Jazz Articles
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Daniel Rotem: Solo II - Under Construction At Bluewhale
by Dan Bilawsky
This album plays as a story of second comings, both for a beloved West Coast jazz spot and a compelling artist's solitary explorations. Back in the fall of 2024, bluewhale--one of L.A.'s most welcoming clubs, permanently shuttered at its original location during the pandemic--was in the midst of starting a new lease on life in a different space. On November 10 of that year, venue proprietor Joon Lee held an open house to signal the shape of a scene to ...
Continue ReadingAngela Verbrugge with Ray Gallon: In The Wonder of the Night
by Pierre Giroux
Canadian jazz vocalist and songwriter Angela Verbrugge understands something that too many contemporary singers miss. Intimacy in jazz is not about shrinking the music but about drawing the audience in. On In The Wonder of the Night, her duet recording with acclaimed New York pianist Ray Gallon she works within the voice-and-piano format with uncommon confidence, keeping the music in constant motion. The album may carry a nocturnal and lunar thread across its eleven tracks and twelve songs, but beneath ...
Continue ReadingSharon Minemoto: Goodbye, Strawberry Hill
by Jack Bowers
The years 1942 through 1945 embody a dark chapter in American and Canadian history--not only in terms of the grievous losses of life and treasure during World War II but also for the abandonment of human rights and the cruel and indefensible treatment of many thousands of their fellow citizens, more specifically those of Japanese descent. Generations have passed, and most people today have either forgotten or never knew about what happened during those few horrendous years--but many ...
Continue ReadingMeredith Bates: The Quiet Science Of Sound Worlds
by Lawrence Peryer
Today we're putting The Tonearm's needle on Meredith Bates, a JUNO Award-winning violinist and composer based on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.Meredith's recent double album, The Observer Effect, spans roughly 140 minutes of electroacoustic music built from violin, viola, field recordings, and electronics, composed and recorded live in the studio, with very few edits. It's grounded in the physics principle that observation changes what's being observed, an idea she takes personally, musically, and politically.Meredith talks about ...
Continue ReadingDavid Torn: Now I Imagine A Place Not The Same
by Maciej Stasiowski
Lacking recognizable features, yet constituting a genre of their own, John Constable's 1821-1822 cloud studies come up as an evocative metaphor for David Torn's Only Sky (ECM Records, 2015). What Constable referred to as “skying," almost two centuries later, made a comeback as an arrangement of distortions, loops, and cascaded signal processing, which Torn jokingly nicknamed “guitaring." That album collected improvised compositions for a solo guitarist and a halo of effect pedals and--with a little help from the cover photograph--connoted ...
Continue ReadingPaulo Almeida, Roy Hargrove, Gegè Telesforo, Jazztropicante, Beto Paciello
by Ludovico Granvassu
Paris--Bogotá; New York--Rome; São Paulo--Basel; Bern--New York; New York--São Paulo... this playlist feels like a masterclass in transatlantic cross-pollination, where ideas, rhythms, and musical identities travel as freely as the artists themselves.Happy listening!Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Jazztropicante “La Llave Maestra" Combo Efectivo (Casa Maguey) 0:16 Host talks 4:46 Paulo Almeida “Lembranças Do Boi" Love in Motion (Dox) 5:50 Host talks 11:10 Beto Paciello “Sunset Skies" The Stoic ...
Continue ReadingThe Myth of the Holy Trinity—It's Actually the Big Four
by Todd M. Carlsen
There is a received wisdom in jazz that goes unchallenged. The greatest female jazz vocalists are a fixed trio: Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Sarah Vaughan. Critics repeat it. Jazz education enshrines it. This is one of the great misreadings in American music history. Peggy Lee is the third seat. She also holds a case for number one. She did not write just a few tunes, nor was she a bombshell girl singer who simply got ...
Continue ReadingBill Evans: Nardis
by Sue Yang
Bill Evans turns “Nardis" into something far more tense and combustible on At The Montreux Jazz Festival (Verve Records, 1968). Anyone coming to this performance looking only for the lyrical, introspective Evans will hear a trio working closer to the edge. Jack DeJohnette keeps the music in restless motion, Eddie Gomez pushes the bass into a fully melodic role, and Evans shapes the piece with dark modal suspense, sudden flares and beautifully judged pauses. What makes this version so memorable ...
Continue ReadingLakecia Benjamin: We Dream
by Andrew Schinder
In a genre full of peaceniks, Lakecia Benjamin is a killer. Benjamin, the alto saxophonist, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, has exploded over the course of the 2020's--both figuratively and musically. Her sound is brash and resonant, yet delicately composed and precisely structured. Benjamin is a focused musician, with all of her artistic choices brimming with intent, and the results are positively thrilling. She has become one of contemporary jazz's most popular and revered alto saxophonists, and she is just ...
Continue ReadingRuss Lorenson: A Little Travelin' Music
by Richard J Salvucci
If a singer is going to run with the Frank Sinatras and Tony Bennetts of the world, it takes determination, not to say savoir-faire. Sinatra in particular had it all: swagger, technique and, in his prime, a legato style that was the envy of musicians everywhere. Russ Lorenson may not quite equal the ranks of his models, but he is a capable, talented and experienced crooner. Dedicated to his art and intent on perfecting it, here he brings a return ...
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