm. From the super-fine musicianship to the beautiful recorded sound, Claire Martin’s first album with her new all-Swedish trio is a towering success. Each piece has its own pleasures: above all, there’s a sense of a fine project properly realised and accomplished. John Fordham. Wesseltoft is really at home here, creatively shifting around sci-fi like synth-centred soundscapes, tastefully funky Fender Rhodes and meditative acoustic piano. Also heard as part of the Art Ensemble’s arresting new album, cellist Tomeka Reid continues to explore new reaches for her instrument. With star names, newcomers and a few jazz legends, our end-of-year Top 20s demonstrate peak creativity levels among contemporary artists, as well as archival aces aplenty. As with those projects, Rymden also takes its cue more from rock than jazz, even though it retains a jazz sensibility. Rec. Rec. Jazz seemed to be all over the place this year — and that was a blessing. Recorded by Simcock at his home in Berlin on a beautifully rich Steinway Model B Grand Piano, the album pays tribute to five of Simcock’s piano heroes who have had an especial impact on his music. 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”. John Fordham. On this, Lance Bryant catches exactly the timing and phrasing of the South African masters, and turns in a really outstanding performance on tenor saxophone, genuinely, as Ibrahim puts it, ‘singing a song’. 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. ‘Lahan al-Mansour’, dedicated to Saudi’s first female film director, most obviously draws upon Ahmed’s Gulf roots, but her full-toned flugelhorn also echoes Kenny Wheeler’s contributions to Rabih Abou-Khalil’s great albums like Blue Camel. 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. May 28-30 2018. Given Rava’s Miles allegiances (but maybe also a Lacy and Don Cherry-inspired inclination toward looser jazz forms), it’s perhaps not surprising that quite a lot of this music sounds like the almost-free leanings of Miles’ and Wayne Shorter’s 1960s Second Great Quintet pushed further out. Rec. Dedicated to Egberto Gismonti, the concluding three-movement, ‘Many Worlds Away’, ranges from the hieratic to the rhapsodic to the ecstatic. 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. 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. It’s an ambitious proposition and it’s not that everyone’s not knocking Trump. 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). The 10 Best Jazz Albums of 2019 by Jeff Terich. Rec. There are almost motionless reveries for Crispell and Castaldi, a ghostly, tone-bending passage for solo gongs, and a headlong free-jazz charge for a finale. “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. Perhaps the most concerted attempt so far at a major album from a generation of young London players more attuned to performing, Driftglass draws on Afrofuturism for its hopeful scope, our musical melting-pot for its sound, and Kinoshi’s classical studies for its structure. 10. TWELVE JAZZ GUITAR ALBUMS YOU SHOULD HEAR. But you can bet he’ll be telling a story. Daily reviews of every important album in music. Rec. Mehldau, who plays all instruments including drums and vocal on the track, instead offers a comforting musical salvation. The Weeknd says he “wouldn’t bet on” seeing any guests during his Super Bowl LV halftime show Sunday. 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. We’ll all tip our hat to that: but what’s the music like? London, SE24 0PD. Jazzwise Magazine, That outgoing mood is sustained in Monk’s ‘Skippy’ with Guyton’s piccolo making the running. There is a distinctively plaintive, sometimes mournful beauty in many of the scores in which grainy, often low register strings are woven into folds of brass that have a kind of heraldic, if not mystic, character. 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. Universal Music Group removes music from streaming app Triller over pay dispute. But Kinoshi’s debut bursts with often achieved ambition, and time is on her side. Rec. Here’s the latest on second-dose vaccine appointments in L.A. County. But, as an early admirer of Bud Powell and Bill Evans, Corea has regularly returned to trio line-ups, and this one (with bass maestro Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade) deservedly brought him two Grammys in 2014 for the first of its Trilogy sessions. 2010-2016. The players contribute an original each, the other seven tracks visit jazz sources from Coltrane and Ellington to Ornette, Stevie Wonder’s ‘Sir Duke’, and Israeli composer Alexander Argov’s pretty lullaby ‘Shir Eres’ – so this is a set rooted in orthodox song-forms, but the imaginativeness of the playing transforms them all. Chicago Tribune | Dec 03, 2019 at 8:00 AM . French band Phoenix finds all the right grooves for ‘On the Rocks’. Tomeka Reid Quartet, “Old New” (Cuneiform). St. Judes Church, On one hand, the admission is a defining quality for an artist capable of conjuring a storm whether on saxophone or through spoken word, but it also defines Roberts’ restless, holistic approach to musical storytelling, which here conjures the nightmares of the slavery era in a way that’s haunting, challenging and consistently engrossing. Firstly, her meshing of sung vocal and spoken word is compelling, primarily because the stories, detailing anything from family testimony to the black church experience, are so vivid. Rec. Again teamed with her ideal foil in the slippery, shape-shifting guitar tone of recent MacArthur fellow Mary Halvorson, Reid alternately spirals, saws and tiptoes through a sweeping array of arresting solos and inviting compositions. For the most part, the tracks on drummer-composer Antonio Sánchez’s Lines in the Sand suggest scores for imaginary films, drawing from his experience writing the score for the 2014 film Birdman.In some cases, he also builds upon ideas from his previous album, 2017’s Bad Hombre. 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. 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. 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. The album is hardcore jazz influenced, but maintains the funk sensibilities that is layered in production effects that age the music like the mighty Orgone. A cornucopia of delights. 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. Social engagement has again inspired ambitious black American music in these fractious, urgent times, but local racial oppression and liberation animate these songs. 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. The mood is post-bop, with an augmented Messengers feel, the writing compact and the execution consistently rewarding. Epistrophy picks up from the equally intimate Small Town; recorded live at the Village Vanguard, these are classic standards presented at a classic venue in, well, a most classic performance. 5. The fourth installment in Matana Roberts’ ambitious meditation on African-American history and folklore focuses on the city of Memphis “unlike a place I have yet 2 know”, according to the artist. Alyn Shipton, Chick Corea (p), Christian McBride (b) and Brian Blade (d). Browse through and check out what music our editors have been listening to this year. AllMusic has assembled our Best of 2019. This new album is a worthy follow-up to 2015’s Paradigm Shift, and while it tackles similar themes of social and political regression, especially in an online world, the writing and arranging have gone up a notch. County by county, here’s how to get a COVID-19 vaccine in Southern California. An album that unfailingly touches the heart and lifts the soul. Kevin Le Gendre, Theo Croker (t, elec, v), Irwin Hall (as, f, bcl), Kassa Overall, Eric Harland (d), Eric Wheeler (b, eb), Michael King, Eric Lewis (p, org, keys), Rose Gold, and Chronixx (v). 6. The 50th anniversary of one of the seminal groups to have emerged from post-war America is a timely reminder of its epic journey of daring experimentation and collaboration. Perhaps most impressively, Croker has also edited performances so that the 10 tracks make a running time under 45 minutes – one side of a trusty C-90 – so the material is well paced towards the climactic closer ‘Understand Yourself’, which has an imperious, strikingly conscious vocal from Jamaican reggae sensation Chronixx. (photo: Eric Ryan Anderson) We calculated our top 40 new releases and top 10 historical/reissue recordings of 2019 based on year-end lists by our writers. Janisch has long been a gifted player whose command of electric and acoustic bass has seen him work in a wide variety of settings, but this new songbook draws a coherent line through groove, swing and avant-garde sensibilities without sounding stilted. 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’. The SEED Ensemble is another permutation of the London scene’s currently omnipresent players, and their individuality is crucially encouraged. By JAZZ.FM91. Not all the meters or rhythms are straightforward, but so assured is the playing that even the most complex settings sound entirely natural. 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. Clockwise from … 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. This is an album that will entice you to get on the dance floor but also pushes a surprising emotional depth. And the high point is a return to another piece from the earlier days of Ekaya, ‘Song for Sathima’. Red lights! 8. The heart of the album is in the ballad playing. But the secret weapon here may be pianist Carmen Staaf, whose flickering excursions provide a bright counterweight to the album’s sweeping melodic drive. With the untimely passing of Esbjörn Svensson in 2008, Öström and Berglund have buried their head in their own solo projects. ... 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. Published on November 13, 2019 Herne Hill, It should have happened a long time ago, but much better late than never. Peter Vacher, Roscoe Mitchell (as, ss), Famoudou Don Moye (d, perc), Hugh Ragin, Fred Berry (t), Jaribu Shahid, Junius Paul, Silvia Bolognesi (b), plus guests incl.