While it’s been done in pop, appearing noticeably pregnant on an album cover is a rarity for improvisation-based music. Indeed, vocalist and composer Sarah Elizabeth Charles’ Dawn (Ropeadope, 2025) may be one of the first. The album’s cover is striking – the artist in a stunning silhouette, leaving no doubt that she is indeed with […]
Saxophonist-composer Donny McCaslin is determined to move way beyond conventional concepts of jazz, jazz-rock fusion, or any label you want to ascribe to his music. Just when we didn’t think his music could be louder and more rock-influenced than I Want More (Edition, 2023), he kicks it up a couple of notches with Lullaby for […]
The title of Mike Clark’s latest record, Itai Doshin (Wide Hive, 2025) comes from the drummer’s Buddhist beliefs, a worldview shared with his onetime bandleader, Herbie Hancock. The title translates into the saying of “many in body, one in mind.” That’s the equivalent in musical speak of ‘in the pocket.” Or, in plainer language, a […]
With Quartets and Solos (Contagious, 2025), bassist and composer Noah Garabedian appears for the first time on saxophonist Dayna Stephens’ label. As one might expect, Stephens is a vital member of the quartet, wielding his tenor saxophone and EWI. Rounding out the ensemble are pianist Carmen Staaf, drummer Jimmy MacBride, and Samuel Adams on synths, […]
Trio of Bloom (Pyroclastic, 2025) is the first meeting of three titans of creative music, artists to whom genres and boundaries hold little meaning. You can regularly find each of them in conventional or edgy sessions, or within the turf that lies between. The term in the promotional notes is a better one – genre […]
Audiences who saw artist-in-residence Henry Threadgill at Big Ears in 2024 were enthralled with five performances, each featuring a different configuration, and left eagerly anticipating the artist’s next move. Listen Ship (Pi, 2025), like many of Threadgill’s recent works, finds the eighty-one-year-old NEA Jazz Master conducting rather than participating instrumentally. The ensemble under his direction […]
Carmen Staaf’s Sounding Line (Sunnyside, 2025) is the second album recently covered on this site that envisions a conversation between Thelonious Monk and another pianist-composer. Just a few weeks ago, trumpeter Josh Lawrence positioned Chopin with Monk. Here, Staff has Monk conversing with a contemporary, Mary Lou Williams. Just about every jazz pianist and many […]
One of our few links to bands of Miles, McCoy Tyner, Pharaoh Sanders, Lee Morgan, and Roy Hargrove, NEA Jazz Master and soon-to-be-eighty-five-year-old Gary Bartz has earned the right to do whatever he pleases. Damage Control (OYO, 2025) is the first installment in The Eternal Tenure of Sound trilogy, self-funded by Bartz and produced by […]
This is the year that some of us learned that tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse was a leader of other bands rather than simply a member of Thelonious Monk’s quartet. Earlier this year, Strata-East reissued 1974’s guitar-driven, funky Two Is One (Mack Avenue, 2025). Now comes Cinnamon Flower: The Expanded Edition (Resonance, 2025), a double LP […]
Under the Same Stars (Motéma, 2025) is the second installment of Mongolian-born and Germany-based pianist-composer Shuteen Erdenebaatar’s planned trilogy drawing inspiration from the mythology of her Mongolian homeland surrounding the sun, moon, and stars. The first, Rising Sun (Motema, 2023), was an acclaimed quartet recording that evoked vitality, positivity, and optimism – a fitting choice […]
