Jazz Articles
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Benjamin Herman: NRFS
by Ludovico Granvassu
On Tokyo Sessions (Dox Records), Dutch saxophonist Benjamin Herman captures the restless energy of a series of Tokyo musical encounters he develed into alongside drummer and producer Jimmi Jo Hueting and bassist Thomas Pol--an industrious and vivid encounter between the Dutch and Japanese scenes. Rather than the polished Tokyo familiar to jazz tourists, the album plunges into the city's adventurous underground scene, home to distinctive artists such as guitarist and composer Otomo Yoshihide and tenor saxophonist Tomoaki Baba. ...
Continue ReadingRahul Mukerji: Mridhangit
by Maciej Stasiowski
Mridhangit is a portmanteau of the instrument mridangam, employed extensively on the new record by Rahul Mukerji, and the Hindi word for song or music (git/geet). First ignited on the artist's 2017 release Ma De Re Sha (Self Produced, 2017), the project has solidified into a recognisable signature: guitar-led instrumentals anchored in Indian percussive rhythms, shaped through tablas (both programmed and live) and the mridangam, with occasional accents of clarinet and duduk. The compositions are concise, introducing their ...
Continue ReadingPierre Favre: Bird Food
by Glenn Astarita
Captured live at Radio Studio Zurich in 1968, this is the earliest known recording of the Pierre Favre Trio, dormant for more than half a century until Favre and trombonist Samuel Blaser unearthed it while sorting through forgotten tapes. That it survived at all feels faintly miraculous, the jazz equivalent of finding cash in an old winter coat. The lineup now reads like a rough sketch of European free jazz before the paint dried. Pierre Favre anchors the ...
Continue ReadingRoy Hargrove, Monika Herzig, Sharon Minemoto & Emilio Solla
by Joe Dimino
As Neon Jazz reaches the landmark 960th Episode, we open the hour with the unmistakable brilliance of celebrated Latin jazz master Emilio Solla and music from his vibrant 2026 release Handmade. From there, the journey unfolds through a rich landscape of fresh jazz sounds featuring acclaimed artists Sharon Minemoto, Jim Robitaille, Virginia MacDonald, and Ryan Keberle, each bringing their own unique flavor and fire to the mix. Along the way, we pull back the curtain on the creative spirit behind ...
Continue ReadingThe Greg Hopkins Jazz Orchestra: Chronography
by Jack Bowers
On Chronography, Boston-based trumpeter and composer Greg Hopkins and his 16-member Jazz Orchestra revitalize ten of the leader's never-before-recorded compositions and arrangements, most of them well-known standards from the Great American Songbook, that span more than half a century of astute and perceptive songwriting. The earliest, Willard Robison's “Old Folks," was arranged for the Buddy Rich band in 1972; the most recent, Duke Ellington's “In a Sentimental Mood," for his own orchestra in 2018. Between those dates rest ...
Continue ReadingGabrielle Cavassa, Joe Lovano, Phillip Golub, Amrita, James Wengrow
by Cheryl K.
During this week's two-hour program of jazz and improvised music--vocalists Eartha Kitt, Gabrielle Cavassa and Stella Heath; saxophonist Joe Lovano and his Paramount Quartet; pianists Phillip Golub and Emmet Cohen; the ensemble Tumbao Bravo with bandleader and reedman Paul Vornhagen; the ensemble Ancient Future; the duo Amrita; and guitarists Vladimir Redzic, Tomas Janzon, and James Wengrow with his Crypsis Trio. Playlist Eartha Kitt “Empty House" from Thinking Jazz (ITM) 5:35 Gabrielle Cavassa “Bossy Nova" from Diavola (Blue Note) ...
Continue ReadingPhillip Golub: Partisan Ship
by Mike Jurkovic
In a lot off ways, it is a game of catch-up listening to Brooklyn pianist/improvisor/composer Phillip Golub once he kick-starts the oddly titled Partisan Ship into high gear with “Loyalty Oath," a piece of mad musical fiction that holds attention in place with its octopi rhythms and runaway melodies rushing in all at once. Partisan Ship is oddly titled because Golub, an unapologetic polymath far out on the progressive spectrum, and his juiced and jazzed up cohorts--clarinetist and ...
Continue ReadingDida Pelled: Blues in the Night
by Ludovico Granvassu
Dida Pelled's I Wish You Would (La Reserve) is more than a love letter to the blues, a genre she returns to after the high bar she set with A Missing Shade of Blue (Red Records). It is the definitive statement of an artist whose signature lies in the irresistible contrast between the understated intimacy of her voice--soft, almost delicate, yet impossible to ignore--and a guitar style that is warm, sophisticated and quietly virtuosic, never showy, never a wasted note. ...
Continue ReadingMiho Hazama: Where Groove Meets Orchestra
by Angelo Leonardi
Since making her debut in 2013 at the helm of M_Unit with Journey to Journey, Miho Hazama has built a body of work that has firmly established her among the leading orchestrators of her generation. Over the past decade, the Japanese composer and conductor has collaborated extensively with European orchestras, and since 2020 she has served as one of the three chief conductors of the Metropole Orkest, alongside Vince Mendoza and Jules Buckley. Among the many ...
Continue ReadingIn Circuses and Carnivals, Sideshows Brought Black Music To The Heartland
by Arthur R George
Black musicians in circus and carnival sideshow bands from the late 1800s well into the Twentieth Century brought ragtime and what would become jazz and rhythm and blues to white audiences deep into Midwest agricultural regions. Trumpeter Lester Bowie, later known for the avant-garde Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Brass Fantasy, joined circus and carnival bands early in his career when he needed any job he could get, ...
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