Articles by Paul Reynolds
Joe Alterman, Adam Dorn and Special Guests at Rizzoli Bookstore
by Paul Reynolds
Joe Alterman and Adam Dorn (aka Mocean Worker) and special guests Rizzoli Bookstore Les McCann Tribute / All About Jazz 30th Anniversary Party New York, NY May 3, 2026 A landmark birthday calls for a party, preferably with live music. And that's just what was thrown for All About Jazz on Sunday to celebrate the website's 30 years of history. In remarks to open the festivities, AAJ founder--and still the site's publisher--Michael ...
Continue ReadingDavid Murray, Amina Claudine Myers and Matthew Shipp At The Long Play Festival
by Paul Reynolds
David Murray, Amina Claudine Myers, and Matthew Shipp Theater for a New Audience Long Play Festival New York NY May 2, 2026 As the first full day of the Long Play Festival, Saturday offered the event's usual diversity of offerings, with 25-plus performances ranging from New-Music ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars through avant-garde classical harp to music rooted in ancient Moroccan spirituals. And Long Play's wide artistic palette also brought jazz, ...
Continue ReadingBilly Hart Quartet and BlankFor.ms with Jason Moran and Marcus Gilmore at the Long Play Festival
by Paul Reynolds
Billy Hart Quartet and BkankFor.ms with Jason Moran/Marcus Gilmore Roulette Long Play Festival New York, NY May 1, 2026 It's the “most important classical music festival in New York City," according to the New York Times. Yet the programmers for the Long Play Festival in Brooklyn also have big ears. Woven between Long Play's 40-plus classical performances this year--mostly of the contemporary classical bent of Bang on a Can, the festival organizer--were a smattering of ...
Continue ReadingMarilyn Crispell at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem
by Paul Reynolds
Marilyn Crispell The National Jazz Museum in Harlem New York, NY April 16, 2026 What a time this is for Marilyn Crispell. Now 79, the stalwart of avant-garde piano was honored as a 2025 National Endowment of Arts Jazz Master and received a Jazz Legacies Fellowship from the Jazz Foundation of America this February. And her artistry is more than intact--it's evolving and diversifying, as her solo concert in New York last week ...
Continue ReadingVijay Iyer Quartet at Smoke
by Paul Reynolds
Vijay Iyer Quartet Smoke Jazz Club New York NY April 16, 2026 The career of pianist Vijay Iyer--in addition to stretching to chamber music, big-band compositions and projects with rappers--has included collaborations with those from other cultural traditions, notably musicians from his own South Asian heritage. The storied surname of Iyer's trumpet collaborator at Smoke might suggest the partnership is the pianist's latest ethnic music venture. After all, Adam O'Farrill is the grandson ...
Continue ReadingKendrick Scott Quintet at Smoke
by Paul Reynolds
Kendrick Scott Quintet Smoke Jazz Club New York NY April 11, 2026 Kendrick Scott mopped his sweat-streaked face with a towel as he walked from the bandstand at Smoke Jazz Club after his third set of the night on Saturday evening. Plenty of players work hard at America's music, but few do so with the relentless energy and invention the drummer demonstrated during an engrossing hour of leading his quintet in this uptown club. The Houston ...
Continue ReadingFred Hersch Trio at Smoke
by Paul Reynolds
Fred Hersch Trio Smoke Jazz Club New York, NY March 13, 2026 Pianist Fred Hersch is making a welcome return to trio work after years in which he all but put aside one of his most favored formats. After recording a half-dozen trio albums in the 2010s, Hersch took a break until The Surrounding Green (ECM Records, 2025), his first new trio recording in seven years, which featured Drew Gress and Joey Baron--both long-time partners of the pianist. ...
Continue ReadingJames Francies, Joel Ross and Immanuel Wilkins at The New School
by Paul Reynolds
James Francies, Joel Ross, Immanuel Wilkins and The Blue Note All-Stars The New School New York, NY March 5, 2026 What does a jazz program do when three of its faculty record for the famed Blue Note Records? If you're The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, you create a Blue Note All-Stars ensemble and put the Blue Noters--Joel Ross, Immanuel Wilkins and James Francies--front and center on the bandstand. Thursday's concert ...
Continue ReadingTalk Show with Steph Richards and Qasim Naqvi at Roulette Intermedium
by Paul Reynolds
Talk Show with Steph Richards and Qasim Naqvi Roulette Intermedium New York, NY February 26, 2026 Like most jazz musicians--even non-mainstream players like her--trumpeter Steph Richards often plays cosy nightclubs on her visits to New York (from Seattle, where she teaches at the University of Washington). Yet her Thursday performance--with Talk Show, her collaboration with drummer/keyboardist Qasim Naqvi--was a welcome return visit to the expansive Roulette. The additional space--Roulette is in a converted old Brooklyn theater--allowed Richards ...
Continue ReadingThe Maria Schneider Orchestra at Birdland
by Paul Reynolds
The Maria Schneider Orchestra Birdland New York, NY February 4, 2026 Seeing the Maria Schneider Orchestra is always a singular experience. It's not just the music, although that is unfailingly rich and distinctive. In person, Schneider also disarms, and in the best way. At Birdland last Wednesday, the Minnesotan managed to marry the sophistication of jazz with the homespun directness of small town America through both her music and her Midwestern charm. A case in point came early ...
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