The vibraphonist Bill Ware is perhaps best known for his work with The Jazz Passengers and Groove Collective. He has a cross-genre bent that includes work with Steely Dan and Elvis Costello. He is also incredibly prolific. Since 2016, he has composed over two hundred and fifty pieces, including sixty during the pandemic. These pieces […]
With Ancestral (Whirlwind, 2025), alto saxophonist and composer John O’Gallagher explores the late-period work of John Coltrane, specifically Interstellar Space (Impulse!, 1974) and Stellar Regions (Impulse!, 1995). These examinations build upon O’Gallagher’s doctoral work, which argues that so-called “free” music is not actually free as the term is commonly used. Or, in O’Gallagher’s words, researching […]
In many ways, the burgeoning improvised music community in Brooklyn resembles downtown New York’s loft movement of the ‘70s. But it differs in one important way: Brooklyn seems to have an even stronger sense of community, with musicians often collaborating on each other’s albums. Such is the case for Chilean-born, Brooklyn-based bassist and composer Simón […]
Guitarist John Scofield and NEA Jazz Master bassist Dave Holland are not only both masters of their respective instruments but incredibly prolific. Versatile too, especially Holland. Since both artists’ rise – a decade apart – through their times with Miles Davis, they have respectively explored a wide area of music. That includes intimate duo settings. […]
Over the past six months, several NEA Jazz Masters – all of them octogenarian, or close to – have released records that defy convention and obliterate preconceptions many may have about their work. The combination of age and the prestige of the prestigious NEA title is an enabler. Kenny Barron issued his first vocal album, […]
Give the devil of algorithmic media its due for knowing things about you that you never suspected. Who knew, for instance, that Japanese woodworking videos were an obsession lying dormant in my mind, waiting to be activated? Even though I am hopeless with a tool in my hand—or perhaps because of it—I found these little […]
A more cerebral artist, saxophonist and composer Mark Turner, never makes it too easy for the listener. However, he may have reached his zenith with Reflections on: The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (Giant Step Arts, 2025), a work that combines verbal narrative and music. As its title suggests, the album reflects upon the named […]
As evidenced by two recent collaborations with Wadada Leo Smith, Jakob Bro’s Loveland Music, is releasing some of the most interesting improvised music recently. Yet, also on the label comes Thomas Morgan’s Around You is a Forest (Loveland, 2025), which may well be the most unique album made in a long time. Morgan long ago […]
Drummer Chad Taylor is perhaps best known for his work as a sideman for the likes of James Brandon Lewis, Marc Ribot, Luke Stewart, jaimie branch, and many others, but his latest, Smoke Shifter (Otherly Love), is his sixth album as a leader. Those aforementioned names suggest an edgy, ’out’ approach. Instead, with Smoke Shifter, Taylor looks more to the inside, […]
Hikmah (TAO Forms) is the solo album from [Ahmed]’s virtuoso pianist Pat Thomas, whom Matthew Shipp has identified in his recent book as among the Black Mystery School Pianists. While Thomas may be in that school, his playing bears only a few similarities to his contemporary, Shipp. Thomas’s music is seemingly more spiritually focused. As […]
