Fresh off his complex project Server Farm (Irrabagast, 2025), where he led a nonet in blending electronics and hues of Artificial Intelligence with acoustic jazz, Jon Iragabon now moves to a more conventional chord-less quartet on Someone to Someone (Irrabagast, 2025). That statement is not to imply that Iragabon’s music has suddenly turned conventional. For […]
In 1835, German instrument makers Wilhelm Wieprecht and Johann Moritz patented the first tuba as a brass instrument that could carry the bassline for a marching band. By the end of the century, it could be found in orchestras through scores by Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, and others. Jazz was also not immune to the […]
For a musician who excels in both big bands and combo settings, large and small, sometimes it’s refreshing to take a ‘less is more’ approach. Such is the case with Ron Blake. With SCRATCH Band (7tēn33, 2025), the veteran saxophonist, composer, and educator forms a trio with fellow Virgin Island native Reuben Rogers on bass […]
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Timed nicely for their appearance at the 2025 Newport Jazz Festival, Rachael and Vilray issue their third album, West of Broadway (Concord Jazz, 2025). The vocalist Rachael Price (also of Lake Street Dive) and the guitarist/singer/songwriter Vilray exist in that rare intersection of jazz, pop, and singer-songwriter fare. Their producer is Dan Knobler, Rodney Crowell’s […]
As nonsensical as it may seem in the abstract, sometimes ideological wars are a necessary step towards a renewed and invigorated community. This is certainly the case with the so-called “jazz wars” of the 1980s. After decades of further sonic expansion, one side came with a zealous desire to return the music to its roots. […]
Saxophonist and composer Jimmy Greene is recognized by many as a vital member of Ron Carter’s Foursight Quartet, which will be appearing at the 2025 Newport Jazz Festival. Greene has also established a solid career as a leader, having received a Grammy nomination and acknowledgment in the DownBeat Magazine Critics Poll. He also endured a […]
Of the world’s roughly eleven thousand bird species, there is something particularly special about the dove family. Dating back to at least the Miocene epoch, twenty-three to twenty-five million years ago, across its history, the dove has developed a unique status as a symbolic creature. Many of these connections first emerged in the Biblical story […]
With our review of the second day of the 2024 Newport Jazz Festival – read day one here – we continue to draw parallels between the musical greats of the past and the artists with us today. This analysis is not intended to minimize the distinctive individualism of either the legends no longer with us, […]
In making sense of the story of jazz, historians often craft a narrative that neatly divides into different generations and schools of thought. Revolutions in composition, improvisation, rhythm, and instrumentation each producing a distinctly novel area of music. While this perspective has some truth to it, the dividing lines between each era are often far […]
