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 […]
Natural Name (Sunnyside, 2025) is the second album by For Living Lovers, the acoustic duo of guitarist Brandon Ross and bass guitarist Stomu Takeishi. Ross has appeared in so many contexts – electric, free, and as a leader and sideman – that sometimes his versatility on acoustic instruments becomes lost in the conversation. That is, […]
Often, emphasis on genre improperly discards the lines of influence that transcend imposed stylistic segmentations. No artistic expression exists solely in isolation or in a neatly maintained silo. This is especially evident with Jimi Hendrix. Most would categorize the guitar great’s music as “rock.” In reality, his shadow – particularly his use of feedback, distortion, […]
The gratitude of drummer-composer Domo Branch, an in-demand rising star of contemporary jazz, is evident in many ways as on Hand of Gifts (Albina Music Trust, 2025). Artists often honor tradition, as Branch does here, while going beyond simply honoring his mentors. Albina Music Trust, a new label to most, is a non-profit organization and […]
To say that Colorado-based pianist/composer Bob Schlesinger’s Falling from Earth (Digmatic, 2025) was a long time coming is a vast understatement. The project – the sixty-eight year old keyboardist’s leader debut – had been simmering for half a decade. Tracks were recorded in two separate sessions, Sear Sound in New York City and Coupe Studios […]
Danish guitarist Jakob Bro is the owner of the Copenhagen-based Loveland Records,, a label issuing two albums within a month of each other: the more recently recorded trio of Bro, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, and drummer Marcus Gilmore for Murasaki (Loveland, 2025), and The Montclair Sessions (Loveland, 2025), from a 2022 recording session that paired […]
We continue our conversation with Patricia Brennan on ‘Of the Near and Far’ by delving deeper into her compositional process for the album, writing for strings, graphic scores, and more. You can read the first part of our conversation here. PG: This is your first time recording your work for strings, correct? PB: That’s right. […]
For eons, humanity has looked up at the vastness of the night sky in wonder. The pinholes of light shining through the darkness evoke feelings of comfort and familiarity, even as things seem so distant and mysterious. The stars leave us facing some of the greatest existentialist inquiries: Who am I in the broader picture? […]
Stargazer (Sunnyside, 2025) is a reissue of an album by a trio of pianist Armen Donelian with bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Billy Hart that first appeared forty-five years ago, in 1980. Originally released and distributed on Atlas Records in Japan, it was available only as an import elsewhere. Soon thereafter, Atlas went out of […]
